“Christmas is a time when family and friends come together, when you’re together, you love and you’re thankful for what you have,” Randy Quaid tells PEOPLE.
But in christmas letter, it all comes to light as an unemployed father named Joe Michaels (Angus Benfield) works to improve his friend’s Christmas letter.
“He’s somebody who was a bit of an outsider, he was struggling,” Benfield tells PEOPLE. “It’s pretty easy to relate to, especially being an independent director and actor. It didn’t take a lot of research to remind yourself what it’s like to maybe not have everything that someone else has in life.”
He continues: “My family and I, we’ve had some pretty lean Christmases, we’ve had some when we really needed that kind of Christmas miracle. That’s what drove me to this film – it can be difficult when you get to this time of year because there are some financial issues and concerns about status when you see that someone is better off than you.”
Randy Quaid in ‘The Christmas Letter’ from 2024.
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As for Quaid, “I found the role very funny,” says the 74-year-old. Plus, “Chevy used to do it — so why not?”
Yes, the movie reunites National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation actors Chevy Chase, 81, and Quaid, who starred together in the beloved 1989 film
“Chevy and I are the best of friends on and off the screen — I laugh just looking at him,” Quaid says. “And Angus is very funny and talented. What could be better?”
For Benfield, working with actors he calls “legends” was a “dream come true.”
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Angus Benfield in ‘The Christmas Letter’ from 2024.
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“It was great to see the two of them together,” he says. “Their relationship is already there and they just hit it off like a house on fire.”
He particularly remembers one day of filming with Quaid, both of them freezing in the Vermont winter cold while he “just threw packages at me. There were a lot of really fun scenes.”
Despite some nerves on his part, as he himself admits, “at the end of the day, everyone was really relaxed,” he recalls.
“Chevy was there with his daughter and it was fun watching father and daughter fight over how to deliver the words,” he says. “I try not to think about it too much at the moment, because I don’t want to distract from the scene, so I kind of just try to distract myself while I’m shooting, and then afterwards I can go crazy.”
For Benfield, who also produced the film, he hopes audiences will take away a reminder of “what’s really important in life.”
“Obviously,” he says, “your family and friends and what you have versus what you don’t have. That’s the real message of Christmas.”
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Source: HIS Education