Summary
A Christmas Story.White Christmas.Miracle on 34th Street.
All of these are holiday classics that fill hearts and homes every December.
Cardellini has a busy few months ahead.
Image via TIFF
LINDA CARDELLINI: you’re able to start in September thats cool!
What do you think is the key to making a Christmas classic like this?
BEN STILLER: Wow.
Image via Hulu
I mean, I feel like they always have that emotional core, right?
I think they’re not afraid to kind of wear their heart on their sleeve to a certain extent.
It all comes back to like the Grinch, right?How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Image via Hulu
It’s the best when it works.
CARDELLINI: This movies chock-full of both.
Or work with Ben Stiller, and you did that.
CARDELLINI: Yeah, I heard that.
I was like, Well, I guess Ill try.
STILLER: Kids, animals,andStiller.
CARDELLINI: I mean, how lucky are we?
We got to be on a farm with these kids and this incredible family.
It’s unlike anything I’ve ever done.
It was special to be there.
STILLER: It felt very organic.
It is the kids and the animals that’s the point of the movie.
It’s just David’s world, and we’re gonna jump in.
And that was the best advice because it’s just a fun, fun time with him.
There’s just so much great chemistry between all of you, and it feels very authentic.
I found that really true to life and a really fun aspect of this.
STILLER: Yeah, I think Michael is so self-involved.
CARDELLINI: Yeah, he wasnt charming her at first Ill tell you that.
STILLER: That’s always fun to play around with when you know somebody has her point of view.
I like thatMichael incrementally gets better.
CARDELLINI: And you don’t know exactly if it’s gonna happen or not.
I was rooting for it, personally, so I’m glad that we got little hints of it.
It does balance the humor and real emotion so well.
She serves to sort of give the bottom of that story so the comedy can build from there.
Ben Stiller Got a Memorable Birthday Surprise on the Nutcrackers Set
The comedy really shines through.
They’re so good.
I’m curious if there’s a day or two that you’ll always remember from this shoot.
STILLER: There are many days I will always remember.
For me, probably catching the chicken.
My knees will always remember it.
My knees and joints.
Watching their dance at the end.
And then I’ll always remember my birthday on the second or third day, and you were there.
CARDELLINI: Yeah, it was my first day.
STILLER: Yeah, andDavid surprised me with fireworks on my birthdayin the field at the farm.
And it was not just like a few bottle rockets it was like Macy’s Day.
CARDELLINI: Yeah, it was better than Disneyland.
STILLER: It was crazy.
CARDELLINI: It was insane.
They invited me like, You should stay.
There’s gonna be a surprise for Ben it’s his birthday.
And I thought, Oh, well I should stay for that like a little cake.
And they’re like, Yeah, there’s gonna be fireworks.
I thought, like, sparklers.
STILLER: It was incredible.
CARDELLINI: It was so beautiful.
STILLER: Yeah, it was very moving to me because I’d never had fireworks for my birthday.
I don’t know if youve ever…
CARDELLINI: No!
Every movie should be like this.
It was so cool to be there.
I mean, I had just gotten there, but to celebrate you and your birthday.
It felt very, very genuine and organic and beautiful.
And that leads into my next question.
Whats a little fact people wouldn’t realize when watching it?
CARDELLINI: That you went into that ice-cold pond.
I knew it was winter, it was December, but sometimes winters are a little milder.
I was like, Maybe it’ll be like a 50-degree day or something.
And it was like 36 in the morning of it.
I said, We’re not gonna shoot that scene today, right?
But this was a little low-budget movie, and they couldn’t move things around.
He was like, No, no don’t worry about it.
We’ll have the stuntman do it if you’ve got the option to’t do it.
And then I was like, Okay, I gotta do this.
I’m not gonna let the stuntman do it.
So we did it, and it was bracing and refreshing and really fun.
That was really fun.
These animals were not trained.
STILLER: Yeah, and then I’d step in it.
Thatd be real poop that I have to step in.
I realized I wasn’t doingThe Crownor anything.
The whole thing was very organic.
It was all so much real stuff, and it was just a very special, unique experience.
CARDELLINI: It really was.
We were watching you guys.
They were like, It’s just a chicken just stay in there, Linda.
And I was like, Okay.
STILLER: On film when they were filming?
CARDELINNI: [Nods and laughs]
STILLER: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
There was always some camera going grabbing something.
It’s like, Oh, we’re gonna shoot the chicken.
We’re gonna shoot Linda getting pecked by the chicken.
Or, Boys are on the roof shoot them on the roof.
It was that kind of thing.
CARDELLINI: It’s kind of wild.
That’s so fun.
CARDELLINI: Oh, that’s a great question.
I don’t know.
I love my job, and I love being sort of a character actress.
If you look at this character, Gretchen, she’s very down home.
And then you look at Margo andNo Good Deed, and it’s completely opposite.
So that, to me, is the most fun about being an actor.
But I haven’t really done too much period-piece stuff.
I’d like to do some of that.I’d love to do a musical.
There’s lots of stuff I’d like to do.
Nutcrackersis now streaming on Hulu.
