Courtesy Sony Pictures(LOS ANGELES) — The Sony Pictures holiday romantic comedy Happiest Season is now streaming on Hulu. The film stars Kristen Stewart as Abby, who plans to propose to her girlfriend, Harper, played by Mackenzie Davis, during a trip home over the holidays. But things get complicated when Harper confesses she never came out to her conservative parents.
Stewart, who is bisexual, tells ABC Audio she relished the chance to tell this heartwarming — and very funny — take on the typical holiday movie, which was co-written by real-life partners Mary Holland, who also co-stars, and director Clea Duvall.
“It’s such an exciting prospect, a gay Christmas rom com backed by Sony, no less,” Stewart says. “Like it just sounded so kind of new and foreign to me…It felt so lived in and personal and authentic in it, it didn’t feel remotely like tokenized. I was just really excited.”
Stewart explains the movie’s supporting cast, which includes Schitt’s Creek‘s Dan Levy, Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza and the scene-stealing Holland, who plays Harper’s oddball sister, Jane, elevated the script. “It was so much fun, honestly, everyone in this movie is so funny that I’ve never laughed so much on a movie set — and I’ve tried to make comedies in the past!” Stewart confesses.
The Happiest Season script, she explains, “was just such a great diving board because it was already funny. And then the people that Clea invited to make it better and make it feel really real and sort of like got it on its feet, like blew me away every day. And it was like at times hard to keep up, hard to stay engaged because I was genuinely entertained.”
By Stephen Iervolino
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