00:00I'm Mexican. We own ghosts.
00:02I didn't see you, but I felt a presence.
00:05A lot of people think I'm a legend, and they go,
00:08yeah, that's because they don't have to live with you, Mum.
00:10I want to be so fed up that I've milked it within an inch of its life.
00:14No one's talking to you, only I'm just sitting there this year.
00:16Hi, guys. Hi.
00:17So nice to see you. You too.
00:19This was my very first Christmas film of the year, back in September.
00:22So that's where my Christmas started this year.
00:25Oh, you saw it in September?
00:26I saw it, yeah, very, very early on.
00:28Did you like it?
00:29I love Christmas films. Like, I love Christmas films.
00:31You're my kind of girl.
00:32Yeah, I'm all over it.
00:33Garinda, you are such a national treasure,
00:35so I'm not surprised you managed to get such a great line-up of people to be in here.
00:39But who were you maybe most surprised or excited that said yes?
00:44Because it is an incredible cast.
00:47Well, it was tough work persuading Canal to play Scrooge,
00:51because he met me with the anticipation of playing a sexy young Bond-type person.
00:57And then when I said, I want to age you, I want to grey you, to play this old guy.
01:02He was like, oh.
01:03But he's amazing in the film.
01:06Eva Longoria, that was fun, because she had just made a film called Flaming Hot.
01:11And she asked me to present it at an Academy screening in London, which I duly did.
01:16And then we went off and had dinner.
01:18And she said, what are you doing? I want to work with you.
01:20And I said, well, I'm making Christmas Karma. It's Charles Dickens.
01:24And she went, wait a minute. I'm Mexican. We own ghosts.
01:29She's like, Day of the Dead? Excuse me? I need to be in this film.
01:34And I was like, I hadn't even thought of that, you know?
01:37And so that was amazing.
01:38Yeah.
01:39So as soon as she said it, I couldn't get her out of my mind.
01:41And then Billy Porter, who is, talk about triple threat.
01:46Yeah.
01:47I mean, incredible, because I needed someone for Ghost of Christmas Present,
01:52who does a lot of work in transforming Scrooge.
01:55I needed someone who was very commanding, very intimidating, but full of Christmas joy.
02:00And Annie gets to sing a beautiful gospel song.
02:06Absolutely.
02:07And so Billy kind of just fitted that part.
02:10And I have to say, the big shock when I wrote to him, I wasn't sure, but I just wanted him,
02:16because I love him, was Boy George, you know?
02:20And Boy George was, ooh, okay, sounds good, you know?
02:24And he loved the outfit.
02:25He loved dressing up.
02:27And then when he came in and sang the song that he sings, what an amazing performance,
02:34because his voice has matured.
02:36And also, Boy George, you know, we know he's been through quite a lot.
02:39So I needed someone who'd been through quite a lot to sing that song.
02:42Right.
02:43And so Boy George brings so much depth and emotion to what he does.
02:49So, yeah.
02:50I love the two of you singing all over this.
02:52Like, are you both guilty of just randomly bursting into song in your own lives all the time?
02:56Yeah, I am.
02:57You probably more so than me.
02:58More so than me.
02:59I do quite a lot.
03:00Yeah, I'm always humming something.
03:02At the moment, it's probably more like nursery rhyme with the babies.
03:06Of course.
03:07I can't wait to play them all the music from the film, because I think it's just,
03:10one, the Christmas karma's out, I saw, like the title song.
03:14Yesterday.
03:15Yeah.
03:16So I can't wait to.
03:17That's an earworm.
03:18Yeah, yeah.
03:19I was humming that all the way here.
03:20How was the singing for you?
03:23Because I feel like that's alien to you?
03:25Yeah, I haven't, I don't think I've sung before on film and television.
03:30That's crazy.
03:31The guitar was the most nerve-wracking bit, because I didn't play the guitar before this.
03:35But the song that I get to sing is quite a good tear-jerker, written by Gary Barlow.
03:40Yeah.
03:41And, yeah, it's got that Gary feel.
03:43It sounds great.
03:44Yeah, it was really fun to do.
03:45Yeah.
03:46That's pretty cool to get to say you've sung the song by Gary Barlow as well, right?
03:49Great little tick on the...
03:51It's a beautiful song as well.
03:53Yeah, yeah.
03:54Obviously playing our Scrooge-type character, not actual Scrooge, Mr. Sood, in here.
04:00How much did you enjoy channelling that really Scrooge side of you?
04:05Does it exist in you?
04:07I mean, of course it exists in everyone.
04:09I will say the fun thing about it was everyone leaves you alone on set.
04:13No one's talking to you all day, I'm just sitting like this, you know,
04:16and everyone's like scared of me and it's been really fun.
04:18You know?
04:19But it's also exhausting to always, you know, to have that energy, you know,
04:24and Gurinder's laughing and screaming and all this stuff and I'm just sitting like this.
04:28So I will say there was, of course, exhaustion but also enjoyment.
04:32So you made his job harder is what you did.
04:34I did.
04:35He's right.
04:36I wore Christmas jumpers every day on set, by the way.
04:38Have either of you got, because you said everyone's got it in you,
04:41what is your most Scrooge-like thing about Christmas?
04:44Like, are you like, it doesn't start till this time of the year?
04:47Or is there anything about Christmas that you're like a bit of a Scrooge about?
04:50Or are you just all in?
04:51I don't have any, I feel like you're the same.
04:53I don't have any rules with Christmas.
04:54I'm like, you can start as early as possible.
04:57Because what I want is, for me, the build-up's the best part.
05:00And by the end of it, I want to be so fed up that I've milked it within an inch of its life,
05:06so that I'm ready to move on.
05:08Otherwise, if it's too last minute, I'm not ready and I get so sad that it's over
05:11and I have to wait a whole another year.
05:13Even from starting watching Christmas films in September like you,
05:16I won't be fed up with it by the time it's finished,
05:18so I really want to start it off early.
05:20Some people start in July.
05:22There was like a Hallmark in July thing this year.
05:25Yeah, there used to be a festival, Christmas in July festival as well,
05:27which I also used to go to.
05:29Oh, did you?
05:30I'm all in.
05:31I'm all in.
05:32I think I need to up my Christmas game.
05:34You've got it.
05:35Is there a Scrooge in you then, Leah?
05:37It's probably a bit of a Scrooge in me, yeah, yeah.
05:40All the Christmas.
05:42Yeah, the fact that all the songs are the same on the radio.
05:45But they're the best songs ever, aren't they?
05:47They're so well written.
05:48Oh, yeah.
05:49They've got the heart strings.
05:50But there comes a point when you just think,
05:52really?
05:53Can't roll on Boxing Day.
05:54No, I make my Christmas playlist and I play it the whole period.
05:57I'm like, I'm in.
05:59I'm in.
06:00Just going around London today, last night,
06:03all the lights are coming on.
06:05All the trucks are out there starting to decorate everything.
06:08And for me, that's such an exciting feeling.
06:11And even though we've been living with Christmas for a year and a half now,
06:15just seeing all the lights coming up around,
06:18I suddenly felt very warm and fuzzy.
06:21And it's been a tough year for a lot of people, certainly with all the news and the hardship and everything.
06:29And so I think for me, this film really brings a bit of joy and togetherness.
06:36And redemption.
06:37Redemption, but also to say, you know, as human beings, this is what it means to be human.
06:42And Charles Dickens said it 150 years ago.
06:44And I'm saying it today that it's that coming together of all of us and giving is what Christmas is about.
06:51And that's what the film encapsulates.
06:54So what we discovered is there is no Scrooge side to you at all, Garinda.
06:58To me.
06:59Yeah, none whatsoever.
07:00I was like, what's your way Scrooge like this?
07:02Unless if the setup for the shot is taking too long.
07:05Oh, okay.
07:06And also ask my kids, yeah.
07:08Because, you know, I often say to my kids when they have a go at me, I say, you know, a lot of people think I'm a legend.
07:14And they go, yeah, that's because they don't have to live with you.
07:17Oh.
07:18Obviously, as we all know, in A Christmas Carol, which this is based on, there is the past, present, and future ghosts.
07:25Yes.
07:26If you guys could visit one, which would you be most excited to get to revisit or visit?
07:31Obviously, if you could go back to your past or do something in the present or go to the future, which would you be most excited to explore?
07:37Future.
07:38Future.
07:39Definitely, yeah.
07:40The past is the past.
07:41Yeah, yeah, yeah.
07:42I don't know what's going to happen next.
07:44That's a tough one because I want to say present because you are meant to be in the here and now and enjoying every second, which is what I try to do.
07:52However, the future would be amazing because you want to see what's happening or what you're doing or because anything can happen in this life.
07:59Past, my natural way is stuck in the past.
08:05And I love anything from the good old days, like Christmases growing up, my grandparents being around.
08:11Going back to anything like that would just be amazing.
08:15And I love, I love old eras.
08:17Like I love the 60s, the 70s, like seeing what that was like would be really cool.
08:21I've basically just explained every era.
08:24But they take you to the bad bits of your past.
08:27Like, oh, no, it wouldn't work out.
08:29Yeah, exactly.
08:30See you later.
08:31No, that would be awful.
08:32You don't need to delve into that.
08:33No, we don't want that.
08:34But the future then, I think that's, am I right?
08:36That's when Scrooge goes, oh no, I've got to change my ways.
08:39Yes.
08:40That's the fight, that's.
08:41Oh, if you could see mistakes in the future and then go back and not make them.
08:45Exactly.
08:46That would be really good.
08:47Yeah, that's a powerful.
08:48Imagine if you had that power in life.
08:51Well.
08:52You'd just be smashing it.
08:53Boy George in a big black cloak.
08:55Boy George.
08:56And very quickly, do you believe in ghosts?
08:58Yes.
08:59Oh, we're going back to Halloween?
09:01Hang on, this is crazy as hell.
09:04What a Halloween.
09:06I think I do, probably.
09:08I've never met one or seen one.
09:10But I think I probably do.
09:13Do you?
09:14Yeah, I think in my granny's house.
09:17You've seen one?
09:18Yeah, yeah.
09:19Have you actually?
09:20I didn't see, but I've felt a presence.
09:23I've felt a presence.
09:24I believe them, I do.
09:25Yeah.
09:26That's why I'm always in for like Christmas Carol.
09:27I'm like, yes.
09:28Yeah, yeah, yeah.
09:29Anyway.
09:30Have a lovely Christmas.
09:32Did you like the film?
09:34Like I said to you, I said I love Christmas films.
09:36I'm all in, I'm all in.
09:37And this is your favourite one now.
09:39Of course.
09:40We're going to hold you to that.
09:42Put it on the poster.
09:43Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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