The star of one of the most iconic Christmas films of all time has waded into one of the holiday season’s most divisive annual debates: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?
Peter Billingsley says yes — and in the season finale episode of his A Cinematic Christmas Journey podcast, which releases Dec. 15, he does his best to convince Die Hard cinematographer Jan de Bont.
“I mean, they didn’t think Die Hard was a Christmas movie. They happened to set it then, but the filmmakers weren’t intending that,” Billingsley explains. Instead, like many classics over the decades, its meaning to fans evolved. “This movie creates its own life, is in the culture and, over time, people discover it. It’s pretty great to see how that life can move in ways that the filmmakers never intended, or even ever imagined.” (Watch an exclusive clip from the episode below.)
The podcast, which launched last year with an episode on A Christmas Story, was co-created by Vince Vaughn and is hosted by Billingsley and comedian Steve Byrne. The holiday films they’ve done deep dives on so far include Vaughn’s Fred Claus and Four Christmases, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Home Alone and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
“People like Jan and Beverly D’Angelo from Christmas Vacation, it’s nice to have a comfortable environment to sit and have a well thought out, in-depth conversation about the movies that they love,” Billingsley says. “They know the power of these movies and what they mean to fans.”
He continues, “We do the podcast in partnership with Spotify and we’ve got a video component, which is great. When filmmakers are in studio, we’re able to show them clips and get them to remember what they were doing and decode some of the tricks they used on set.”
Ahead of the finale, Billingsley spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about A Christmas Story turning 40, what he learned about the film while making the podcast, and why he used to apologize for the 24-hour marathons.
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