David Harbour Interview: Violent Night Star Talks Santa Claus

Imagine Die Hard besides John McClane is Santa Claus and Nakatomi Plaza is a New England mansion. You’ve simply described Violent Night, a massively entertaining R-rated vacation motion movie that hits theaters on December 2. In it, Stranger Things star David Harbour performs Jolly Ol’ Saint Nick, who’s feeling fairly dejected this Christmas Eve. That is till he drops in on a home that’s being robbed and its residents held hostage. What will Santa do? Kick some fucking ass, that’s what.

But how do you make one of the kid-friendly, recognizable characters on the planet somebody who appears as comfy feeding reindeer as he does swinging a sledgehammer? io9 spoke with Harbour on the event of the movie about his new model of Santa, giving the character a dynamic backstory, and a few of his favourite Christmas movies. Read all about it beneath.

Germain Lussier, io9: Playing Santa Claus is type of an enormous duty. It’s one thing that would probably keep on with you all through your complete profession. Did that come to thoughts in any respect while you determined to tackle the function?

David Harbour: Worried of being typecast as Santa. [Laughs] Just being like, “We don’t want him for this or that, but if you’ve got a Santa in your movie call David Harbour.” No [but] it’s a priority that I’m retroactively fascinated with now, that it was a horrible thought to play his function. But I truly didn’t take into consideration that. Because the factor is, he’s such a singular Santa. He begins off because the kind of man with the glasses and the “Ho ho ho.” But then because the film progresses, he’s such his personal beast that it by no means actually crossed my thoughts that I might be typecast as Santa Claus. But now I’m nervous. So thanks.

io9: Well I don’t precisely imply typecast, it’s simply that these motion pictures, vacation motion pictures, have the potential to develop into one thing extra. Like an Elf or a Home Alone. A perennial factor. So are you able to probably speak about this function for the remainder of your life?

Harbour: [Laughs] I imply, Will Ferrell solely did one Elf, didn’t he?

io9: But I don’t suppose he likes speaking about it now. I feel he’s sick of it. 

Harbour: I’m okay. We can speak about it for the remainder of my life. I’m tremendous.

io9: The press notes talked about that you simply had a number of enter into the early improvement of the character. What are a few of the particular belongings you type of added to it?

Harbour: Well, I needed him to go on a journey. The large factor a couple of character is you need them to have an arc and to develop, proper? And there was one thing within the authentic script the place there was much less of that improvement. He was type of a badass all through the entire thing. And what I needed was [for] him to start out off because the saccharine Santa from the Coca-Cola adverts of the ‘30s who had rosy cheeks and little glasses and a smile, “Ho ho ho.” And then to see how much that sickened him, that he had become this thing, and that greed was all it was about. And it was about this saccharine belly and the sweets, and, like, being jolly. And he was just like, “I created this monster… but what I really am about in my core is justice.” I thought that’s the place he turns into a badass is by shedding this pores and skin and it requires the little woman to say to him, “We need somebody different.” And he’s like, “I am that guy.” So my contribution was way more in regards to the arc of the piece and the arc of the character, which I used to be very eager about and I assumed was slightly undeveloped firstly. It was extra similar to, “Oh, he’s an action hero.” And I needed to see him be this man who was not an motion hero [but] who needed to spring into it. Then you noticed the historical past beneath come ahead from that.

io9: Yeah, that was a nice shock that we truly bought to see a few of Santa’s backstory and origin, which I learn was much more prevalent at one level. How a lot did that inform your efficiency, realizing in regards to the character’s epic origin?

Harbour: Yeah, it was enjoyable. It is attention-grabbing. There was extra that we shot, after which within the closing movie, we needed to be extra mysterious what that was. But I used to be actually fascinated by all of the mythology, all of the totally different cultural mythology round Santa Claus. I imply, one of many issues we even posited early on was, I feel, he calls himself Nikolaas the Red on this. But at one level he was Saint Nicholas in Christian mythology, he’s Weihnachtsmann in German, there are all these totally different iterations of him. And so I needed to flesh out who this man was. At one level too, I regarded up Saint Nicholas, who’s the Christian saint who Santa Claus is predicated on and was a saint of repentant sinners. So I used to be very on this thought of him [forgiving]. He says to John [Leguizamo]’s character at a number of factors, like, “Give it up. I will take you back. You can get on the nice list.” It’s individuals which can be decided to be naughty that actually need to get the axe. So there are all these totally different character parts that got here out of that backstory.

io9:  Yeah, that’s so cool. I feel that’s clearly the meat of the story, however on an higher degree, it’s so straight influenced by Die Hard motion pictures. Then there’s additionally Beverly D’Angelo from Christmas Vacation, and the Home Alone scene. So, what’s your favourite wink this film makes to a different vacation film? And what are a few of the motion pictures that you simply revisit that vacation season, in addition to Violent Night in fact?

Harbour: Yeah, I imply, I like the Home Alone sequence. I feel it’s extraordinarily effectively executed. The undeniable fact that she’s bringing it up firstly after which it comes out on the finish. The Die Hard references are all terrific as effectively too. It has the form of the entire thing round Die Hard. For me personally, the film that I stayed closest to and was most essential to me was Miracle on thirty fourth Street, which is mainly this little woman who doesn’t imagine in Santa Claus [at first] and on the finish of the film believes. It’s not fairly the identical arc, however to me the emotional core of that story, of slightly woman who wants one thing due to her crumbling household construction, who wants one thing to imagine in [is important here]. Here’s this man who not solely will shield her bodily however who she will imagine in as this supply of generosity and justice and kindness. And that very Miracle on thirty fourth Street to me.

io9: Oh, completely. That’s a traditional. Now I’m going to come back again to Violent Night. But simply so I don’t miss this—at D23 this yr, Marvel introduced that your character is coming again for Thunderbolts. How a lot are you aware about that movie and are you excited to get again into the MCU?

Harbour: Yes, I’m very excited. They’ve advised me the arc of the film and the way it features. I haven’t seen a script but. I’ve talked to designers and issues like that. And it’s tremendous cool. The thought is basically cool. Jake [Schreier], the director is a extremely attention-grabbing, contemporary thoughts to this universe. What he needs to do with Florence [Pugh]’s character may be very attention-grabbing and the way I issue into how we develop our relationship may be very attention-grabbing. I’ve cherished Wyatt [Russell] and Sebastian [Stan] and Julia [Louis-Dreyfuss]’s characters all through the universe and to throw these characters collectively feels very random. And then while you see what Jake and Eric Pearson, the author, is making an attempt to vogue it’s actually intelligent and there’s an attention-grabbing factor that we’re going to introduce to the universe that’s profound. So you’ve got this film that’s, , type of ragtag. It’ll be humorous, it’ll be bizarre, it’ll be motion. And then we are also going to drop a bomb, which is cool.

io9: Wow, I’m excited too. Now, I think about most Christmas motion pictures don’t have weapons coaching. This one clearly did. Was there something distinctive about coaching this time and did the swordplay from Stranger Things season 4 develop into useful in any respect?

Harbour: [Laughs] No, that is way more complicated than the swordplay from Stranger Things. The swordplay in Stranger Things was like me selecting a sword, the Duffer Brothers and I. It appears tremendous cool. I imply, we did some nice stuff in that sequence, but it surely wasn’t very skilled. This, there was a number of coaching. The hammer stuff, I did a number of coaching with. And then the precise combating was jiu-jitsu and Greco-Roman wrestling. The stunt workforce on this have executed all of the John Wick motion pictures and even, like, the brand new Matrix and Nobody. Crazy kung fu kind motion pictures. And so this was a Greco-Roman model of that, however there was a number of coaching and it was very intense. I used to be very exhausted the whole shoot.

io9: This film makes a weapon of mainly each type of Christmas ornament there may be. What is your favourite and what was probably the most enjoyable to type of work with?

Harbour: Hmm. I imply, I’ve bought to say that sweet cane was fairly enjoyable. It’s established fairly early that he’s simply sucking on a sweet cane, and also you’re like, “Oh, why would he be, oh, no, there’s a reason.” Because it makes a greater shank. That was fairly wild. I like a sweet cane shank.

io9: Yeah, completely. So that is my final query first, however I’ve to say I like this film and it’s a lot enjoyable. Without spoiling any of that although, Santa is fairly resilient on this film. If this film is a success, and I feel it may be, would you bounce again into the sleigh once more?

Harbour: Yeah, I’d be glad to do extra of this. It’s an important thought. Again, you get to do a enjoyable motion film and likewise hopefully make individuals really feel Christmas spirit and Christmas pleasure. So that’s actually enjoyable to do. So yeah, if individuals get pleasure from it, I’d be glad to do extra.

io9: Awesome. Well, I feel they’ll.

Violent Night is in theaters December 2.

Want extra io9 information? Check out when to anticipate the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on movie and TV, and all the things you might want to find out about James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water.