‘The Best Christmas Pageant Ever:’ Judy Greer and Pete Holmes Talk Being Movie Parents and Why Director Dallas Jenkins Is Like the ‘Terminator’

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever has been a beloved holiday book for many years, and now it’s a major motion picture! Filmmaker Dallas Jenkins, known for his acclaimed work on The Chosen, helms the new movie, while actors Judy Greer and Pete Holmes star as Grace and Bob Bradley, parents who are just trying to do right by the kids during the most hectic time of year.

Written by Barbara Robinson and originally published in 1972, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever tells the story of a small-town church Christmas play that for many years has been a point of pride for the community, but one year finds itself invaded by The Herdmans, a group of siblings who are… unruly… to put it politely. On top of this, the play’s seasoned director becomes incapacitated, leaving Grace to have to pull off the pageant with pretty much zero experience.

During a virtual interview with Greer and Holmes, we asked the actress if she had ever directed a kids’ pageant before and she replied, very clearly, “No, I’ve never and no, I would not. No way. I would lose my temper in 10 seconds.” Greer went on to praise her character by saying, “Grace is so managed, you know? She’s like, very composed, and she knows when to give herself breaks. I would not be that patient.”

Jenkins has said that The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is a passion project for him, and something he’s been trying to get made for many years. Naturally, we were curious what he was like to work with as a director, and Holmes, a longtime stand-up comedian, offered some insight that we didn’t expect.

“The first pleasant surprise about Dallas was that he’s a huge comedy fan,” the comedian said. “I sort of was like, ‘How did we get to be working together?’ It’s because he loves stand-up, and he loves a lot of the same stand-ups that I love. So we had a lot of dinners and a lot of downtime to just kind of geek out about comedy, which was really cool.”

“As director, I can see why everything he makes is so popular and so celebrated, because he really does know what he’s doing,” Holmes continued, then joking, “He also looks like a Terminator robot, so people tend to listen to him. If it’s ‘Let’s go again,’ or ‘Cut,’ or ‘Get down… the T 1000 is behind you. I’m going to shoot it…’ People tend to listen when he talks.”

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Starring alongside Greer and Holmes in the film are their two on-screen children are Molly Belle Wright and Sebastian Billingsley-Rodriguez as siblings Beth Bradley and Charlie Bradley. When asked about working with the two young scene-stealing stars, Greer quipped, “Well, they really tried to steal the focus as often as possible,” then noting that she was only “kidding” before praising the “chemistry” they found as the fictional Bradley family.

“The first scenes that we shot were of the four of us in our house and I think that really set the stage, pun intended, for us being a family and for having some jokes on the side and comfort with each other and we got to know each other a lot in those first days,” Greer shared. “It was really helpful, I think for us to have that connection and that chemistry as a family. I loved both of them.”

“They both have very different energy, which I think you do when you have two kids and they were so cute and they were, they played off of each other, but they both were so good and so professional,” Greer continued, then going on to reveal, “and I think Pete will agree with me… In fact, I know he will because we’ve been saying it together… that we were the ones that were getting yelled at more than the kids on this movie.”

“We were the ones getting in trouble for talking too much and goofing around way more than the kids,” Greer went on to confess. “In fact, many times Dallas had to say to us, ‘You guys have to be a good example. If the kids see you acting this way, they’re gonna act this way.’”

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is a hilarious and heartwarming movie for the whole family. Not only is it laugh-out-loud funny but, at the heart of the film, there is an important message about compassion and acceptance that goes far beyond the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.

Additionally, Lionsgate has announced a special offer for families: When you buy one adult ticket for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever you can get one child’s ticket free on Nov. 2. Available while supplies last with code CHRISTMASGIFT on ATOM tickets.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever will be released in theaters on Friday, Nov. 8.