'Bad Sisters' Season 2 Soundtrack: From Fleetwood Mac To Sinéad O'Connor
In addition to Hot Frosty starring Lacey Chabert and Dustin Milligan, another Christmas film involving bare-chested men and rock-hard abs has arrived on Netflix ahead of the holidays.
The Merry Gentlemen, starring Chad Michael Murray and Britt Robertson, follows Robertson's Ashley, a loyal Jingle Belles dancer who unexpectedly gets let go and goes home to her small town for the holidays, where she discovers that her parent's local venue, The Rhythm Room, isn't raking in the cash like it used to. Ashley combines a tangled garland meet cute with Murray's Luke and a confession from her sister to brainstorm a way to get the town talking about the Rhythm Room once more: a Christmas-themed shirtless male revue comprised of dancers led by Luke.
Steamy dances and a genuine love story unfold to balance the film with both allure and classic Christmas romance. Murray and Robertson detailed their process making the film, the costumes and choreography and what went into that meet cute moment in the below interview.
DEADLINE: Were there any classic Christmas movies or holiday movies that inspired you both in the process of making The Merry Gentleman?
BRITT ROBERTSON: Well, I wasn't necessarily inspired by this, but it's the film that I keep coming back to, because it's funny, it has joy, and it's a little peculiar, and that that film is The Grinch by the genius Jim Carrey. Apparently, there are other Grinches that I'm finding out about today, but he's the only one that matters in my heart.
CHAD MICHAEL MURRAY: Yeah, there was another one too with Benedict Cumberbatch.
ROBERTSON: We're good on Benedict. Thank you. Yeah, moving on. Just Jim.
MURRAY: I wouldn't say that there was a specific holiday reference that I could give you. I could say that I might have picked at Magic Mike, and I can't say that it didn't. There's a little bit of that, and then the rest of it's just really taking the text and doing what we can to bring it off the page.
DEADLINE: Speaking of Magic Mike, how do you feel the film balances the more wholesome Hallmark vibe, because it's a love story, with the Christmas-y Magic Mike element?
MURRAY: Hats off to the entire team. I mean, look, you gotta thread the needle there in order to make it work. It's not the first thing that comes to mind when people think of a holiday film, right? You have to keep it festive. You have to keep it joyous, and you gotta keep it family friendly. But yet, with this fantastic storyline, you just add a little spice, little flavor. Gotta keep your heart pumping through Christmas, don't we? You gotta keep warm.
RELATED: Tiffany Paulsen Tapped To Adapt Christina Lauren's Bestselling Rom-Com 'In A Holidaze' For Netflix & Alloy Entertainment
ROBERTSON: We love spicy meatballs. We love them. We want the spicy meatballs.
ROBERTSON: I wanted to mention the thing about the spicy meatballs, but that's it.
DEADLINE: Chemistry is king in a rom-com like this. What would you both say is at the heart of your characters' bond and attraction to each other?
ROBERTSON: I think that there's such a playfulness early on, even with my character not like fully being into this idea that, like, "Oh, what?" She goes home for a second, and then the hot, single strippy guy is gonna, be into you all of a sudden, but then she's kinda into the hot, cool stripy dude. I think it was more following the trajectory of the story and making it make sense for her, but I think the playfulness of our relationship early on in the film is what helped us get to the more earnest connection.
DEADLINE: With their meet cute, when you get tangled up in the wreath I saw, there's a blooper reel where you had to film it a bunch. Was it tough to nail that scene?
ROBERTSON: I heard about this blooper reel! I mean, this is what I'm hearing. I just remember I figured it would be a difficult thing to get, like "How do I get wrapped up into this wreath? And then he gets me out of it?" So, I figured we'd have to do it a bunch. But I've had a few compliments now on just how fully committed I went to the wreath, yes.
RELATED: Sabrina Carpenter's 'A Nonsense Christmas' Netflix Special Trailer Reveals Guest Cast Including Chappell Roan, Quinta Brunson & More
MURRAY: Can I just throw out the fact that, it's a garland? Gosh, it's driving me nuts.
MURRAY: Oh no, no, I brought it up. I did, but we didn't have another necklace, and they don't make garland necklaces. It'd be weird.
ROBERTSON: We're not really gonna hem and haw. By the way, we didn't know. Women don't care.
DEADLINE: It's a pretty necklace.
MURRAY: it is a pretty necklace, and I love it. And by the way, this is the first time -- call me too old to know this, but this whole meet cute thing. This was the first time I ever learned that. They said "So this is our meet cute moment..."
ROBERTSON: By the way. I feel so old too, but I just started understanding the meet cute thing.
MURRAY: Yes. It's a new branding thing. Meet cute. Like they just met. Look how cute it is.
ROBERTSON: They're not going to be meeting, meet boot, meet sad, meet poot. Meet cute.
MURRAY: They can meet angry.
ROBERTSON: Yeah, if you're talking about sausages that you put in the microwave, that was throwback to earlier.
DEADLINE: Love it. We're getting the meatballs and the everything, we're just hitting all the things.
ROBERTSON: And we did just come back from lunch. So, you're getting a lot of lot of food references.
DEADLINE: Did either of you have input on any of the dances, the costumes, the choreography. Can you talk more about that process?
ROBERTSON: M-E-A-T.I know I didn't have to spell it, but like, I just want to make sure we were all on the same page.
MURRAY: That's the winner of the day. They were much, much tighter with lights. So, there was a lot of lights on these ... mankinis.
ROBERTSON: I heard one story earlier. I think they were like, really going hard in the paint with the wardrobe, but I think what they turned out with, whatever you're in was good.
RELATED: Beyoncé To Perform During Texans-Ravens NFL Christmas Game On Netflix
MURRAY: We pivoted, and it's a good thing we did. All the minds that were behind the film, everybody came together and was like, "No, no, let's stay here."
ROBERTSON: Everybody was thinking. Well.
MURRAY: When I saw it, I just went, "Oh, I could do... Okay, I gotta, I guess I'm gonna go tan my legs and hit leg day again." That's all I could think at first.
ROBERTSON: By the way, I just heard about this. My agent just texted me, and she was like, just so, you know, there's a thing. It's not official. Love you guys over there, Deadline. Not official.
MURRAY: You were cast in what? You weren't cast in what?
RELATED: Britt Robertson To Star In Holiday Rom-Com 'Love Unexpected' For Premiere Entertainment Group
ROBERTSON: I haven'tbeen cast in anything, but there was a thing that was floating around. I was like, "Yeah, let's see." You know, I'm very casual until I'm not about these things. So, you guys definitely got the what's it called? The scoop.
DEADLINE: I thought it was cute because the title is Love Unexpected and you were in Life Unexpected.
ROBERTSON: Yeah honestly, that was kind of the main appeal. I was like, "That's so cute. It's like, a throwback." But yeah, I'm not totally sure. There's some other finessing to be done.