The Christmas season is on the verge of unofficially starting, and Hallmark is celebrating in style in the 2023 TV schedule with Luke Macfarlane and Italia Ricci starring in Catch Me If You Claus on Thanksgiving night. Both stars are veterans of Hallmark movies, but their newest holiday venture involves playing two very different characters: an aspiring news anchor and a man who may or may not be the son of Santa Claus. Macfarlane and Ricci spoke with CinemaBlend about the project, including the Elf inspiration!
In Catch Me If You Claus, which premieres on November 23 at 8 p.m. ET on Hallmark, Avery Quinn (Italia Ricci) is on the verge of getting a shot at a news anchor position when an intruder interrupts her peaceful Christmas Eve and claims that he's Chris, the son of Santa Claus. Is he truly the son of Santa, or is he delusional? Is he lying to Avery about everything? Could he be the "Santa Crook" who has been making the news as a burglar?
Avery and Chris face a complicated Christmas with many questions, and fans can expect plenty of laughs. When I spoke with Luke Macfarlane, he confirmed that Chris "means so well," and elaborated:
I can tell you that my inspiration for a lot of this character was Will Ferrell in Elf. He has an earnest love. He's not cynical. He believes deeply in people and in the Christmas spirit, and it was really fun to kind of connect with a softer part of my brain that way. You know, he's not an idiot, but he's a well-meaning, incredibly earnest guy.
Catch Me If You Claus is Macfarlane's return to Hallmark holiday movies, which should be a relief for fans. It wasn't too long ago that he seemed ready to stop starring in the projects and might not be part of the 2023 Christmas movie schedule, after all! And what better way to channel the holiday spirit than by taking inspiration from Will Ferrell's iconic performance in Elf?
Suffice it to say that Catch Me If You Claus is not based on a true story like Nikki DeLoach's A World Record Christmas! Macfarlane's Chris will be an "incredibly earnest guy" who believes in the Christmas spirit, but is it ever hard for the actor to summon the holiday spirit after starring in so many Christmas movies, including (but definitely not limited to) Christmas in My Heart, Chateau Christmas, and A Shoe Addict's Christmas? I asked the actor that very question, and he shared:
That's a good question. I think ever since I was a kid myself, there's something about the smells, the kind of forced family closeness that just brings so much joy to me personally. So I feel it's an opportunity to tap into really good memories from my childhood.
Italia Ricci is no stranger to Hallmark movies either. She starred in Don't Go Breaking My Heart, Love in Winterland, and Rome in Love, but never opposite Luke Macfarlane. After she posted on Instagram that working on Catch Me If You Claus was one of her "most enjoyable shoots ever," I asked what it was like for her to work with Christmas movie veteran Luke Macfarlane. After joking that it was "horrible," she raved about her co-star by saying:
He's one of my all-time favorite co-stars. Of all time. He is so funny. He's so on top of it, so willing. Every night, even though we'd wrap at 6 a.m., we would get together. We would go over stuff for the next day. We would tweak things here and there to make it a little smoother for us to go and get to the points and see if there were any funny beats we could add. It was just so nice to have somebody who was so willing to do the work with you.
Filming the new Hallmark movie overnight didn't stop Macfarlane and Ricci from getting together to prepare for the next stages of production. The leading lady's comments about her co-star being "so funny" and working together to find "funny beats" certainly indicate that viewers should prepare to laugh. She continued:
This way when you showed up on set you could really just do as much as you could because the shoots are so tight. And then on set, he's just so talented. He changes it up all the time. It's always so exciting to watch. I would ruin takes because I was just so spellbound by him and so surprised. I was just enjoying watching him in the scenes that I forgot that I was also in the scenes.
It's safe to say that the finished product turned out well, because Hallmark scheduled Catch Me If You Claus for Thanksgiving night! While Italia Ricci already celebrated Thanksgiving in Canada back in October, she shared why Thanksgiving in the U.S. is a good time for the new movie to debut:
I was in L.A. for fifteen years and I would often cook and host and it felt like Thanksgiving was the kickoff to Christmas season. I feel like this is a good way to just dive into it. It's fun and it's heartwarming and it's different. I hope the Hallmark audience is delightfully surprised by this one.
When I asked her co-star the same question, he echoed her sentiment about Thanksgiving kicking off the Christmas season. He shared that he has always thought of the Thanksgiving holiday as "the unofficial time when it's okay to bring out Christmas decorations," and explained why Catch Me If You Claus is a fun and festive fit:
Our movie is a bit of a silly blast into all things Christmas right off the bat. I feel like it gives permission to people at home to go like, 'You know what? I can embrace Christmas now. Thanksgiving is over. I've dealt with that.' And this is sort of like a gentle nudge into the Christmas season with lots of laughs. We're not too heavy-handed. We're not too emotional. We're having some fun kind of teeing up what's to come.
You can find Catch Me If You Claus at 8 p.m. ET on Thanksgiving night on Hallmark to find out whether Avery Quinn will get her big break and if Chris truly is somehow the son of Santa Claus. For a taste of what's to come, check out the preview:
Hallmark has already released plenty of holiday movies in 2023, including recently airing one that originally ended differently. Be sure to tune in to Catch Me If You Claus on November 23 to unofficially kick off the Christmas season, and stick around Hallmark for more, including the upcoming A Biltmore Christmas.
