‘Red One’ Press Conference with Dwayne Johnson and More

Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, director Jake Kasdan and more from the cast and crew of ‘Red One’ discuss making a brand-new adventure for the holiday season.

(L to R) Dwayne Johnson, J.K. Simmons, Chris Evans and Lucy Liu in 'Red One'. Credit: Courtesy of Prime. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC

With ‘Red One,’ stars Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans, along with director Jake Kasdan (‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’), hope to create a modern Christmas classic infused with the sensibility of a large-scale action film and the heart of a family comedy. Johnson plays Callum Drift, the head of security for Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons), whose annual mission to deliver gifts around the world is run with the precision of a military operation out of his massive, well-hidden complex at the North Pole.

But a security breach allows Santa to be kidnapped right out from under Drift’s nose, with the breach traced to Jack O’Malley (Evans), a dark web tracker and bounty hunter who is forcibly recruited to help Drift locate Santa and his kidnappers. The trail leads them to Gryla (Kiernan Shipka), a winter witch out of Icelandic folklore who plans to use Santa’s own magical powers to rid the world of naughty children forever – unless Drift and O’Malley can stop her and rescue the man who Drift simply knows as “Nick.”

With ‘Red One’ scheduled to open in theaters on November 15 as an early holiday present for moviegoers, members of the cast and crew – including Evans, Johnson, Shipka, Simmons, Lucy Liu (Zoe Harlow), Kristofer Hivju (Krampus), Bonnie Hunt (Mrs. Claus), Kasdan, producer Hiram Garcia, and others -- participated in a virtual global press conference that Moviefone had the opportunity to attend (minus the egg nog and cookies).

1) A Christmas Story You’ve Never Seen Before

'Red One'. Credit: Courtesy of Prime. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC

Director Jake Kasdan revealed that the initial impetus for ‘Red One’ was to bring audiences a whole new vision of Santa Claus – as an action hero who trains hard to get in shape for Christmas, and who leads a vast, well-organized, and tightly-secured operation.

Jake Kasdan: That was absolutely one of the most exciting aspects of this movie, was sort of looking at a way that we could tell Santa's story that we've never quite seen before. You've seen him a certain way your whole life, and we always thought that the great exciting idea for this was, what if you could sort of pull back the curtain and see what he's really like? So all of those aspects of this came from that sort of seed idea.

2) Making Santa Cooler Than Ever

J.K. Simmons in 'Red One'. Credit: Courtesy of Prime. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC

Producer Hiram Garcia, who also came up with the original story for the movie, said he wanted to create the “definitive” Santa onscreen and make him cool again.

Hiram Garcia: I think when we did start working on this, one of the goals was, and actually when we were going around pitching it, we always ended the pitch with saying our hope was to tell a story that really inspired people, turn Christmas on its head in the mythology, but also to create the definitive Santa Claus. There's been so many good Santa Clauses, but to find one that really took a connection with the audience to the next level and brought a coolness out in Santa that as a big Christmas fan, I always knew Santa's got. I feel like we did that with J.K. and especially the way Jake envisioned him on screen. J.K.'s performance as Santa is everything we dreamed and more.

3) A Christmas Action Movie Not Called ‘Die Hard’

'Red One'. Credit: Courtesy of Prime. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC

Chris Evans said that making an action movie based around Christmas was easier than it might seem because the folklore around the world is full of such fantastical legends and creations.

Chris Evans: We had a whole team of people who [were] trying to crack that code. I mean, I think it actually provides a lot of fun. There's such great Christmas lore, folklore, not just the stories we all grew up with, but internationally…When you hear about some of these creatures and stories and mythology, it almost begs for some sort of action-adventure movie. So it's not quite as hard as you think.

4) The Secret Ingredient To This Christmas Confection

(L to R) Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans in 'Red One.' Photo: Amazon MGM Studios.

Dwayne Johnson said that director Jake Kasdan brought something to ‘Red One’ that makes the movie special.

Dwayne Johnson: Something that Jake inherently does in his films -- and I've had the privilege of working with him now three times, on the first two ‘Jumanji’ movies and now ‘Red One’ -- is heart. There's so much heart in this movie. That's often an overstatement, I think, in storytelling in Hollywood, but it's true. One of my favorite parts of the movie is where J.K. as Santa Claus reminds me that it's our job to see the best in people and look beyond if they're on the naughty list, and look at the kid in everybody.

5) Lucy Liu Didn’t Know At First She Had A Big Action Scene

Lucy Liu in 'Red One'. Credit: Courtesy of Prime. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC

Lucy Liu plays Zoe Harlow, the director of MORA (Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority), an agency charged with keeping track of the world’s mythological beings. Although initially it didn’t seem like she’d participate in any of the action, things took a different turn during filming.

Lucy Liu: Well, it was impromptu. I had spoken to Jake and I said, "Is there any training or do you need me to prep anything?" He said, "No, I think maybe she's going to throw a kick and maybe a punch. Maybe that's it. You're just the boss lady and then that's all it's going to be." I said, "Okay, great. No problem." I show up to the set, we're doing the costume fittings and everything, and then the stunt coordinator comes in and he says, "I just want to give you a little bit of a previs of what we're going to do." He shows me this entire action scene. And my face just turned white. But then I was like, "Okay, let's do this." As soon as I got the sticks in my hands, it was like muscle memory kicked in. It was like I was alive again…I hadn't done it in a long time, but it just came back to me. I love watching action movies. I grew up watching them, and actually being on the screen doing action is so exciting. I think that it gets kids excited, it gets girls excited, it gets women excited. So it's nice that you still got it.

6) Kiernan Shipka Got Her Villain On For The First Time

Kiernan Shipka in 'Red One'. Credit: Courtesy of Prime. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC

Kiernan Shipka (‘Longlegs’) appears as Gryla, the legendary winter witch who masterminds Santa’s kidnapping, and said she relished her first opportunity to play the main villain in a movie.

Kiernan Shipka: It was really fun. I loved it. I've never really played a proper villain before. I've definitely played people who were dark and twisted, but the film kind of hinges on this kidnapping. It was really cool to feel like I had a part in the movie that was sort of moving things in any sort of direction. That was really fun. I liked those stakes. I love that this movie's so fun. I mean, there's a lot of heart in it, there's a lot of action in it, but at the end of the day, I think you sit down and it's a really fun watch. So playing someone who is a villain, but also maintaining a sense of levity and fun with the whole thing was also really lovely. So it was great. I'll play a villain anytime. It was fun.

7) Kristofer Hivju Went A Different Way Playing Krampus

Kristofer Hivju in 'Red One'. Credit: Courtesy of Prime. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC

The figure of Krampus, in European Alpine folklore, is said to accompany Santa/St. Nicholas on his rounds and punish the children who have been naughty. Although wearing a full, practical costume complete with horns, actor Kristofer Hivju (‘Game of Thrones’) decided to play him not as a horrific monster but as Santa’s estranged, self-absorbed brother, who indulges in wild parties and slapping contests with his obedient guests.

Kristofer Hivju: For me it was like the character is more or less the suit, right? So I tried to play against the suit, and actually play him as feminine, as narcissistic, and self-indulging as possible. Suddenly that mixture became a bit disturbing. But the funny thing about Krampus is that he has the same objective as Nick. They want the same thing. It's just the method [that’s different] -- punishing or rewarding. Sometimes you need a bit of slapping.

8) Practical VFX Made All The Difference

(Right) Dwayne Johnson in 'Red One'. Credit: Courtesy of Prime. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC

Dwayne Johnson said that having Krampus played by an actor in a suit on the set was a huge advantage over the character being created via CG.

Dwayne Johnson: For Chris and I, when we step on set and we had the privilege of obviously being on set for many, many days with Kristofer as Krampus, it is one of the most impressive things we had ever seen. He's massive and he really does such a spectacular job as Krampus. In our story the mythology is that he’s the brother of Santa, and the prosthetics that he was wearing are from Joel Harlow, who's an Academy Award winner, and you really see it. But the challenge is that there has to be so much life going on in his eyes because everything else is just these incredible prosthetics. Because he’s such a superior actor, you feel that in the movie.

Chris Evans added that working with practical effects and creatures like Krampus on set brought back memories of the movies he loved growing up.

Chris Evans: I grew up on movies like ‘Labyrinth’ and ‘NeverEnding Story’ where it was all practical and it was real. Those things stuck with you as a kid because it was things that you never saw in your normal life. I know now that every other movie is just loaded with CG. In a way there's so much of it that when you do get a film that goes practical, it still sticks with you in that same way because it's still rare like it was when I was a kid. That's what makes it feel like a real character, a real performance. It's not common anymore, which is nice.

9) What Does The Rock Love Most About Christmas?

Dwayne Johnson in 'Red One'. Credit: Courtesy of Prime. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC

Dwayne Johnson shared what was most important for him about the Christmas holidays.

Dwayne Johnson: Just getting family together would be our #1 greatest family tradition. I know it's simplistic, but a lot of times when I was growing up, my dad was always on the road and he wasn't always home for Christmas. In the business that we're in, sometimes it requires us to work over the holidays. So for me, just to have the entire family together, that's the most important thing.

10) Even Santa Has A Favorite Christmas Memory

J.K. Simmons in 'Red One'. Credit: Courtesy of Prime. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC

Santa himself, J.K. Simmons, shared a story about his family during the holidays and how Christmas taught him and his sister a valuable lesson.

J.K. Simmons: I have an older sister, two years older. She was probably six and I was four, and my little brother was a baby. Of course on Christmas morning we're up before the crack of dawn, bothering our parents and getting them out of bed and they’re dragging their butts out of bed. But I think that was the Christmas that my mom just said, "Go make some oatmeal." My sister, she's the oldest, so she's the assistant mom. So from every Christmas from then on, my sister and I would get up, we would make the oatmeal, and after we ate the oatmeal, then we were allowed to open the stockings from Santa. Then we waited for mom and dad to wake up to open all the rest of the presents. So it taught us a real kind of self-sufficiency, and it gave my sister, especially, a sense of responsibility.

Red One

"The mission to save Christmas is on."

PG-132 hr 4 minNov 15th, 2024

Showtimes & Tickets

Watch Red One Online

What is the plot of 'Red One'?

After a villain kidnaps Santa from the North Pole, an E.L.F (Extremely Large and Formidable) operative (Dwayne Johnson) must partner with the world’s most accomplished tracker (Chris Evans) to find Santa and save Christmas.