‘Four Christmases’: The holiday movie nearly crippled by a feud
Even the biggest Scrooge has at least one Christmas movie that conjures up that heartwarming sense of nostalgia that reminds them that the most wonderful time of the year is now upon us. Whether it’s watching an abandoned child take great pleasure in torturing a pair of burglars, a deranged human-sized elf wreak havoc in New York City or seeing Jim Carrey dressed as a giant furry monster steal presents from unsuspecting families, the best Christmas movies can truly warm the cockles of our hearts.
One would imagine, then, that starring in a good old Christmas movie would be equally joyous for the actors involved, unburdened from complex character studies or heavy subject matter. However, that wasn’t the case for Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn on the set of Four Christmases, as reported; the pair hated working with each other while making the film.
The 2008 comedy-romance Four Christmases, directed by Seth Gordon, cast Vaughn and Witherspoon as a couple that normally goes on an exotic holiday for the festibe holiday, but when their travel plans are cancelled at the last minute, the couple has to spend Christmas with their dysfunctional families.
Allegedly, the two actors had very different methods of working, which caused friction on set. According to a report in the New York Daily News, an unnamed source said Witherspoon would show up to work early and “camera-ready,” while Vaughn turned up “looking like he just came in from a night out”.
It was also suggested there was a conflict in their approach to shooting their scenes. Witherspoon liked running through blocking and going over lines, whereas Vaughn liked to ad-lib and test material. “She’s a one-take perfectionist, and Vince likes to try it a few different ways,” the source claimed. “Sometimes Vince will be standing behind her, and he has this look on his face that he just wants to kill her!”
Things had apparently gotten so bad that Gordon cut a humorous sex scene from the script. Originally, the pair were planned to have an American Pie-style bedroom moment, but the chemistry between the two stars was so frosty the production decided to scrap the entire thing before getting onto the set. The source told The New York Post, “Reese has an issue with the scripted love scene. It is meant to be a funny, American Pie-style romp, full of bumps and laughs, but Reese is such a prude, she thinks it’s just too much.”
However, despite these rumours of a bitter feud between the two leads, neither actor confirmed any issue on set. Witherspoon said during the press tour for the film that Vaughn is “the greatest” and “something new and funny would come out of his mouth on a daily basis.”
Vaughn also had kind words to say about Witherspoon, saying, “Reese takes her work very seriously,” continuing to say, “She works very hard at her part, and definitely her work matters to her. She’s very focused on what she does performance-wise. And she was really easy to play off of.”
