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The role of Santa is a big deal — after all, he’s a larger-than-life character, as well as a symbol of magic for arguably the most beloved of holidays.
Kurt Russell knew all this heading in, and was accordingly determined to give it his all. Russell took his Santa duties so seriously, in fact, that he and Hawn personally wrote over 150 pages of backstory while preparing for the second film.
According to Columbus, even though the stars knew those pages would not be used in the actual shooting script, Russell and Hawn used them to give their characters extra depth. After the success of the second film, however, “Chronicles” producers seem open to inclusion somewhere down the line.
“When Kurt and I sat down to talk about what would happen in the second movie, we really wanted to dig deep into the mythology of Santa’s relationship with Mrs. Claus,” Columbus said in a 2020 interview. “So, there’s an entire backstory that maybe someday will see the light of day.
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Russell has said that a lot of his self-imposed backstory has revolved around research into the actual person the real Saint Nicholas was. “He was a bishop,” Russell told CBS Sunday Morning in 2020. “The question is, through the myth and the legend, how is he still around? How is that possible?”
Take that backstory, mix it with two old-fashioned actors who were raised in the Hollywood system, and you get a dedication to the Claus family to which fans have clearly responded.
“Kurt takes this role incredibly seriously, It may sound silly to some people, but Kurt approaches Santa Claus as if he were a Method actor,” Colombus has said. For his part, Russell says he and Hawn are accustomed to such dedication — but leave their characters on the set. “We’re pretty old school. We do what we do at work, and then when you come home, it’s not ruling your life.”
