Tim Allen talks working with his real-life daughter on The Santa Clauses
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You read the card, you know what it means: If you put on the suit, you're the big guy. But whoever said being Santa Claus was supposed to last forever?
This fall, Tim Allen reprises one of his most beloved roles and steps back into the big red suit for The Santa Clauses on Disney+. Having already filmed three movies as Santa Claus from 1994-2006, Allen says it took some convincing to bring him back to the franchise. But it paid off when he walked on set for the first time in full costume.
"As I walked on set for the first time in the full regalia, everybody got very quiet, both adults and kids," Allen tells EW. "When I show up dressed in the full suit and everything else, there's big smiles on people's faces. Little kids are quiet. I had totally forgotten that. It does feel like Santa's in the room."
James Clark/Disney + Santa Claus (Tim Allen) speaks to the North Pole on Disney+'s 'The Santa Clauses.'
The Santa Clauses is a family story. Set years after the last film, Allen's Santa Claus/Scott Calvin and Elizabeth Mitchell's Mrs. Claus now have two children of their own (in addition to Charlie, Scott's son from his first marriage, who will once again be played by Eric Lloyd). Buddy (Austin Kane), who was born at the end of The Santa Clause: The Escape Clause, is now a young boy, and he has a younger sister, Sandra, who is played by… Allen's real-life daughter, Elizabeth Allen-Dick.
Allen says he originally wanted just a small part for Elizabeth, but she really impressed the casting directors and became the best fit for the part. After all, this is a family story.
"It's difficult to believe, but it had very little to do with me," Allen says. "I wanted to put my youngest daughter as an elf, just so she'd see herself in a movie. But as she was reading for that, she read so well that they said, ''We'd like to read her for more of a part.' I said, 'Whatever you want to do. I want nothing to do with it. I don't want to pitch my daughter for a part in the movie.' But she ended up moving to the high ranks. They loved how she read, loved it so much, because she's playing a 13-year-old girl and she is 13. They ended up casting her as Santa's daughter. It was a surprise but it became the most amazing experience."
Allen instinctively refers to The Santa Clauses as a "movie" because, according to him, the scale and detail of the production design rivaled the original films. But while it's fashionable these days to refer to a series as a "six-hour movie," Allen says the episodes of The Santa Clauses are more like "chapters of a book."
The story finds Scott looking to move his North Pole-born children to Chicago so they can learn what the real world is like. That familial connection with his actual daughter helped him access the emotions of this story.
James Clark/Disney + Betty (Matilda Lawler), Sandra (Elizabeth Allen-Dick), Buddy (Austin Kane), Santa (Tim Allen), and Mrs. Claus (Elizabeth Mitchell) on 'The Santa Clauses.'
"I don't want to give too much away, but she doesn't want to go," Allen says. "So I tell her, 'Being afraid is okay as long as we can be afraid together.' Even saying the line, I get a little choked up. I looked right at her. One of my photographer buddies was shooting and said it was tear-jerking to watch. I said, 'Well, I'm looking at my kid.' And she literally showed what I learned from Pat Richardson on Home Improvement: Real actors can really emote real emotions. She did it to me there, and I reacted to it, and it was an amazing moment. I'll never forget it."
Elizabeth might not have acted before this series, but she did grow up with an actor and comedian for a father. "My daughter is playing my daughter in the movie. The line kept coming back to me, 'Has she ever done this before?' And I said, 'No.' But she's read scripts with me all the time," Allen says. "We got to play all the time as a comedian. I'm that way around the house. She's able to take a line, make it her own, add value to it and be honest about it. And it was an amazing experience."
The first two episodes of The Santa Clauses premiere Nov. 16 on Disney+.
Make sure to check out EW's Fall TV Preview cover story — as well as all of our 2022 Fall TV Preview content, releasing over 22 days through Sept. 29.
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