'The Santa Clauses': Tim Allen's Daughter Elizabeth Sings His Praises After Working Together (Exclusive)
It's been 16 years since Tim Allen last donned his Santa Claus suit, and the actor is making his return to the North Pole in The Santa Clauses with a very special person by his side -- his daughter Elizabeth Allen-Dick.
ET's Matt Cohen caught up with the duo on the set of the upcoming Disney+ original series that serves as a continuation and sequel to 2006's The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause. Along with Allen reprising his role as Scott Calvin a.k.a Santa Claus, the series will feature several familiar faces in addition to new stars, including Elizabeth Mitchell as Carol Calvin a.k.a Mrs. Claus, David Krumholtz, Matilda Lawler, Kal Penn, Eric Lloyd, Austin Kane and many more.
The series picks up after the events of The Escape Clause, on the brink of Scott Calvin's 65th birthday. The father of three realizes that he's losing his magical touch and that it's about time for him to retire. With his wife and their two kids, Scott leaves the North Pole in the hands of a new Santa and his trusted elves. Retirement is going well for the Clauses until they’re alerted that elves are disappearing, and the new Santa is "destroying the Christmas spirit."
With a lot of elves, children, and family to please, Scott sets out to find a suitable replacement Santa while preparing his family for a new adventure in life south of the pole.
It was a special experience for Tim and Elizabeth to work together. The 69-year-old revealed that he initially asked that his youngest daughter be included in the production as an "elf just in the background," but that idea changed after Elizabeth's audition.
"There's a like forty elves... they aren't in many scenes, they just walk by. And I just want one and she would wave to all my family," the actor shared, adding that he didn't want Elizabeth taken away from her studies and activities. "They said, 'well she should read for it...' She read the first time [AND] to see her do that line so well -- I even went 'wow that was really good.'"
"Everybody in the zoom was looking at me, I could see how there was this longest pause [and] they go 'Uh, has she ever done that before?' I said I don't think so," Tim recalled proudly. "It was such a long pause... I'll never forget everybody staring at my Zoom box... She drilled a very difficult mood joke and she kept on it all the way through. They said, 'We're gonna let her read some other people,' and then they gave her the part! I said it had very little to do [with the fact] that she's related to me, she earned it and it was wonderful to be there."
On her end, Elizabeth called the entire experience "incredible," describing the first time she saw her dad in the Santa suit on set as "surreal."
"It was the second day of shooting 'cause he didn't come the first day that I went... and I hear the assistant director get on his walkie and he's like, 'Okay everybody, gonna spread out. Mr. Allen is entering the building.'' the actress recalled. "He turns the corner, he's walking down and he has the fat suit on, the makeup and the hair, and it was just the most surreal moment. I got goosebumps and I see like everyone around me, the whole cast and crew is like speechless."
"It's crazy because I have to think like, this is the character that they watched when they were like kids and it was amazing to see and probably one of the most surreal moments I had on set," she added.
While it could be intimidating working with a parent for the first time, Elizabeth said that she was grateful that she had her dad by her side as he let her "experience it how I want it to, putting my twist on it and seeing how I would deal with it."
"He was there when I needed help but he also let me kind of figure it out too, which I really liked," she added. "He taught me a lot of things but one that stuck with me was [about] getting into the character and then adding your little twist to it. Being that character, get used to the character, make friends with the character and then kind of add some of your qualities to it and see how you can make it your own."
Although it's been over a decade since Tim donned the red suit, the actor shared that it was like time hadn't passed since he reunited with his Santa Clause cast mates. "[When] Elizabeth showed up at Mrs. Claus, two seconds later it's like we were there yesterday," he said, noting that he did miss original cast members who couldn't join for the series, including Spencer Breslin, Judge Reinhold and Wendy Crewson.
"The script got me to do this again. I wanted re-do this again and open up the story; honor that it’s a Christmas holiday," Tim added.
The first two episodes of The Santa Clauses premiere on Disney+ on Nov. 16. The remaining four episodes will stream in the weeks after.
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