Chatting & Celebrating Queer Love With the Stars of 'Happiest Season'

Are you ready to make the yuletide gay?

We're gearing up to celebrate the Happiest Season with a queer new rom-com starring Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis!

Written and directed by Clea DuVall, the film follows two girlfriends as they travel home to Pittsburgh to visit Harper's (Davis) family, but "meeting your girlfriend’s family for the first time can be tough," reads the official description. "Planning to propose at her family’s annual Christmas dinner — until you realize that they don’t even know she’s gay — is even harder. When Abby (Stewart) learns that Harper has kept their relationship a secret from her family, she begins to question the girlfriend she thought she knew."

In February, just before the pandemic shutdowns, PRIDE visited the film set and had one question for the cast and crew of the groundbreaking film: Why does this feel so important?

The queer rom-com is a relatively new concept to major studios (only Love, Simon comes to mind), and with a slew of new LGBTQ+ holiday films on the horizon, it feels like a movement that is gaining momentum. So what's it like to be a part of this groundbreaking moment that's happening right now, especially with a film starring two women?

Scroll down for answers from DuVall, Stewart, and Davis as well as costars Alison Brie, Mary Steenburgen, Victor Garber, Burl Moseley, and Mary Holland!

Stars Mackenzie Davis and Kristen Stewart

MD: I think it's dope.

KS: I think it's sick.

MD: When we first started this movie, we were like, 'I would be so jealous if somebody else was doing this and we weren't the ones that go to do it.' It's not just because of the social and political impact of it, I think it's really great and the people are making it really great and every day is so full of laughter and joy, I've never had this much fun making a movie before. So yeah, on a very personal, not answering your question level, it's fucking sick. It's really wonderful to be a part of positive, non-tragic depictions of queer love that don't always have to be an incredible struggle to get through and end in tragedy. The struggle is a part of the genre, it has nothing to do with the queerness, which I think is a relief. 

KS: It's so nice to sort of catch that sense of freedom and fun. It's super contagious. I think the way to spread love is just through giving it. There is an inherent indignance that is a healthy and amazing feeling to express, but it also feels great to gently lead someone sweetly to something nice. It's nice to come to work and feel like I can say anything. I'm not implying that I've had sort of inhibited experiences because of the lack of queerness in other movies that I've done, but in this, it just feels...we all feel so visible to each other and so understood and therefore allowed. It's so permissive and it feels so fucking great. 

Stars Mary Steenburgen and Victor Garber

MS: I loved the idea that we've gone this far with holiday movies and we've never had a gay couple at the center. It felt very exciting to be a part, even the part I'm playing, which is someone who needs to grow a little bit and maybe does. 

VG: That's the joy of playing these parents

MS: That's right. They got a ways to go.

VG: They learn something from it. And that's what I mean about the sweetness of it. I think it's a great holiday movie.  

MS: I was the bad guy on Philadelphia. Which, at the time, was very weird for me because my roommate and dear dear friend died a couple of days before I went there of AIDS. So that whole experience was huge. And it was very moving to see what a difference it made to certain people. Not so much preaching to the choir, but people who called themselves conservative, who saw that film and felt like they understood their son better because Tom Hanks had this family that loved him and surrounded him. I got that feedback from people and it was very moving. This [film] is so different, this is a comedy. But often comedies are the things that make change and put a mirror up there for us to see that family that has love. This is a family that, really, truly at the end of the day, has love for each other. 

VG: It's nice that we've come to this place.

Star Alison Brie

It's so exciting! This movie to me feels like an amazing leap in the right direction of having mainstream film reflect what actual society is like in our nation. Just to showcase a same-sex relationship in a mainstream holiday movie and just kinda destigmatize it, if it even is still stigmatized for certain people. I certainly am guilty of being in the liberal bubble so on first read I'm like, huh this is so great, what a beautiful love story, then take a step back and realize the cultural implications and how important this is and I feel extreme pride. 

Right now, it's time to sort of redefine what classic films mean. Hopefully, this movie is one of those. 

Writer and star Mary Holland

As a straight cisgender woman myself, I'm really cognizant of the fact that this is a story that needs to be told, is long overdue to be told. I really feel so honored that Clea asked me to be a part of this process with her because all these people are represented. I feel like I'm just very humbled and very grateful to be a part of this story that she's telling. 

Star Burl Moseley

It feels like such an honor. When I went through and read the script, it actually reminded me of Crazy Rich Asians and everything that did for the Asian community, taking the rom-com, and we're sort of doing a similar thing. As I was reading it, I was like this is so groundbreaking but it really shouldn't be. This should be the norm. I'm surprised we've gone this long without this. It just felt so right and so normal and so awesome so I feel really honored to be a part of it. 

Writer and director Clea DuVall

It's really cool. I don't really lead with being a woman, I don't lead with my sexuality, I lead with my humanity. That is what's being embraced by audiences, all different kinds of experiences are being valued in a way that they haven't before and I think that's really exciting, especially with queer content. For me, it's not just watching movies where gay people tortured for being gay and then they get killed and beaten up or whatever. They can just be normal people, I'm just a normal person in my life and I have romantic experiences and I'm sad and I'm happy. I think LGBTQ+ stories are not giving the privilege of the spectrum of what the experience really is and I really wanted to do that with this movie and I'm happy other filmmakers and writers and other studios are doing the same.

DuVall also reveals why this was a story she wanted to tell:

There is something very simple about it, the thing that gets away from you and you're like, 'Ugh, I didn't really think that through.' I've also been in a situation where you're just like pretending to be somebody's roommate. It's hard and you do it and it's so weirdly normal. I think anyone who's been in a same-sex relationship, especially when you're younger and when people are still struggling with coming out. And for me, being an actor and closeted and bringing "my friends" with me all the time and having to live in the ambiguity of what the relationship really was, it just felt like very relatable. I wanted to tell a story that was relatable. For people who have been in that exact situation or the families of people in that situation, I didn't want to make anybody the bad guy. There are definitely very hateful people out there but I think for most people, a lot of people and a lot of families, there's a lack of understanding and a lack of exposure. What's really important to me for this film was to not only the main characters to feel like their struggle was honest and real, but also the family's who aren't bad. There's no judgment. No one's being judged in this film. And I think that's really important. I'm not trying to be like, 'her parents are bad because of XYZ.' There's a lot of fear around that. It can be a very scary thing and you don't know what's going to happen. I think that can be very scary for all of us, the families, the people who are afraid to come out.

'Happiest Season' premieres November 25 on Hulu!

Watch the trailer below! And for more on Happiest Season, check out The Advocate's exclusive cover story here!