Tanzina Vega: -and we're going to round out the hour with some holiday cheer. This winter, many of us won't be able to gather with our own friends and relatives, but we can still watch other families celebrate in holiday movies. The longing for a normal winter night may be one reason that the new Hulu movie Happiest Season has connected with so many audience members.
The film hits many of the classic holiday rom-com beats, but also manages to modernize the genre by centering on a same-sex couple, Abby and Harper and they're played by Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis. Harper brings Abby home for Christmas, but hasn't come out yet to her family. Happiest Season was co-written by Clea DuVall and Mary Holland. Holland also stars in the film as Harper's eccentric sister Jane. Here she is, at a scene from the movie, greeting her oldest sister's family.
Jane: Freeze, ooh, don't move one more muscle before I hug you.
Sloane: Hi, Jane.
Jane: Hi. Hi, Eric.
Eric: Hi, Jane.
Jame: Hi, you guys. Hi. Gosh, you're so big. What are you, college students?
Matilda: We're in elementary school.
Mary: Yes, no, I know. You're just so tall.
Tanzina: I spoke with Holland about Happiest Season, finding joy in this dark year and what holiday movies mean to her.
Mary Holland: For me and I think a lot of people feel this way, holiday movies become part of our tradition. They become part of what brings us comfort and joy at that time of year. Also, as a kid growing up, they were such a formative part of humor. I feel like Home Alone was one of the first comedies I ever saw. I think I was seven or eight when it came out and it was just so impactful and informative for me.
Tanzina: A lot of people have been talking about this film in particular and mostly because it flipped the rom-com script. It has a lesbian couple at the center and very strong gay characters. Other than that, it still is a traditional Christmas movie, right?
Mary: Yes, it is. That was something that Clea and I both-- it was important to us that it is still so familiar to audiences of like, "Oh, it is what you expect from a Christmas movie." It's very warm. It's very bright. It's very joyful and it has all those elements that people come to expect from the holiday rom-com genre, but it's just told through this new perspective.
Tanzina: Do any of the family dynamics in the film, like your role as the outcast sister, if you will, did those resonate with you?
Mary: Well, yes, Jane is very close to my heart. When we were writing in those characters populating Harper's family, deciding what her family was going to be like and the types of people that would be in it, we knew we wanted her to have sisters and for one of them to have a very different energy than the rest of the family. As soon as we decided that I said to Clea, "I want to play her," and so we pretty early on knew that I was going to be playing her, so we wrote Jane with that in mind.
I don't know how intentional this was or if it just happened organically, but there's a lot of qualities about Jane that feel true of me. She's a peacekeeper, always looking to help and sometimes that's great and sometimes that can be a little annoying when someone who's just always trying to help and you don't necessarily need their help, but that's where she finds value in this.
This family is her ability to fix the internet and her ability to help out around the house. Yes, I think I definitely relate to that part of Jane where you're looking to find your place in a certain group or a certain community and she's just ever joyful and so herself and that was really fun to play.
Tanzina: Movie theaters are not roaring back, at least anytime soon. How does that affect you as a writer?
Mary: I tell you what, every morning I wake up and I'm like, "Maybe they'll open today."
Tanzina: We can dream, right?
Mary: We can dream. Exactly. I'm optimistic that they will be back in some capacity once life returns to some semblance of normalcy, but I think as a writer, one of the amazing benefits of this age we're living in, of these incredible streaming platforms, is that you don't need to tailor your writing style to suit a "streaming budget", because they're making huge cinematic movies that you would see in movie theaters, they just happen to be on a streaming platform.
I don't know that it changes the writing process so much because there is still an appetite for those big cinematic blockbustery-type movies. I think even people enjoying them in their homes, as opposed to in the movie theater, still, we want to create as much of a movie experience as we can as writers.
Tanzina: Talking about the comedy world more broadly for a moment. In recent years, it's really been forced to reckon with its own history of racism and sexism. Are there any changes to the comedy world that you've seen that you're excited about or you're concerned about?
Mary: Yes, I think as it's happening in all facets of our lives and our society, especially this year, there's so many conversations that have been long overdue, so many things that have needed to be addressed, and people in institutions that need to be held accountable that that is happening. Again, I feel very excited and hopeful the comedy community and comedy, in general, will be a much more inclusive and welcoming space for everybody.
I do think that there are a lot of people who take responsibility for having made this environment and some people who haven't, but I feel like in general, there is a real desire amongst people in comedy to make the environment better for everybody.
Tanzina: How do we do that in places like the Upright Citizens Brigade, like UCB, where a lot of folks, for example, who come through there, I know you've come through there, and a lot of the comedians that we know have come through there, at least the sketch comedians, and probably most famously, folks on Saturday Light Live, how do we make those spaces more inclusive?
Mary: Absolutely. There actually is an organization called Project Rethink that was formed by some members of the Upright Citizens Brigade community, who wrote an open letter to the Upright Citizens Brigade theater and created this list of what they want to see changed about how the theater is run, how the classes are run, how stage time is allotted to various teams. They came up with this comprehensive, actionable set of steps that the theater could take to be a more inclusive, more hospitable place for everybody.
I'm so, so grateful to Project Rethink for initiating that conversation. We also had, the Upright Citizens Brigade theater had a town hall where students, performers, people at every level at the theater could express their own experiences and share what they would like to see changed in the theater. I think that that was so massively beneficial. My understanding is that the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater is working very closely with Project Rethink upon reopening to make these changes and I feel super excited and hopeful for that.
Tanzina: I mentioned, we've talked to a lot of comedians on the show, but we've also talked to a lot of comedians over the course of the pandemic, because one of the things-- We actually did a segment, not too long ago, figuring out when and how to bring comedy to this moment. Is it too soon? What are the limits of comedy during a pandemic, which is-- We're in a very dark time right now. I'm wondering, even though Happiest Season started filming before the pandemic had really gripped the country, how do you find humor in this moment? Which I should say, I think humor is very important. It's just, we're trying to figure out how to find it right now. What do you suggest?
Mary: I agree. For me, I find that humor is often how I'm able to process more difficult things. It's how I can digest the more intense or darker things that are happening in life and so I agree with you that it's very important, but for me, and I feel like a lot of people probably relate to this, it's more than just important. It's how we're able to metabolize the overwhelming stimuli that's entering our lives right now. We're in such a time collective grief and just it feels like we're just getting walloped from all sides as a society and as individuals and people struggling with health, financial obstacles.
I think that humor is a means of digesting what's happening. As far as like how do we make comedy out of everything? I don't know the answer to that. I just know that what I intend to do is to continue to make things that make me laugh, and seek out performers and movies and TV shows that explore ideas that bring joy to me. In that way, I'm able to digest the darker things that are happening. I think humor is so vital in times like these.
Tanzina: What about you personally, Mary, where are you finding joy or humor, or even hope in this moment?
Mary: I'm finding I seek solace in my friends, and my family, of course, who-- We've gotten really good at Zoom, so that's been great. [laughs] I really find that we live in such a time of just phenomenal TV and amazing movies coming out. I have found a lot of comfort and a lot of joy in every night, watching a new movie, getting into a TV show, and really letting myself be immersed in that world. That has helped me a lot.
I think I've also found a lot of joy in my pets. [laughs] I'm spending a lot of time with them right now, and they are so funny and so entertaining, and it's little moments of humor with these animals that I live with that has brought a lot of joy recently.
Tanzina: Mary Holland is co-screenwriter and co-star of Happiest Season, the new holiday rom-com from Hulu. Mary, thanks so much.
Mary: Thank you so much for having me.
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