Come for the presents. Stay for the baggage.
It wouldn’t be a Christmas comedy without some familial dysfunction, and, in 2025, the Clauster clan are delivering such in Oh. What. Fun., a new seasonal laugher from director Michael Showalter (Spoiler Alert, The Idea of You).
Flipping the script on classic holiday movies to remind us of the true unsung heroes of the season – mothers – Michelle Pfeiffer leads a star-studded cast as Claire Clauster, the glue that holds her chaotic, lovable family together every holiday season. From perfectly frosted cookies to meticulously wrapped gifts, no one decks the halls quite like her. But this year, after planning a special outing for her family, they make a crucial mistake and leave her home alone. Fed up and feeling underappreciated, she sets off on an impromptu adventure of her own. As her family scrambles to find her, Claire discovers the unexpected magic of a Christmas gone off-script.
As the film sets its global release on Prime Video from December 3rd, Peter Gray spoke with Showalter about, well, Michelle Pfeiffer (obviously), her natural comedic ability, and how he knew he was in safe hands with her iteration of the character.
I spoke to you about two years ago for Spoiler Alert, which was such a beautiful film, and as a gay man it meant so much, and now, as a gay man who adores Michelle Pfeiffer, I have to thank you all over again for bringing her back to the screen.
I love her too.
And as an actress, I feel like she has this gift for playing two emotional truths at once. Was there a moment where you saw her do that and thought, “Oh, this is the movie in one expression.”
It’s interesting. We did a table read, and I’d known Michelle in prep, in getting ready to shoot the movie. I had met her, we had talked, we’d spoken when showing her drafts of the script, and she would ask questions and give notes, but I’d never heard her play the role. I didn’t make her audition, you know? We did a table read and she was perfect. Everything was perfect. It was like she had the character inside of her the whole time. Every line she said exactly the way I heard it in my head. And it’s incredible when that happens. And she has an accent. She worked on this Texan accent, and there was never one moment with Michelle where I didn’t feel like she knew this character 100%.
Once you have that, once you feel like that’s who you’re dealing with, it makes everything just grow, because you’re not trying to figure that out anymore. You’re just asking, “Where can we take this? How much more can we discover?” I’ve watched the movie so many times, and I always see something new. I always see some little expression or some little choice that she makes that is just so authentic and universal.
Her delivery of “One day you’re mother’s going to be dead,” at the beginning was…
She’s so comedic. She’s so good at comedy. But it comes from a totally authentic place. She’s not doing comedy, she’s just acting. She’s just in character, but she is very comedic. I love some of her early comedic roles so much, like Married To The Mob, Into The Night, and Witches of Eastwick. She’s such a gifted comedienne.
I could honestly talk about her for a very long time. Obviously, the family here revert back to childhood as soon as they step into the house. Did you observe any of that happening on set amongst the cast and crew? Grown adults behaving like kids?
Oh, of course. We’re talking about actors. I mean, yes, but I think everybody relates to this. Every character, every actor in the movie, everyone working on the movie, we all relate to having dysfunctional families. We all have our hometown that we got away from, or not, and I think for everybody there was a sense of that this is a familiar experience. I hope that comes through in the film.
Oh. What. Fun. is available to stream on Prime Video from December 3rd, 2025.
