‘Happiest Season’ Director Made LGBT Holiday Rom-Com Because

Clea DuVall loves Christmas motion pictures, however she by no means noticed herself mirrored in them. DuVall, who’s homosexual and as each an actress and a director has regularly talked concerning the significance of LGBT portrayals all through her profession, determined to alter that, and wrote and directed “Happiest Season” so she might see her experiences mirrored in vacation rom-coms.

“In a lot of ways, this movie is autobiographical just in that I’ve been both characters at different times in this movie,” DuVall instructed TheWrap. “And being able to tell a universal story like going home for Christmas through a unique lens just seemed like a really great opportunity to tell a story — to tell a story which we’ve heard in a different way.”

“Happiest Season” stars Kristen Stewart as Abby, who meets her girlfriend Harper’s (Davis) household for the primary time at their annual household Christmas dinner. However, Abby quickly realizes that Harper stored their relationship a secret from her household, and she or he begins to query their relationship. Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza, Daniel Levy, Mary Holland, Burl Moseley, Victor Garber and Mary Steenburgen additionally star. It is the primary LGTBQ Christmas rom-com launched by a serious studio.

“I have watched so many Christmas movies and connected and cried and laughed with so many Christmas movies that I didn’t connect with directly in my experience,” she defined. “It was wanting to bring myself to a genre that I really loved so much, but I don’t see it as abnormal or groundbreaking at all because it really is just, that’s how I spend every Christmas. There’s no novelty there for me. But I understand that audiences might not you know, they’re used to seeing the story in a very particular package. And I just think it’s really cool that we got to change that.”

“Happiest Season” debuted on Hulu on Wednesday.

Read the total Q&A with DuVall under.

TheWrap: Where did you draw inspiration from for this film?

Clea DuVall: I’m an enormous fan of Christmas motion pictures. I all the time have been, however I’ve by no means seen my expertise represented. So in lots of methods, this film is autobiographical simply in that I’ve been each characters at totally different occasions on this film.  And with the ability to inform a common story like going house for Christmas by means of a singular lens simply appeared like a extremely nice alternative to inform a narrative — to inform a narrative which we’ve heard another way.

When did you resolve you wished to direct? 

I all the time wished to direct it. That was all the time a part of the as a result of I made one film earlier than this. And then once I began desirous about what I wished to do subsequent, I had had this concept for a very long time and wrote it after which began desirous about it extra, wrote an overview, after which writing is a really lonely factor. And what I like about filmmaking is the collaboration. So once I met Mary Holland, after we have been engaged on “Veep” collectively and we simply acquired alongside so nicely and she or he was so humorous and we had such nice pal chemistry and such nice banter. And I fully took a shot at midnight asking her to work on this with me as a result of she’s not a author or hadn’t actually achieved something like this earlier than. But we labored rather well collectively and it was a lot enjoyable.

What was the casting course of like? This is an all-star forged!

It all type of fell into place that approach. For me, once I write, the characters all the time simply exist — I solely see them in my head. It’s very uncommon that I write one thing for somebody. I imply, once I wrote the primary film [“The Intervention”], I wrote the half for Melanie Lynskey. But aside from that, everybody on this film, it was actually simply… it got here collectively.

It’s humorous as a result of casting is such a troublesome course of, as a result of you may give you this type of dream group, however you may’t power anyone to do your film. But actors have been so supportive and actually wished to be part of it, I used to be type of shocked by the response from individuals who I used to be like, you actually need to do that film?…