When you think of Christmas, 40-degree heat probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind – but it was something that the stars of the new film This is Christmas had to deal with when they were shooting the project.
Harry Potter star Alfred Enoch and The Maze Runner’s Kaya Scoledario star in the festive romcom, and speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com the pair revealed the less-than-ideal conditions in which they made the film.
“It sucked!” said Scoledario. “This is the most fun experience I’ve ever had at work in my life – it’s the best job I’ve ever done – but that very first week was the 40-degree heatwave week, and I remember just thinking people are going to faint, how are we going to physically get through this?
“But I think we figured it out, and in the end, we all have this beautiful glow in the movie that looks like Christmas magic and is really buckets of sweat! But it works for the movie, so I think that’s good: a Christmas sheen.”
Enoch added that despite the summertime shoot, it always felt very festive on set – especially when they shot scenes in a pub that had been dressed up to look as Christmassy as possible.
“I mean, the party was amazing,” he said. “When we sort of saw the set dressed for it, it looks fantastic. And you know, immediately that kind of stuff makes you go… you see a couple of Christmas decorations, it’s amazing what it does to your mind. You go ‘Oh, I know this, this is nice!’”
Scodelario added: “Whenever we shot in the pub, that made me feel so Christmassy. Because it was that feeling when you go to the pub in winter, and you’ve got your layers on and your coat and you sit down and you take everything off, and everything’s lit by candlelight – and it’s just really my favourite part of the Christmas period.
“And that day that we shot it, it was the middle of the day in Islington in 40-degree heat, but it felt so magical.”
Enoch continued: “We’re in this beautiful cosy little pub and you know, you forget 40 degrees. It was harder to forget it was 40 degrees when you’re wearing a Christmas jumper and you’re by an open fire, which was me on the first day of shooting – but that aside, it was pretty lovely.
“And we had this lovely day where we got this big snow machine out and we just covered old Hemel High Street with fake snow. You see that and you go, ‘It feels like the real deal.’”
Speaking more generally about what drew her to starring in a the film, Scoledario explained: “I’d never thought about it before, but as soon as it came through, I did just think how cool would it be to say I’m doing a Christmas film.
“I spend so much of my career going, ‘I need to do a really good kind of arthouse indie cinema theatre thing that no one will ever see, but it means something,’ and it was quite nice to kind of go: ‘Actually, I just I want to do a nice Christmas movie that people will watch with their families and smile through.’ I mean, Lindsay Lohan is doing them, so it’s obviously very cool!”
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“I remember Chris Foggin, our director, said something lovely,” added Enoch. “He said, ‘I just I want to make films that people like, that people can sit with their family and enjoy.’ And I was like, ‘You know what, there’s a lot to be said for that.’
“That’s not necessarily what I spend all of my time watching but I thought, for me at Christmas, sitting down and watching a film is a big part of it. That’s something I always used to do as a kid with my parents. So hopefully we’ve made something that people will enjoy watching this Christmas and beyond.”
This is Christmas is released on Sky Cinema and NOW on Friday 9th December. Find out more about how to sign up for Sky TV.
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