“It’s really serendipitous.
But I enjoy it because it’s something that I feel like families can watch together.”
They shot the film in a small town north of Toronto, which Steenburgen remembers fondly.
Credit: Lacey Terrell/Sony
“That town was just so welcoming,” she recalls.
“They were so kind to us; they were thrilled having the movie shot there.”
Having to sing in the shower was more terrifying than any of those stunts, she says.
Everett Collection
It has always taken a lot of courage to do.
This title has been enduring for Steenburgen in numerous (and unexpected) ways.
“One day she saw this girl and realized this must be the girl.
Everett Collection
They ended up becoming really dear friends and even roommates!”
It was so hard to keep from laughing, she says.
Im not sure I even did in every take, but we got through it.
GEMMA LA MANA/Columbia
I started to feel I was in something really special.
They shot the scene on-location in New York City.
It was supposed to be the POV of us from Santa’s sleigh and us looking up at it.
John P. Johnson/New Line
I just remember thinking, ‘Wow that’s so amazing.’
Of course, now we have drones that do all that.
But the main thing I remember is just that we were absolutely frozen and we shot all night.
We finished just as the sun came up."
Will Ferrell personally asked Steenburgen to play his mother afterElf, despite only a 14-year age difference.
“It is very easy for me to play being charmed by Will Ferrell,” she admits.
And I said, ‘No, I would be insulted if you asked anyone else.'"
But more than anything, she remembers how free and hilarious the entire experience was.
In the morning, we would shoot it as written.
In the afternoon, we would improvise.
As the day went on, it got wilder and wilder, she says.
2 in this cinematic quartet of dysfunctional Yuletide visits.
It was fun to play with a ridiculous sexuality.
[Kate] never knows what shes coming home to.
Steenburgen’s biggest takeaway from the film was being awed by her co-star.
“Reese was really.
dazzling because she was both producing the movie and starring in it,” she notes.
Happiest Season(2020)
Clea DuVallsupcomingholiday rom-com explores the fraught natureof coming out at Christmas.
Steenburgen plays Tipper, a conservative matriarch.
She doesnt mean to be unkind, but she has certain blinders on, Steenburgen teases.
She wants to have the picture perfect family.
For the longtime LGBTQ ally, the project marks a full-circle moment.
I didPhiladelphia, which was less about being gay so much as justice.
But these things resonated very deeply with me.
I knew that I had to do this movie.
To read more on holiday film favorites,order the December issueofEntertainment Weeklyor find on newsstands now.
