John C Reilly names his favourite Christmas movies: “It’s just so right on the money”
No matter who you are or what stage of life you’re in, everybody loves a Christmas movie. Just ask John C Reilly. The Oscar-nominated actor has absolutely no qualms about sharing his love for the holiday season and its corresponding films.
Reilly named a number of festive classics that he puts on every year, including the inescapable It’s a Wonderful Life. “It’s hard to get away from that one, because it’s just so right on the money, and it is such a brilliant movie,” he said, although he admitted that his first experience with the story was a little unusual.
“I thought It’s a Wonderful Life was a Marlo Thomas TV movie when it first came out,” he revealed. This is in reference to It Happened One Christmas, an ABC film that gender-flipped the main role, casting Marlo Thomas as ‘Mary Bailey’ instead. “Later on, I discovered the Jimmy Stewart [version], because when I was a little kid, It’s a Wonderful Life wasn’t as popular as it is now,” Reilly concluded. “I think it kind of grew into this Christmas favorite.”
A number of animated films made it into Reilly’s list, including the 1964 TV special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. “It’s funny, because I think it almost seems like they may have made it as kind of disposable TV content and it’s turned into this canon [film] for Christmas,” he said of the hour-long stop motion film, which originally aired as part of a slot sponsored by General Electric. It follows the story of the titular deer as he attempts to find his place within Santa’s flock, all while being narrated by famous musician Burl Ives.
Another animated piece Reilly loves is the 1982 Raymond Briggs adaptation, The Snowman. “It’s got this really beautiful vocal classical piece of music that goes through it,” he said, referring to Walking in the Air. Howard Blake wrote the song and accompanies the sequence in the film where the snowman and his young friend soar through the sky above various Christmassy scenes. Although the song is closely associated with Welsh singer Aled Jones, the version used in the film is sung by Peter Auty. Jones re-recorded the track for an advert, and his version reached number five in the UK Singles Chart.
This love for Christmas animation is probably what drew Reilly to appear in the 2024 Disney+ project, An Almost Christmas Story. Directed by David Lowery and co-written by Alfonso Cuarón, the 25-minute short is about an owl named Moon who, after getting stuck in a Christmas tree destined for New York City, befriends a girl named Luna as she wanders the city streets.
Alongside names like Natasha Lyonne and Mamoudou Athie, Reilly appears as an unnamed folk singer, acting in a sort of narrator role. “As soon as I saw that it was going to be stop motion animation and that it was around Christmas,” he said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is my moment to be Burl Ives!’”
To round out his list of holiday faves, Reilly included two non-Christmas films, The Wizard of Oz and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. “There’s something about the holidays – you want the good stuff, you know,” Reilly opined. “You want stuff that’s that seems like it’s been around forever, too.”
John C Reilly’s his favourite Christmas movies:
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
- The Snowman (1982)
- The Wizard of Oz (1939)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
- Hardrock, Coco and Joe (1951)
