Happiest Season is about more than just celebrating the holidays! The Hulu film from writer/director Clea DuVall is a heartwarming holiday rom-com with a LGBTQ+ love story at its heart.
Happiest Season stars Kristen Stewart (Abby) and Mackenzie Davis (Harper) as a young couple who goes home to spend the holidays with Harper’s family and the chaos that ensues once Abby realizes that Harper has yet to come out to her conservative household. The film also features an all star cast including the likes of Dan Levy, Alison Brie, Victor Garber, Aubrey Plaza, Mary Holland and Mary Steenburgen.
The cast of the film opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about fan reception for the film, the importance of embracing LGBTQ+ love stories on screen as well as working alongside such an all-star group of actors.
For writer and director DuVall, it was thrilling to see an outpour of love for the romantic comedy.
The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney wrote in his review of the film: “[Clea DuVall’s] light touch with both comedy and drama is essential to what makes Happiest Season so captivating. The movie's conventional nature turns out to be a virtue, staking a queer claim on an American Christmas tradition in which LGBTQ characters have long been relegated to the sidelines.”
Calling the film her baby, DuVall said, “You don't know if people are gonna take care of it or tear it apart or what and to see the support and love for it it really makes me feel emotional and really just grateful.
Added Stewart, “The idea that people got excited for even just the trailer to come out makes me gleefully happy because I would be doing the same thing; if I wasn't in this movie I would definitely want to be.”
The cast also acknowledged the relevance of highlighting a relatable queer love story on screen.
“I definitely relate to the experience of going home to your family and finding yourself sort of locked in whatever age you were when you first left home,” said Davis, “whether that involves not revealing the ways that you’ve changed in gentler ways or if its a higher stakes situation like it is in the movie.”
Added Steenburgen who plays Harper's mother Tipper in the film, “I think it just speaks to what so many people go through because often people come out to their families at the holidays because that's when they’re all together and there's so many moving scenes about that subject.”
As far as putting together an all star cast went, DuVall said it was important to find people who are not just phenomenal actors.
“We really assembled this group of people who are lights out incredible actors but also just such phenomenal human beings that I would want to be stuck on a desert island with any one of them.”
According to Stewart the cast got along so well, it was tough to get things done on set. "At times it was like, 'shut up.' "
Added Brie, who plays Harper’s sister Sloane in the film, “There are some projects that come together and feel like they just have a magic to them and this movie definitely had that holiday spirit where we all just loved each other.”
Happiest Season premieres on Hulu on Nov. 25.
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