‘Violent Night’: David Harbour Revealed 1 ‘Sacred’ Santa Claus Item They Refused to Let Him Use
Stranger Things actor David Harbour is getting all of the talk for his performance in Violent Night. He played the perfect Santa Claus, but he had a slightly different image of the mythological figure. Harbour explained that he wanted to bring the “sacred” Santa to the film, but there was one iconic item that they wouldn’t let him incorporate into his iteration of the character.
‘Violent Night’ actor David Harbour plays Santa Claus
Violent Night tells the story of a jaded Santa (Harbour), who is tired of delivering toys to ungrateful children. The world is progressively losing the Christmas magic each year and he’s sick of it. However, Santa finds himself trapped in a house after his magical reindeer take off during his stop. This is the last house that anybody would want to find themselves unable to escape from.
A young girl named Trudy (Leah Brady) is spending her Christmas holiday with her estranged parents (Alex Hassell and Alexis Louder). Beyond their immediate family drama, their extended family is fighting over the matriarch’s (Beverly D’Angelo) money. A criminal, Scrooge (John Leguizamo), and a group of robbers come together to rob them on Christmas night, willing to use lethal force to get what they want.
David Harbour couldn’t use a pipe to complete his ‘Violent Night’ Santa Claus look
JoBlo interviewed Harbour to talk about his experience filming Violent Night. The film is wildly violent with a heavy dose of dark comedy, but did it ever push things too far for Universal Pictures? Harbour explained that he often looks away from his performances while looking at the screen, but was surprised to see how much the studio allowed to get through. Nevertheless, they held back on one “sacred” Santa item when it came to his performance.
“Most of the stuff, they were willing to go the length on a lot of crazy stuff,” Harbour said. “I mean, the funniest thing, to me, about where we’re at is all of the violence they were fine with. I’m killing people with candy canes and Christmas ornaments and all of this stuff.”
Harbour continued: “But, I remember in the initial time we meet Santa, I wanted him to have the glasses and I wanted him to have this sacred Santa look. So, I wanted to also have a pipe. They were like, ‘No, no. No way, no tobacco. You cannot do tobacco. No pipe.’ I’m like, ‘We’re murdering people with all of these things.’ They’re like ‘That’s fine, but no pipe.’”
He would be open to a ‘Santa Cinematic Universe’
According to JoBlo, Harbour would be open to making more Violent Night movies if the studio had an interest in pursuing that avenue. He explained that this movie opens up the world of possibility for other holiday flicks to take over. Why restrict it to just Christmas?
“I mean, there’s a lot of possibility, isn’t there?,” Harbour said. “Like once you start to add to the John Wick Universe, mythological child creatures, there’s so much potential for the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy. There’s such ways to expand the Santa Cinematic Universe. That would be pretty exciting.”
Further, he said that adding Mrs. Claus to the sequel would be at the top of the list.
