David Harbour Reveals His Intense Preparation for Portraying Santa Claus

A little-known piece of advice for those in the entertainment industry: if they tell you you’re going to be portraying Santa Claus, keep in mind that you have absolutely no idea what exactly that’s going to entail.

Of course, if the title of the project is Violent Night, as is the case for one David Harbour‘s turn as the jolly holiday icon, then perhaps it answers only slightly more questions than it raises. Indeed, as the title would suggest, this particular breed of St. Nicholas isn’t all milk and cookies.

Violent Night follows a group of mercenaries who break into the home of a wealthy family in hopes of stealing their fortune. They picked an awfully poor time to attack, however, as the invaders swiftly find themselves on Santa’s naughty list, and, deciding a lump of coal won’t suffice this time around, the beloved children’s character proceeds to deliver some bloody season’s beatings to the trespassers.

And preparing for an action hero iteration of Kris Kringle is about as zany as it sounds. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Harbour was happy to touch on the behind-the-scenes nuances of preparing for such a transcendentally physical role. Apparently, martial arts and carb-heavy Canadian staples go together a bit better than one may think.

We’d just do crazy workouts and then go eat poutine.

The film looks set to be one of the more peculiar releases of the year, but considering we’ve seen cinematic St. Nicks fall as far as a slasher villain (by way of 2005’s Santa’s Slay), and that we live in an age where Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey exists, perhaps the onus is on us to elevate our standards for being surprised.

Violent Night will release to theaters on Dec. 2.

Image via Universal Pictures

A little-known piece of advice for those in the entertainment industry: if they tell you you’re going to be portraying Santa Claus, keep in mind that you have absolutely no idea what exactly that’s going to entail.

Of course, if the title of the project is Violent Night, as is the case for one David Harbour‘s turn as the jolly holiday icon, then perhaps it answers only slightly more questions than it raises. Indeed, as the title would suggest, this particular breed of St. Nicholas isn’t all milk and cookies.

Violent Night follows a group of mercenaries who break into the home of a wealthy family in hopes of stealing their fortune. They picked an awfully poor time to attack, however, as the invaders swiftly find themselves on Santa’s naughty list, and, deciding a lump of coal won’t suffice this time around, the beloved children’s character proceeds to deliver some bloody season’s beatings to the trespassers.

And preparing for an action hero iteration of Kris Kringle is about as zany as it sounds. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Harbour was happy to touch on the behind-the-scenes nuances of preparing for such a transcendentally physical role. Apparently, martial arts and carb-heavy Canadian staples go together a bit better than one may think.

We’d just do crazy workouts and then go eat poutine.

The film looks set to be one of the more peculiar releases of the year, but considering we’ve seen cinematic St. Nicks fall as far as a slasher villain (by way of 2005’s Santa’s Slay), and that we live in an age where Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey exists, perhaps the onus is on us to elevate our standards for being surprised.

Violent Night will release to theaters on Dec. 2.