Octavia Spencer, Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell Share Sweet Details from the Christmases of Their Childhoods

The stars of 'Spirited' celebrated Christmas in very different ways and regions.

What happens when you cast three actors—with nearly 350 acting credits and one Oscar among them but little singing and dancing experience—in a musical? When it’s Will Ferrell, Octavia Spencer and Ryan Reynolds, you get the magic of Spirited, a Christmas comedy musical (debuting Nov. 18 on Apple TV+). The reimagining of Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol is “from the ghosts’ perspective,” says Ferrell. He plays the ghost Present, who has his eye on Reynolds’ “unredeemable” character, a charismatic New York media consultant that Present calls “the perfect combination of Mussolini and [Ryan] Seacrest,” who will go to any lengths to manipulate the public. “[My character] doesn’t have the requisite scruples to understand that what he’s doing is wrong,” says Reynolds. And he has succeeded in part due to his right-hand woman, Kimberly, played by Spencer, who is struggling with her boss’s ethics.

When director Sean Anders called Ferrell with the idea four years ago, the actor was intrigued. “Then [Sean] said, ‘Oh, and by the way, it’s a musical.’” Ferrell, 55, agreed, “but I got scared later when I saw the level of detail and all the stuff we would be doing.” Spencer, 52, says she found it “kind of stress-inducing, but extremely flattering” to hear the creators had written the part for her without even knowing if she could sing. “I can carry a tune from, like, here to the computer screen,” she tells Parade with a laugh. Reynolds, 46, remembers thinking that the chance “to work with Will was a pretty spectacular opportunity.”

And about that singing and dancing: Ferrell and Spencer won’t soon forget their first time singing together on camera. “There were lots of crew and people watching the scene, so it was a little intimidating,” says Ferrell. And when the director checked in and asked if there was anything his stars were worried about before the cameras rolled, Spencer said, “I’m worried about the singing! The singing!” But her stress dissipated after the first take. As for Ferrell, “All I had to do,” he says, “was to look into Octavia’s eyes, and we felt connected. It was very sweet and emotional.”

He had a different kind of memorable experience with Reynolds in rehearsals for their dance segments. “We were both behind on the steps, just a little bit off, and Ryan commented that we looked like we were taking a dance class at the Villages retirement community,” he recalls. Yeah, adds Reynolds, “like one of those exercise programs. Both Will and I got ‘the gigs,’ as we call it—the giggles—and it just never stopped. I mean, I don’t think we were able to catch our breath again for about an hour.”

Offscreen, Reynolds was relieved that “Will is not one of those people who’s terminally on,” he says. “He can kick into high gear whenever he wants to, but when you speak with him, he’s incredibly low-key.” They bonded over their shared experience as dads and both co-owning soccer teams. (Ferrell has a stake in Major League Soccer’s LAFC, while Reynolds co-owns the Welsh club Wrexham.) “It wasn’t just us doing, you know, dueling comedy bits all day. We would do some of that,” he adds. But mostly, it was “just a couple of guys talking about what it’s like having a bunch of kids and raising them.”

Related: Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell Sing on the Soundtrack for Spirited—Listen to the First Single

Ghosts of Christmas Past

Reynolds was raised in what he calls “a lower-middle-class-ish” family in Vancouver. He had three older brothers and a paper route, and Christmas was always “pretty tame,” he says. He and his family would bring up their “hideous” artificial tree from the basement, and the brothers would wait for their mom to make an amazing meal. But with a house full of boys, he says, “It always ended up as some kind of brawl on the front lawn.” In fact, one year Reynolds’ father called off everything. “My dad had a bit of a short fuse, and one year he canceled Christmas, which my brothers and I still fall over laughing about,” Reynolds tells Parade. “We thought, OK, are you canceling Christmas just in our house, or are you going to go around and let everybody know in the neighborhood? It was a very classic Jimbo—we called my dad Jimbo—move.” His father soon changed his mind, ending the Christmas crisis.

Now, Reynolds lives in a house full of females—with his wife of 10 years, actress Blake Lively, 35, and their three daughters, James, 7, Inez, 6, and Betty, 3. And his brood is about to grow, as Lively is pregnant again. So far, “having a house full of girls is a huge upgrade,” he says. For Christmas, they put up a real tree, then go all-out with lights and decorations, most of them kept from his and Lively’s childhoods. “We’re both pretty sentimental with that stuff.” The gifts are personal too, like the painting Lively had done for Reynolds featuring him as a boy outside of his childhood home, which was bulldozed when he was 16; the painter reconstructed the scene from old photographs. “That really put a hitch in my throat,” says Reynolds. “Got me right in the feels.”

Ferrell spent his Christmases growing up with one younger brother in the burbs of Irvine, California, and is also now a father of three. He lives with his wife of 22 years, Viveca Paulin, 53, and their three sons, Magnus, 18, Mattias, 15, and Axel, 12. For Christmas, they’ve enjoyed celebrating the holiday in the spirit of his wife’s home country, Sweden, which includes traditions like giving a gift to each child that comes from the Swedish Santa, Tomten.

Spencer was raised in Montgomery, Alabama, the sixth of seven children. As a little girl, she remembers trying to stay awake to see Santa, the mayhem of wrapping paper ripping and her mother cooking a feast that filled their home with “the smells of cakes and cookies and cloves—you know, the pot with oranges and cloves and cinnamon.” She also recalls “one particular Christmas [when] Santa didn’t bring me what I asked for. I wanted an Easy-Bake Oven, and to this day, maybe that’s why I don’t cook!” she says with a laugh. But her biggest memory of the season is a heartbreaking one: After losing her father when she was 13, her mother passed away weeks before Christmas when Spencer was 18. It forced her “to become my own best advocate and confidently navigate the world.” But for a long time after her mother’s death, Spencer didn’t want to celebrate the holidays at all, until she realized years later that she was cheating herself out of her favorite time of year.

“When I think back to my happiest times, it’s that block of the year,” she says of the period between Halloween and Christmas. She and her siblings still gather in Alabama over the holidays with their children and grandchildren to cook and fill the house with those same traditional scents—and the memories of her mother. “Christmas was, and is, very magical for me.”

Related: 9 Things You Didn't Know About Octavia Spencer

A New Year Ahead

Next up for Spencer is the just-premiered third season of her Apple TV+ drama series Truth Be Told, and “the role that I feel like I am destined to play at the highest level—that of producer,” she says. She wants to not only continue to act, but to create opportunities for herself and others through her production company, Orit Entertainment. But as a workaholic, she’s also intent on fine-tuning her work-life balance by spending more time with the people she loves, and doing what she loves: following true crime, reading law books, solving puzzles (“I’m a detective at heart,” she says) and enjoying the outdoors at her homes in Los Angeles, Alabama and Mississippi, where she’s planted “trees and flowers and plants that will attract hummingbirds and butterflies. I just like to be out there and commune with nature.”

On Reynolds’ roster is the latest film in his Marvel franchise, Deadpool 3, in planning and pre-production now. He also works with his production company, Maximum Effort, and the Aviation gin business in which he owns shares. But most of all, as he looks forward to life as a family of six, he’s squeezing out all the moments he can with his kids. “I try to take them to school, and pick them up as much as humanly possible,” he says. “I really love just spending time with my family.”

And Ferrell will be at work on his long list of projects that includes providing his voice to the animated film Strays and appearing in the live-action Barbie film (both set for release next year) and creating more projects through his production company, Gary Sanchez Productions. But first he’ll get to see the hard work he and his co-stars—and a tremendous supporting cast full of dancers and singers—put into Spirited. “Working with Ryan and Octavia was really inspiring,” he says. “Ryan is as quick comedically as anyone I’ve ever worked with. I was just hoping to keep up with him half the time.”

“They are the funniest guys in the world,” Spencer says. But she’s excited that audiences “get to see them do more than just be funny” in performances that reminded her of silver screen icons Spencer Tracy and Fred Astaire, bolstered by a soundtrack full of Christmas cheer. “I hope there’s some toe-tapping,” says Reynolds. “These are challenging, weirdo times we’re living in right now, so anything that can bring a little joy, I’m all for.”

We can all spread a little more joy, says Spencer. “We take the spirit of Christmas with us every single day. And that’s about being kind, being of service, just trying to be the best person you can possibly be. If you walk in joy, you will bring joy. That Christmas morning feeling is joy.”

Related: Ryan Reynolds Hilariously Announces the First R-Rated Movies Coming to Disney+

Favorite Things

Spirited Stars Ryan Reynolds and Octavia Spencer tell Parade about some of their favorite things.

Fave Christmas movie

Spencer: “It’s a Wonderful Life. Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings.”

Reynolds: “Elf is certainly up there. And I love It’s a Wonderful Life.”

Christmas song

Reynolds: “Oh, gosh, anything from the Mariah Carey catalog.”

Spencer: “I love Nat King Cole’s ‘Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire’—is that even what it’s called? [It’s ‘The Christmas Song.’] And ‘Christmas in Dixie’ by Alabama.”

On the nightstand

Spencer: “A bible, a dream dictionary, scented candles and I love looking at Restoration Hardware [the catalog]. It calms me down. There’s something calming about decorating.”

Reynolds: “A light with a clip for books—I usually try to read my kids to sleep at night. An iPhone charger. Apple watch charger. Nothing sexy or fun, it’s all business.”

Favorite room in the house

Reynolds: “The kitchen. I get up really early usually most mornings, so I have my little coffee spot. Sitting in the kitchen in the morning. All alone. My time.”

Spencer: “My master bedroom. I have these French doors that look out over the backyard, and I have this bird bath. And when I’m trying to learn lines or anything, I just sit out and watch all of these different birds just vying for their time at the bath.”

Watch this

Spencer: “Yellowstone’s 1883. There’s a show on Apple TV+ called Surface with Gugu Mbatha-Raw. And of course, all of my murder stuff. It calms me down. I have to solve a mystery every single night before I go to bed.”

Book nook

Reynolds: “A George Saunders book we have right here, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain.”

Spencer: “I am late, but Michelle Obama’s Becoming.”

Secret talent

Spencer: “I’m good with legal documents. When my contracts were like two pages, I would just kinda red line them myself. Now, of course, I don’t have time because they’re like a book. But that’s one of the things that…if my mother had lived, I would have gone to law school.”

When it comes to Christmas shopping…

Reynolds: “I am in hell. I cannot think of anything worse. I would rather spend the afternoon punching myself in the face as hard as I can.”

Takeout food

Spencer: “Thai. I like to mix pad see ew and then a little green curry or red curry, however I’m feeling.”

Partridge in a pear tree, or ten lords-a-leaping?

Reynolds: “Partridge in a pear tree. ’Cause it sounds delicious.”

How to get out of a Scrooge-y mood

Reynolds: “If I’m in a really bad one, just a big coffee. I don’t know why that puts me in such a good mood. Not the drinking it part, as much as the making it.”

Spencer: “You can’t be a Scrooge if you turn on Christmas music. I mean the old classics with Burl Ives and Nat King Cole—just nothing that feels contemporary. Because the older the song feels, it makes the holiday feel so much more traditional.”

All I want for Christmas is…

Reynolds: “A little peace and quiet, dammit!”

Related: The Best Parts of Will Ferrell