The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland is a surprising Christmas mash-up that invites viewers to see what would happen if Santa Claus came across Lewis Carroll’s Queen of Hearts. The Hulu animated film is based on a 2019 book of the same name by children’s author Carys Bexington and stays true to that book’s art style in its telling of the story. It stars Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones, Solo: A Star Wars Story) as the Queen of Hearts, Simone Ashley (Bridgerton, Sex Education) as Alice, and Gerard Butler (How to Train Your Dragon, Olympus Has Fallen) as Saint Nicholas.
The animated Christmas movie marks a return by Butler to the world of musicals after a 20-year absence. Butler starred in a film adaptation of Phantom of the Opera that was released in 2004, and the spotlight hasn’t been on his singing ability since. The Plane star’s singing has been featured in the trailer for the movie, as has music by the movie’s songwriters Guy Chambers and Amy Wadge.
Screen Rant spoke with Butler about his work playing Santa in The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland. Butler shared what drew him to the role and discussed the difficulty of speaking in rhyme for the length of a feature film. The actor also reflected on whether he would ever actually don a Santa suit for a role, considering he will be bringing another of his animated characters to life in 2025’s live-action How to Train Your Dragon.
Screen Rant: 300 came out when I was a senior in high school, and my instinct after seeing that movie was to write, direct, and act in a musical adaptation called 300: The Musical, so it feels very fitting that I get to talk to you about a musical today.
Gerard Butler: No way. Do you want to see something that ties that up even more? The director of this movie, Peter Baynton, was a little bit obsessed with the link between Santa and Leonidas. He drew [a piece of art] for me while we were working together, and it says, “What is your profession? Ho, ho, ho,” So, that’s a good link right there.
Everybody knows Santa and has an idea of who Santa is. What does it feel like to take that on, and did you have a sense of knowing people had expectations?
Gerard Butler: Yes, I guess people have expectations of who they think Santa is, but then you look at movies coming out like Bad Santa, [and] it has become the thing to show Santa in the most unflattering or different ways possible. I also knew the Santa we were trying to create with this movie and the environment and the world that was going to be created in.
I read this and I immediately knew who he was, and I immediately knew what I could bring to that very strongly. I literally wanted to get up and perform it straight away. I went, “I hope there’s not a gap. I would love to just stand up, because I see this now. I want to see this line right now. I want to sing this right now.” I knew all the extra things and everything you could wring out of it—its silliness, its goofiness, its warmth, its love, and that zest that he has for life, [and] in how annoying he is because he can’t help himself.
So, I figured that that would be enough. I think people are going to get the kind of Santa that they’re seeing in this movie. He’s glam, he loves that he’s a rockstar, but ultimately he’s a good man who wants to do a good job and spread love in the world, which is the ultimate message. It felt like we could bastardize the characters enough but still keep you in the world of these fairytales enough to draw you back into them and go, “Oh God, that’s the Santa story, and that’s Alice in Wonderland,” and yet still be able to have this crazy collision between these two worlds and these different characters.
How did this come to you? Did you have any friends or extended family or anyone who encouraged you to take on this role that’s going to be so beloved to kids and families?
Gerard Butler: No. Weirdly, nobody encouraged me, because nobody had to. It came through a buddy of mine, Daniel B, who said, “By the way, my friend’s producing this. They’d love you to do it, but I don’t think they think you would ever do it.” And he said, “But would you have a look at this?” And the second I read it… there was nobody there saying, “You’ve got to do this.” It was actually quite the opposite, because when we looked at the dates, it seemed like there wasn’t a way in the world that I could do it.
I kept pushing and pushing and pushing to make sure that it happened, because it just stuck with me. Even when I thought it was gone, I’d say, “Wait, is that gone for sure? Is there anything we can do?” because it had touched something inside me. I thought, “I’ve got to tell that story. I’ve got to play that character,” knowing I’m making that movie that is for kids but [also] adults. I do believe, together with all of the animation and the music and the characters, that’s going to be a great little movie that I think people will really love and I’d be proud to be a part of.
It’s been literally 20 years since a lot of people heard you sing last. Phantom of the Opera was 2004. Was there a reason there was such a long break? Were you staying away from this for any reason?
Gerard Butler: No, not particularly. I do remember when Andrew Lloyd Webber was talking to me about playing the role of Phantom and he said, “Now, this is going to very much change your career. Your career is going to become much more musical.” I remember, one going, “This is amazing. I’m going to get to play the Phantom,” but also going, “I don’t think it’s going to change my career that much. I’m still going to stick foremost with acting.”
That’s not to say that I don’t regret sometimes that I didn’t do more musicals because I have to say, doing this, I forgot how much fun it is—especially if it’s something as fun as this. The music here was so great and Guy Chambers, the composer that did all Robbie Williams’ albums, [is] amazing. The songs that I was singing, the lyrics… all great. It was really fun to be dancing in a booth and recording these lyrics and singing, and it did make me think. Sonia Jones was such a great coach, and she kept going, “I can’t believe you don’t sing. I love listening to you sing. You’ve got to sing more.” I did say that I was going to take it up again. Maybe I will, so that if another musical does come along, I’m a little less rusty.
The wildest thing to me about this movie is that almost everything is spoken in rhyme. How do you deliver lines like that for the full length of a movie while sounding at all like a human? That seems hard.
Gerard Butler: I’m glad you said, that because, in actual fact, it is a little tricky. You could just dive into it—which, by the way, is what I wanted to do. I’m not saying that was the right way, because you’ve got to learn how much you can break the rules, how much you have to stay within the rules, and that you’re not going so far out to get a performance that you’re losing the musicality and the intonation and the rhythm of the piece. The meter.
I kept focusing on, “As quickly as you can, try and understand how much you can have fun and break the rules without breaking the rules so much that we’re forgetting that we’re all [speaking in rhyme.”] It was so cleverly written that you wanted to remind the audience all the time, “This whole thing has been written in rhyming couplets,” and I think that we did that. I think all the actors did that well.
There are so many unique elements that this movie has going for it between the music, the rhyming couplets, the look—it’s like the book just came to life—and that they’re fantastic characters [from] these two worlds meshing together. It has a lot of unusual things that come together quite beautifully.
You had another animated character come to live-action this year that you were shooting. Does this make you at all want to actually put on the suit and play Santa in something in the future?
Gerard Butler: It’s actually a good question because I know if they made this a movie, this would actually have to be a huge-budget movie just like what we did on How to Train Your Dragon. The budget was huge for that because you’re trying to now create a world. When you were animating, you went, “Well, we don’t have to worry, it’s just animated,” [and] then we had to build that world. But it could be a really fun movie. The thought of just putting on a Santa costume to go and do another Santa movie… no, not specifically. But with this, you never know. I don’t think they’re talking about it, but I had a lot of fun playing this guy.
St Nick receives a delayed letter on Christmas Eve from the Princess of Hearts. He and his dedicated team of reindeer set off to Wonderland where they’re greeted by the mean and miserable Queen of Hearts who hates all things Christmas… especially presents! Can St Nick, aided by Alice, the Mad Hatter and March Hare, show the Queen the true meaning of Christmas and save the day before it’s too late?
https://youtu.be/UEx5ODeEKKw?si=peKJB8rajrgy9OaM
source Screenrant
