It looks like John Leguizamo (The Menu) will be getting a big lump of coal in his stocking this holiday season. Well, his character in his newest film Violent Night will.
“[Violent Night] is a very edgy Christmas movie,” Leguizamo says in an exclusive behind-the-scenes video. “[It’s] dirty, filthy and wrong … on so many levels. We got [Christmas movies] for the kids. This ain’t for the kids.”
Leguizamo stars as a criminal (Christmas codename: Scrooge) who leads a team of mercenaries into the home of a wealthy albeit dysfunctional family with a safe full of millions. Scrooge, however, has chosen the wrong night to pull off his heist. It’s Christmas Eve and Santa Claus (David Harbour) has no problem kicking some ass if it means he can save Christmas.
“Bah-humbug, motherf—er,” Leguizamo’s character says after he uses an expandable baton to incapacitate some people in the house.
From the behind-the-scenes, viewers see Leguizamo starting his day in the hair and makeup trailer where he feasts on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while getting made over. He calls his appearance the “assassin look” and describes his hair as “clean and aerodynamic.”
Next, Leguizamo lifts weights and runs through some lines. He says he likes to do squats “to keep this incredible action figure going.” Later, we watch as Leguizamo does some fight training where he gets to swing a weapon at a stuntman who is helping him get ready for his more physical scenes in the movie.
We even see a scene with Scrooge where he seems to reinvent the Biblical story of The Three Wise men when he suggests the gifts that they bring to Baby Jesus are frankincense, myrrh, and “cold hard cash.” Leguizamo said, “I really enjoyed this role, even though I’m the villain,” he said. “It’s a pretty well-fleshed-out character.”
We’ll see how John Leguizamo and his fight training will fair against David Harbour’s Santa Claus when Violent Night premieres in theaters on December 2, 2022.
