Nothing is quite as festive as Paris at Christmas.
In PEOPLE’s exclusive debut of America’s Greatest Family Paris Christmas Waltz trailer, a retired dancer (Matthew Morrison) returns to the game to be paired with an overworked accountant (Jen Lilley) for a competition in Paris. “Christmas movies just bring so much joy. I love them,” Morrison, 45, tells PEOPLE. “There are so many of them, and I think they are there for a reason. For the holidays, you want to have those feelings it evokes.”
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Despite training in ballet, tap and jazz, and dancing on Broadway, Morrison found it challenging to learn ballroom dancing for Paris Christmas Waltz.
“I think it would almost be easier if I didn’t know how to dance going into this,” he said joy alum says. “I had to unlearn a lot of things I knew because ballroom and Latin are so different and such different counterpoints and timing and stuff, so it was really challenging to unlearn. But when I got it, it was such a sense of accomplishment.”
Matthew Morrison and Jen Lilley in ‘Parisian Christmas Waltz’.
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Morrison also sings Paris Christmas Waltz, but dancing is “what moves me,” he says. “Being able to tell stories through movement has always been so special to me and something I feel lucky to be able to do. I love being a storyteller that way because I think it can evoke different kinds of emotions that I don’t think can be conveyed in other arenas.”
As in the film, Morrison went on a trip with Lilley, 39, to learn to dance.
“Jen wasn’t much of a dancer going into this, so that made it all very special,” says Morrison. “It was also special to have two weeks of just dance rehearsals before we even started shooting. It really built the chemistry between her and me going into it.”
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Jen Lilley and Matthew Morrison in ‘Parisian Christmas Waltz’.
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Morrison and Lilley shot Paris Christmas Waltz in Paris as well as in Bucharest, Romania. After filming ended, Morrison and his wife, Renee Puente, went on vacation in Europe.
The father of son Revel (6) and daughter Phoenix (2) admits that the Christmas celebration in his house has already started.
“My son is into video games,” Morrison says. “We don’t make video games. He has never been introduced to a video game, but is obsessed with Super Mario, Minecraft. We made Santa’s list a few mornings ago, and he was naming all these video games, and I said, ‘Santa makes toys. He doesn’t play video games.’ So I had to break the news to him that he shouldn’t expect any video games for Christmas.”
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Matthew Morrison and Jen Lilley in ‘Parisian Christmas Waltz’.
Big American media
However, he wants to delay the installation of the tree.
“We usually put it up after Thanksgiving, but I think this year we might put it up in the next couple of weeks,” the actor says. “There’s never enough time with the Christmas tree. But the problem with the Christmas tree [is]once you put it up, kids start looking for gifts and expect to find something under it.”
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Morrison plans to watch Paris Christmas Waltz part of his family’s holiday celebration this year.
“This is one of those that I’m really proud of,” he says. “When you have kids of your own, it really reignites it [Christmas] experience again in a much deeper, more heart-centered way, because you see the miracle through the eyes of your children. That’s something that’s so special, and especially in a movie like this, to be able to see my kids watching it and seeing what dad’s doing on screen, I’m really excited about that.”
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Paris Christmas Waltz debuts Sunday, November 19 at 8:00 PM ET on Great American Family.
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Source: HIS Education