It’s that time of year again, where festive movies are a dime a dozen. One that has managed to stand out from the crowd since its recent release however, is The Housewives of the North Pole, starring both The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills veteran Kyle Richards and, Breaking Bad star Betsy Brandt.
To celebrate the film’s debut, we caught up with Kyle to chat all about the experience on set, as well as her recent return to acting in the Halloween horror franchise and of course, her time in front of the cameras for reality TV…
What can you tell us about new holiday movie The Housewives of the North Pole?
These two best friends live in this town – Vermont, North Pole – and they come together every Christmas to win this contest of who has the best decorated home in this little town. They end up having this big falling out and they have a public fight that the whole town starts talking about. Hence the title, The Housewives of the North Pole.
They stop speaking and they are both angry but really heartbroken. Their kids end up bringing them back together. It really is a love story of these two best friends and young love between the two kids. It’s a really beautiful, magical, funny movie. I think people watching it will laugh and cry. It’s just a very sweet holiday movie. It gives you all the feels!
How different an experience on set was this when compared to your recent film Halloween Kills? They're very different genres!
It’s interesting because even though Halloween is a horror film, and I’m playing a very different character, I really just loved every minute of both experiences.
Our director on The Housewives of the North Pole, Ron Oliver, created this incredible atmosphere on set, playing Christmas music in between takes and the snow - even though it was July in Utah - it was just happy nonstop.
Halloween, although it was a horror film; I loved the crew as much as you love the crew on the Christmas movie. I would go to work at five o’clock at night and come home at seven in the morning the next day and never even feel tired because I was just so happy and excited to be there. Having my character Lindsay brought back, I was so happy to embrace all of it.
What’s it like being back in front of the camera doing what you love in acting?
Acting in my first love. The fact that I’ve been able to do this again while shooting The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills has been such an incredible experience.
I’m doing the next Halloween movie as well, so I’m just really happy that I’m able to balance both and be doing what I love the most, which is acting.
Did you have any funny moments behind-the-scenes on Housewives of the North Pole that you can share some details with us about?
The scene outside of Diana’s art gallery was supposed to be just me standing outside talking to people, trying to lure customers inside. But I decided instead to do this ridiculous dancing outside with these Christmas carollers. I didn’t tell anybody, so when I was doing this, I was making Betsy and the crew laugh and they would have to stop because Betsy would be like “I’m sorry, I can’t stop laughing looking at Kyle like this.” That was really fun. We were really playful on the set.
Then there was the snowball fight where Betsy was determined hit me right in the face, which she got a number of times! We were just having a blast all the time.
What was it like filming with some of the other Real Housewives from various cities on the movie?
I unfortunately didn’t get to actually shoot any scenes with them. I never even got to see them on the set. We were shooting night shoots so we’d be going home at three o’clock in the morning. Then we would have a late morning call and they were shooting in the morning and out by the time I got there. So I missed getting to see them on set.
How will you be spending the holiday season? Do you have any exciting traditions?
I’m so excited to have some downtime and be with my family in our matching pyjamas, watching Christmas movies, baking and cooking. That’s all I care about right now - and reading a good book!
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills just enjoyed a tremendous season; how did you find the reaction from audiences this year?
Every year we have loyal fans coming back over and over again. This is our twelfth year, obviously each season has a different reaction, people really loved this season. I think that the cast is great and the relationships are really compelling between the women, so I’m just grateful that the audience is still loving the show after all these years.
Should we expect any further big screen features from you in the near future?
I’m going to be in the next Halloween film, Halloween Ends. I’m looking forward to shooting that with Jamie Lee Curtis and David Gordon Green, the director.
The Real Housewives of the North Pole is available to watch now, exclusive to hayu.
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