Violent Night is a blast of a film, the rare Christmas movie that is able to balance a genuine sense of the holiday with a subversive element -- incorporating John Wick-style action and comedy into a story ultimately about Santa helping a little girl's family through a very tough time. Opposed to Santa is a gang of dangerous criminals led by Ben, aka Mr. Scrooge, a vicious killer who finds himself contending with a far more difficult Christmas than he ever expected, especially once he realizes Santa Claus (David Harbour) isn't just a guy in a red suit.
Ahead of Violent Night's Dec. 2 theatrical debut, CBR sat down with John Leguizamo (Ben/Mr. Scrooge) to discuss what drew him to the bloody take on a traditional Christmas film. He explained how he makes sure his villainous role commanded the right amount of respect and what it was like training with some of the world's best stunt teams for the film.
CBR: So, this is something of a... unique Christmas film. What was your reaction the first time you heard the pitch for Violent Night?
John Leguizamo: When they told me that it's a subversive Christmas movie, I was in because I'm all about subversion. So I mean, Santa comes in [and] fights and beats up the villains? I was like, what? An action movie with Santa! And it was funny and touching. I was like, "How'd you move me?" I don't understand how they got me, but they moved me. [The film] moved me at the end. I wept!
I mean, your character gets a lot of reasons to weep by the end of the film.
[laughs] Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's a different kind of weeping. That's a weeping in pain.
One of the things I love about your performance in the film is how you really get to play on so many archetypes of Christmas movie villains. What was it like diving into that kind of role?
You know, there's a lot of pressure on being the villain of a movie and making sure that he's really smart because [your movie] is always only as smart as your villain. So, how to make sure that he was really clever, where you really respected him... I had to get the respect, and I had to earn it. It doesn't just happen. So I had to make sure I maintain rage, that my fights were tight, that you believed that I was an assassin.
So you know, I trained a lot with some great stunt coordinators -- Jonathan Eusebio is of the greatest in the world right now, and we would train every day, four or five hours, for a month to get those sequences. Oh my god, it hurt. It hurt! I'm not gonna lie, the next day, I couldn't get out of bed. I rolled off, and then I had to roll around on the floor until I could get my movement back.
Violent Night releases in theaters Dec. 2.