Why Freddie Prinze Jr. ‘Was Doing Backflips’ Over ‘Christmas With You’
Netflix‘s Christmas With You is Freddie Prinze Jr.’s first rom-com in over a decade. He recently talked about what drew him to the holiday movie and revealed that he was doing “backflips” when he landed the role.
Netflix’s ‘Christmas With You’ is a holiday rom-com
Netflix’s latest holiday movie, Christmas With You comes from writer German Michael Torres and director Gabriela Tagliavini. It follows the story of Miguel (Freddie Prinze Jr.) — a high school music teacher who is raising his teen daughter Cristina (Deja Cruz) after the death of his wife, and Angelina (Aimee Garcia) — a pop star being pressured to record a new Christmas single.
Cristina is a huge fan of the singer. And she sends her a message via social media asking her to come to her birthday. Angelina decides to pay Cristina a surprise visit, and there she meets Miguel.
Miguel’s family bonds with Angelina. And while collaborating on a new song, Angelina and Miguel find a romantic connection.
The film also stars Zenzi Williams, Gabriel Soyer, and Grace Dumdaw. It premiered on Netflix on Nov. 17.
Freddie Prinze Jr. says he did ‘backflips’ when he got ‘Christmas With You’
Prinze is the son of actor/comedian Freddie Prinze, whose mother was of Puerto Rican descent. In an interview with Tudum, Prinze revealed that he holds his Puerto Rican heritage in the highest regard. And when Torres and Tagliavini approached him with the Latinx romance at the center of Christmas With You, he was beyond thrilled to explore it.
“I always felt I had treated my Puerto Rican culture with the utmost respect,” Prinze said. “So when [Tagliavini and Torres] brought the movie to me and were excited for me to do it, I was doing backflips.”
“They’re like, ‘Oh my, you’re so excited,’” he continued. “And I was like, ‘You don’t understand. I’ve been ready for this since I was 18 years old.'”
Playing a father in ‘Christmas With You’ was another plus point for Freddie Prinze Jr.
Prinze married Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar after meeting her on the set of I Know What You Did Last Summer. The couple has been married for 20 years and has two children together.
In the late 90s, Prinze was known for playing the leading man in teen rom-coms like She’s All That. He then went on to appear in several popular projects, including Scooby-Doo, Boston Legal, and 24.
Prinze was reluctant to make another rom-com. But when he read that he’d play a father in Christmas With You, he was sold.
“To do a romantic comedy, there has to be something different,” Prinze told Tudum. “Otherwise it would be very hard for me to get excited. Otherwise, I just want to make a horror movie, because that’s kind of my favorite type of film.”
“But Miguel was a father,” he added. “And this was [the] first opportunity I had to be a father in a movie.”
