Melissa Nathoo chats to director Gurinder Chadha, The Big Bang Theory's Kunal Nayyar, Pixie Lott and Leo Suter about new festive movie Christmas Karma. Report by Nathoom. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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.
Be the first to comment