Get ready for the holiday season with a Christmas movie that’s sure-to-be your new favorite! There’s a brand new Christmas movie coming to Netflix on November 21, 2019, called The Knight Before Christmas, and it’s the holiday love story you never knew you needed.
The movie stars High School Musical alum Vanessa Hudgens alongside Josh Whitehouse, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Harry Jarvis, and Isabelle Franca. According to Netflix, it follows a gallant English knight who seeks out his true quest after a sorceress inadvertently sends him from the medieval era to present day. While there he soon finds himself falling for a caring high school science teacher who is disillusioned by love. Can someone say magical?!
Get even more excited for the holiday flick because Vanessa and Josh just spilled all the film’s behind-the-scenes secrets exclusively to J-14.
J-14: Tell us about The Knight Before Christmas! What’s it about?
Vanessa Hudgens: The Knight Before Christmas is, basically at the end of the day, a time traveling love story set at Christmas. We have Brooke who is a teacher and not in the place of looking for love and Sir Cole who is a knight from the 1400s and meets Brooke who takes him in, and a love story ensues.
Josh Whitehouse: He travels in time to seek his true quest which was brought to him by a magical crone in the forest and finds himself in Ohio.
J-14: Can you tell us about Brooke and Sir Cole? What was your favorite thing about playing them?
Vanessa: I love that when you meet her, she’s not looking for love. She’s very independent, she’s very caring and she meets this guy who completely turns everything that she knows on its head. I think that he forces her to believe in magic, which literally and metaphorically is a beautiful thing.
Josh: I just had such a lot of fun getting to play with this concept of him traveling to present day having never seen today’s modern technology, electricity, running water and constantly being able to be in that world where things are such a surprise to him almost with the vulnerability of a child. He’s quite this sort of manly figure as well. It was quite a nice balance to play with and, of course, developing his relationship with Brooke and settling into the world as we see it.
J-14: The movie includes the aspect of time travel — if you could travel to any time in history, when would you choose and why?
Vanessa: I would probably go back to the hippie movement in the 1960s and hang out at Woodstock and watch Jimi Hendrix perform and be in the mud and just experience that. That’s the dream, I wish I could have seen Jimi Hendrix live.
Josh: I think I’d like to go back further. Maybe to the 1900s or 1920s just because I feel like is the 1960s or 1970s is different, than how old fashioned and crazy it would have been then. You would just see everybody dressed up in the costumes they were in. Even in the 1800s maybe and see true period and elegance. It would be fun to be wealthy in that time.
J-14: What was your favorite scene to film? What made it so special?
Vanessa: There were a lot of fun moments, whenever we got to film in the Christmas village it was really magical. I remember one day, we were shooting outside there, and it started snowing and to look around and seeing all the Christmas decorations and to look up and see the snow trickle down, it was an actual magic moment for me.
Josh: I feel like a lot of the spirit of the film is about Christmas and it was just incredibly Christmas-y. It always felt especially magical.
J-14: Are there any behind the scenes moments or funny memories you can share from on set?
Vanessa: There was a scene when Sir Cole meets Brooke for the first time, the introduction and he say ‘Sir Cole’ and I say ‘Sir Cole?’ and it was late, we were loopy and if you start to say ‘Sir Cole’ enough times it just starts to sound like circle. We could not stop laughing.
Josh: The tension of knowing it was coming a third time was just too much. We couldn’t really stop laughing at that. It’s the stupidest joke ever, but it’ll get you at five in the morning.
J-14: What was your relationship like with your other cast members once the cameras stopped rolling?
Vanessa: Yeah, I’ve known Emmanuelle Chriqui for a long time, so when I read the script and I was like ‘who should play my sister, that’s hard’ and then I just had the lightbulb with Emmanuelle Chriqui’s name all over it and it was no nice having her on set and also for her to play my sister. I already love her and we’re very kindred spirits, so to add that on top of it was just lovely.
Josh: I think when you’re shooting a film and you’re out in the cold for five weeks at a time or more, it’s difficult not to end up feeling like a family on set and just having that kind of affinity with a bunch of people that you didn’t know before.
J-14: What makes this movie different from the classic Christmas movie?
Vanessa: I think, obviously, the time travel element is something on its own that is very unique for the genre. What I love about it is that there are so many different scenes to relate to that no matter who you are I think that there’s something in this for you that you’ll relate to or connect to and just allow you to grow as a person and build more empathy and at the end of the day, feel joy in the Christmas spirit.
Josh: The time travel gives it a real fun edge of comedy that you don’t necessarily see in Christmas films.
The Knight Before Christmas is out now on Netflix!
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