“I think every family has a little of it. What we tried to do in the movie, and I think all the actors did so effectively, was try to say it's equally hard to be Santa Claus the perfect kid as it is to be Fred the person living in the shadow of it,” explained Nelson. “Both roles are oppressive in some way and neither kid likes being polarized like that. So our message was there aren't any naughty kids. There's just misunderstood kids who are thrust into a role and stuck in it for the rest of their lives.”
Fred Claus Press Conference
Vince, you've been on such a roll and I'm sure you've seen Will Ferrell and other comedians go through a backlash period. How do you deal with that and keep doing good work?
Vince Vaughn: “I never even think of that. I think there's room for everybody, and those guys have done great stuff. I just don't approach it that way. I never have. I just am fortunate that I try to find stories that I think are going to be fun, like from a child place, to go work on. Boy, it's easy when you've got David Dobkin directing a movie, this, Wedding Crashers, Clay Pigeons… And look at the actors I have the fortune of working with. Everyone's been nominated or won but me. I sort of get a complex on the set after a while. Spacey would look at me like, ‘Well, that's a choice. You could do that. That's nice. You're making a nice turn in the movie.’ But no, we had such an unbelievable cast of actors that really elevated everything.
Jessie [Nelson] came up with such a great story. I think it was a bedtime story she was telling her daughter. Then David's so good both at shooting and then finding the story in the editing room. I just think that what really worked most in this film was the unique thing about [are] there naughty kids or not? It's such a drama that's been done so many times, I think Jessie was able to stumble on a different way of looking at the Christmas holiday movie.”
You made this and a couple of crude movies. Going to R rated films, is it hard to take a PG movie now, to take all the crudeness away, all the ‘f’ words? How does that work?
David Dobkin: “We actually shot an R rated movie and then cut it down (laughing). No, it wasn't really because the mindset of the film is sort of children. The movie is geared for kids and the kid in all of us is something that we always talk about. I think that you go out there and at certain times you have a question of where a joke is going to land or not, but the spirit of the film was very family oriented. It was the Christmas spirit and all of that.”
Vince Vaughn: “I think it’s a testament to David, in that I loved those claymation films growing up, and this kind of feels like a live action one of those. It has such great heart to it. I think it works on a smart level. Kevin and me were talking about a scene that we are not supposed to talk about, but if you have seen the movie you know what we're talking about, which is a really smart kind of adult-themed scene. The movie never has to be risqué or shock value or gratuitous in order to accomplish that. So the adults really are following it on one level, and the kids are really connecting on another level.”
Paul, can you talk about the mindset it takes to get into to play this kind of character?
Paul Giamatti: “I did a lot of deep back story (laughing). Part of the nice thing about it is that it’s such an archetype. You know a lot of the stuff you're supposed to do. I had to work up a good, ‘Ho-Ho-Ho.’ So I worked on that, I worked hard on that, Kevin, and you laughed.”
Kevin Spacey: “No, I didn’t (laughing).”
Paul Giamatti: “You didn’t, okay. I put in as much effort as I could to get the right things down that everyone expects. You know, it’s a character on the page and he’s supposed to be sort of a regular guy who is over-worked and over-stressed, runs a huge business that drives him crazy. I took a character like that and then I overlaid all the typical Santa Claus stuff, tried to lay that stuff on top of it.”
How much did the fat suit weigh and how hard was wearing it every day?
Paul Giamatti: “I don’t know how much the fat suit weighed.”
Kevin Spacey: “You were wearing a fat suit?”
Paul Giamatti: “Thank you, Kevin.”
Vince Vaughn: “Kevin thought you were like De Niro.”
Paul Giamatti: “I was meant for this, I was meant for the work.”
Kevin Spacey: “I just remember watching how you would try to hold a cup.”
Paul Giamatti: “To hold anything (laughing).”
Kevin Spacey: “The dinner scenes with the fork.”
Paul Giamatti: “Trying to hold a fork or anything was impossible. I don’t know how much it weighed. 70 pounds or something like that? It was a lot.”
Was it hot?
Paul Giamatti: “It was really hot. I sweated a lot, yes.”
Kevin Spacey: “So, oddly, you were losing weight while you were looking bigger.”
Paul Giamatti: “That is weird. I don’t know if I lost weight. I don’t know. Did I? I don’t remember. It was hot. They got me out of it every 40 minutes or something like that. I had to open up and cool me down.”
David Dobkin: “I think about a half hour was the longest and then they had to cool you down.”
Vince Vaughn: “It was a hard process. It really was.”
Paul Giamatti: “It was a whole lot of stuff, but yeah, it was - but it was fun. It could have been a lot worse.”
Page 2: On Villains, Stunts, and Holiday Movies
