Why Peter Billingsley Waited Nearly 40 Years to Make 'A Christmas Story Christmas'
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Yana BLAJEVA Peter Billingsley
Peter Billingsley's most anticipated project was worth the wait.
The 51-year-old actor and filmmaker — most famous for his childhood role in 1983's A Christmas Story — makes a triumphant and hilarious return as Ralphie in the new sequel A Christmas Story Christmas, marking his first time reprising the role since the original premiered 39 years ago.
Set in 1973, 33 years after the events of A Christmas Story, the new film sees a grown-up Ralph Parker as a father of two and struggling writer who returns to his childhood home for the holidays after the unexpected death of his own dad, The Old Man (played by the late Darren McGavin in the first movie).
And while there have been multiple sequels to A Christmas Story — including the 1994 theatrical release It Runs in the Family and 2012's direct-to-video A Christmas Story 2 — A Christmas Story Christmas, which is out now on HBO Max, is the first time Billingsley has been involved in a continuation of the Parker family's story.
"You really want to try to create something that could stand on its own, that's original," he tells PEOPLE when asked whether he was hesitant to to make A Christmas Story Christmas, which serves as a direct sequel to the 1983 original.
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Yana BLAJEVA A Christmas Story Christmas (2022)
For Billingsley, who started working on A Christmas Story Christmas nearly four years ago, a big mantra was, "If you re-approach something like this, you've got to get it right."
"In movies, you want to play offense — you want to do something great, you want to have momentum, do great storytelling," he continues. "But in this one, you gotta play defense too because you have to protect, I think, its association to the original."
"And there's not only a fan base for this, but it's borderline sacred for a lot of people," Billingsley says of A Christmas Story, which famously airs annually for 24 hours beginning the night of Christmas Eve.
Of the original film's iconic nature, Billingsley tells PEOPLE, "I was really trying to be cognizant of that."
In addition to starring in A Christmas Story Christmas, he also produced it alongside his "lifelong friend and producing partner" Vince Vaughn through the pair's Wild West Picture Show Productions, for Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures.
"Vince and I met when I was 18 and I'd just moved out to L.A. to start my transition into working behind the scenes," Billingsley tells PEOPLE. "He had just moved out to California to start his acting career, from Chicago ... and we met doing [a 1990 episode of] CBS School Break Special about the perils of steroids. I played the kid on steroids, and he was my best friend."
"We became good buddies. It was nice to be able to share this movie with him. He's always a great guidepost," he adds.
The two have teamed up on several films over the years, including the upcoming Christmas with the Campbells and 2009's Couples Retreat, the latter of which marked Billingsley's directorial debut.
And Vaughn, 52, is "very much" a big fan of the original Christmas Story. "He really liked it. He knew me from it. It was fun," Billingsley says. "It's so crazy to think of, but I had a little bit of fame, I guess — somebody was like, 'Oh, that's cool you were in that movie.' "
MGM/Shutterstock Peter Billingsley in A Christmas Story (1983)
RELATED: Peter Billingsley's Ralphie Returns Home in New Trailer for A Christmas Story Christmas
Another big reason now felt like the right time for Billingsley to make the sequel? His own kids. (He shares a daughter, 5, and 2-year-old son with his wife of nearly seven years, Elizabeth.)
"A lot of people have said, 'Why now?' for this movie, and definitely being a father in real life [paralleled] being able to channel being a father in A Christmas Story Christmas," he says.
A Christmas Story Christmas not only marks Billingsley's first time revisiting Ralphie but his first time being involved in any project related to the original film, save for his role as a producer on the 2012 Broadway production of A Christmas Story: The Musical, which was nominated for three Tony Awards: best musical, best book of a musical and best original score.
As for the new film, "It was a nice opportunity to channel my writing, producing and acting all back into one," he says.
A Christmas Story Christmas is now streaming on HBO Max.
For more from Peter Billingsley, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
