It’s not the holidays without a viewing of Christmas Vacation.
But making the 1989 movie wasn’t always easy, as the cast explained this month when they reunited at Fan Expo Chicago this month — especially one scene in particular.
“There was a whole squirrel in the tree gag,” said Juliette Lewis, who played Audrey Griswold, the teenage daughter of Chevy Chase‘s Clark and Beverly D’Angelo‘s Ellen, when asked about a tricky scene. “I think we shot that for three days.”
D’Angelo cut in with some bad news: “Cause the first squirrel died. Did you know that? Because you were young.”
Lewis, who was 16 when the movie, officially titled National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, was released, said she hadn’t known.
D’Angelo explained exactly what had happened to make that scene, in which a squirrel leaps out of the family tree, prompting the family to run around the house to try and evade it. It’s one of the movie’s most chaotic scenes, packed with physical comedy, and it leads to the climax.
“The squirrel had a heart attack,” said the alum of not only Christmas Vacation, but also the original Vacation, European Vacation, and more. “So the squirrel that we ended up using was not the original squirrel. It was not trained. And Chevy ended up wearing a stuffed squirrel on his shoulder for everything but the leap at the camera. I’ve destroyed the magic.”
Lewis agreed, “That was sad.”
Chris Cosgrove for EW
The ‘National Lampoon’s Vacation’ cast reunites at Fan Expo Chicago
The story of the Griswolds, who also included Rusty (played by Johnny Galecki), having a good, old-fashioned Christmas is a holiday-viewing staple in many homes, right alongside comedies such as Home Alone, A Christmas Story, and Elf.
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The cast also included E.G. Marshall, Diane Ladd, John Randolph, and the late Doris Roberts as the grandparents, as well as a pre-Seinfeld Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Scrooge-ish neighbor Margot.
Chase recalled another scene had been daunting for him: the one in which he has a meltdown because his festive home had been trashed, Christmas tree and all. It’s heavy with lines for Clark, which made the actor struggle.
D’Angelo explained that the comedian’s costars assisted by wearing placards with Chase’s dialogue because he couldn’t remember his lines.
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