Leighton Meester and Robbie Amell play an ex-couple who unexpectedly end up celebrating Christmas together in the new holiday rom com, 'EXmas'. The pair spoke to The Hollywood Reporter all about working on the light-hearted Christmas film, including why they wanted to be a part of it.
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00:00 "This is the best movie I've ever done. It's the most fun I've ever had."
00:03 Leighton Meester and Robbie Amell play an ex-couple who unexpectedly end up celebrating
00:09 Christmas together in the new holiday rom-com, X-mas.
00:12 "You're kind of freaking out." "You invited my ex-fiancé to Christmas."
00:16 "You know, I really should go." "You're not going anywhere."
00:19 "I have to get mom and dad to dump Allie, otherwise I'm gonna be sharing my family forever."
00:22 The pair spoke to The Hollywood Reporter all about working on the light-hearted Christmas film,
00:27 including why they wanted to be a part of it. "Honestly, when I read the script, I was like,
00:31 'Oh man, a Christmas movie in June. Let's see.' And then I read it, I'm like, 'Oh,
00:35 this is actually really charming.' And then I heard that Leighton was up for it, and I thought,
00:40 you know, obviously having a great co-star is huge, and I'm a big fan of her work. And then
00:45 I started to hear about all the people they wanted for my family, and Kathy and Michael,
00:49 and Veronica and Stephen, they're just very, very funny. And I knew Kathy's work from Whose Line
00:56 Is It Anyway? and Michael from literally everything he's ever done." "Being with what
01:02 felt like truly from day one, such a like well-gelled, like fleshed-out family. Like,
01:09 everyone was so fun and funny. I was excited to work with Robbie. And also, like, you know,
01:17 the romance, the will-they-won't-they, like that dynamic is just super fun for me when I watch
01:23 movies. So I guess just like being part of that, like living in that world for a little bit, just,
01:29 it was exciting. Wanted to be part of it." The movie sees Meester's character Allie head to
01:35 Minnesota to spend the holidays with her ex-fiancé Graham's family after she thinks he can't make it
01:40 home for Christmas. But when he ends up surprising his fam last minute, he gets a big surprise of his
01:45 own. "Surprise!" "Graham, what are you doing here?" "I found all of these in the back closet."
01:51 "What are you doing here?" "I thought you said he was working." "Is that Allie?"
01:56 The stars revealed how they like to celebrate the holidays with their families.
02:00 "I live in Canada, so there's no getting around it feeling like Christmas. The only nice thing
02:06 about Christmas is actually like the joyful stuff happens, because to come November,
02:11 it's cold and it's miserable, and then it starts to get rainy and then snowy. So
02:16 once Christmas rolls around, it's a nice, it's actually a nice change. And my mom,
02:21 well my mother-in-law is, whatever you think Jeannie is in the movie, like 10x, that's my
02:29 mother-in-law. She's got, I think she had seven Christmas trees last year. One of them has a
02:35 train that drives around the tree. Like it's really, it's really something. And my wife is
02:40 Christmas obsessed. We've already got Christmas music playing. We're actually, we're only two
02:45 weeks into Christmas music playing. The tree went up right after Halloween. So Christmas is a big
02:52 deal, big deal around here." "I live in LA and it's the one day of the year today when it's
02:57 raining, but like every other month. This is like I said, like the southern hemisphere, like Australian
03:03 Christmas is also a summer day. But LA, like we go swimming, we walk on the beach, we hang in the
03:10 jacuzzi." "Okay, that's enough, please." "I'm sorry, but it's just so nice here. And like you put on a
03:16 little sweater and you're like, 'Oh, it's chilly.' And it's like 72. But I love it. Like we have,
03:23 you know, I just love like waking up and like seeing if Santa came and like he did usually.
03:29 So it's just like, you know, that, I mean, there's nothing really like tradition. It's just,
03:35 we eat, we watch movies, we play board games and we go outside because we can."
03:41 The two actors also shared what they enjoyed most about working with each other on this project.
03:48 "He's very like easy laugh. I really like felt like he thought, which is like,
03:53 I'm what? He just like likes to laugh and enjoys like the jokes and has fun and like is known to
04:01 like play, which is also big in a Christmas way. Like you got to be like childlike, you know?"
04:08 "I will say everything that Leighton said is actually true about her as well. We had a lot
04:13 of fun. We just tried to make each other laugh the whole time. But also, she was always very,
04:20 you know, we were having a blast, but she also really cared about what we were making. So there
04:24 were times that we were able to sit down and really figure out some of the more like, obviously,
04:29 the movie is a ton of fun, but there's also these more important scenes between the two of us where
04:33 we're trying to make sure that the audience buys that we are, you know, you know, getting back
04:38 together, falling out of love, falling back in love and, and just trying to make it feel as real
04:44 as possible. And Leighton was always very good at making sure that the, we were kind of keeping
04:49 on track and something that we would, that the audience would buy and, and that we'd be proud
04:55 of when, when it comes out." "X-Mes" is now streaming on Amazon Freebie.
05:00 For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Tiffany Taylor.