Inherent in any Christmas movie is an element of silliness; it’s just the way of things. More often than not, magic is involved, and highly improbable love stories result in moving halfway across the country and giving up massive paychecks. But this year, Netflix really leaned in on absurdity for their Christmas offerings, and in the end, it helped the stars and creators of the films find the heart of it all.
The streamer has five new original Christmas movies this year, and rolled out one new film every Wednesday beginning in early November. In one, a sexy snowman comes to life and struggles not to melt while also trying to woo the woman who unwittingly brought him to life. In another, a small-town bar needs saving, so the owners’ daughter creates a Christmas-themed all male revue, because what better way to rake in cash?
Those films are “Hot Frosty” and “The Merry Gentlemen,” respectively. And yes, the stars of them know just how ridiculous those concepts are on paper. It’s part of why they signed on. In fact, “The Merry Gentlemen,” which stars Britt Robertson and Chad Michael Murray, marked Robertson’s first Christmas movie ever.
“When I read the script, I was thinking like, ‘Ah, exactly what I would want to do with Christmas and family is just watch a bunch of dudes take off their clothes and feel themselves,’” Robertson joked with TheWrap.
Speaking more seriously, the actress admitted there was a lot of joy and freedom in making “The Merry Gentlemen,” as compared to past projects she’s worked on.
“There was just so very little pressure on this film,” she explained. “Which was really nice to just be present and sort of let [Murray] do all this sort of fancy stuff.”
That “fancy stuff” was, of course, doing multiple strip teases set to Christmas-y club music. And Murray was totally up for it — mostly.
“No hesitation. Was there terror? 100% there was terror. Was there fear? Oh, there will be fear. But no, I was excited. I genuinely was excited,” he admitted. “And once I met everybody, and I ended up meeting the guys — and I had already been training and doing body work probably a month before I even met the guys — and [Robertson], it was just like, ‘OK, cool. We’re gonna have a good time.’”
It’s easy to cross the line into too much of a good time though, and that was something everyone on these movies was conscious of. Murray even went out of his way to immediately start watching playbacks of what was being filmed, just to ensure everyone was on the same page about the tone.
“The first day, that was my biggest fear, to be honest with you,” Murray said. “Because if you go too seriously and you lean far too much into it, you’re making the wrong movie.”
Murray admitted that there were times he and his costars got a little carried away, taking the film above the PG-13 line, so threading the needle was key.
In the case of “Hot Frosty,” stars Lacey Chabert and Dustin Milligan credit director Jerry Ciccoritti and writer Russell Hainline with making sure that silliness didn’t drag down the overall story (which, believe it or not, is one giant terminal illness allegory).
“There wasn’t a single, I wouldn’t even say day, but not even a single scene where [Ciccoritti] didn’t sort of slow everything down for a second and just walk us through exactly kind of where he saw our characters were emotionally, regardless of how fun and light and crazy this the scene might be,” Milligan told TheWrap.
“He was always coming at it from a place of, ‘Where are they in their journey of mutual self discovery?’” he continued. “And that, I think, is what grounds it in this way that just offers something a bit more than what you would expect from a movie called ‘Hot Frosty.’”
“He cared about every nuance of this film and didn’t want it to be just one thing,” Chabert agreed.
But, for the record, Milligan did take full advantage of the possibilities of playing a himbo snowman.
“I mean, don’t get me wrong, I tried to make him as silly as possible, but they just cut most of that out,” he said with a laugh. “No, but it was something where there was this really wonderful exploratory freedom that I had … where I felt very much like I was allowed to do what I wanted in the moment, especially physically.”
Then there’s “Meet Me Next Christmas” and “Our Little Secret,” the latter of which stars Lindsay Lohan and Ian Harding as an ex-couple who are reunited at Christmastime years after splitting up. Why? It turns out that — unbeknownst to them — they’re dating a pair of siblings.
The concept itself isn’t silly on its face, at least until Lohan’s character unwittingly eats a whole bag of THC-infused gummies and starts hallucinating at church — leading to a hallucination of a Virgin Mary statue giving her a pep talk — which shifts the film into goofy comedy territory.
Meanwhile, “Meet Me Next Christmas” tells the story of Layla (Christina Milian) who seemingly meets the perfect man for her at the airport on Christmas Eve. She’s not single at the time, but believing in fate, the two agree to meet on Christmas Eve again the next year if she’s single, at a Pentatonix concert.
How are they going to find each other? Who knows! They didn’t exchange information and agreed not to stalk each other on social media. In classic rom-com fashion, a desperate DM to Pentatonix gets the acapella group involved in the “Serendipity”-esque search for each other.
It’s earnest though, and that helped Ellis and Milian find the right chord to strike with their holiday film.
“I got a chance to play a character that is selfless, and just wants to be of service to someone,” Ellis said happily. “And in trying to be of service, Layla is ultimately of service to him, and helps him find love, and helps him find a drive to continue his dream. So the thing about Christmas is that you often get more out of people as you give.”
Together, he and Milian focused on keeping the characters feeling like real people in the midst of crazy circumstances. And, like Murray and his co-stars did for “The Merry Gentlemen,” the duo consistently checked in with each other to make sure they kept the movie grounded amid the comedy elements.
“I definitely believe it’s a mirror effect, you know?” Milian said. “Because he can’t be doing something really crazy, we can’t be doing two different movies in one.”
Richard Curtis’ “That Christmas” rounded out Netflix’s Christmas slate this year, proving to be the outlier that starts with heart and follows that thread all the way through. Although, there is a “Papa Don’t Preach” performance by a child less than five minutes into the film, so…don’t think you get out of a serving of silliness entirely.
Just lean in.
“That Christmas,” “The Merry Gentlemen,” “Hot Frosty,” “Our Little Secret” and “Meet Me Next Christmas” are all streaming now on Netflix.
