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What To Know
- Juliette Lewis recently revealed that she was shielded from the news of a squirrel’s death during the filming of the iconic Christmas tree scene in Christmas Vacation.
- The original trained squirrel used for the chaotic scene died of a heart attack.
- Beverly D’Angelo shared these behind-the-scenes details at a fan event, reflecting on the bittersweet reality behind the movie’s comedic moments.
In the four decades since its debut, 1989’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation has cemented itself as a holiday staple. The Griswold family’s quest for a quiet, picture-perfect Christmas is repeatedly derailed by one chaotic mishap after another, and that festive mayhem remains part of its enduring charm.
However, behind the scenes, there was a sad little tragedy behind the making of one scene in particular.
At the Fan Expo Chicago, Juliette Lewis, who played Audrey Griswold, shared a story of what she believed to be the trickiest scene to film, which, according to the actress, was the moment when Clark (Chevy Chase) discovers a small, woodland critter living in his Christmas tree. Upon its discovery, the fuzzy costar then jumped from the tree to the table, wrecking havoc on the family and the peaceful holiday moment.
“There was a whole squirrel in the tree gag,” said Lewis. “I think we shot that for three days.”
However, it was up to her “mother,” Beverly D’Angelo, who broke the news to her after all these years: “‘Cause the first squirrel died. Did you know that? Because you were young.”
According to EW, D’Angelo explained in detail what it was like to film the now-iconic chaotic scene, which had the entire family frantically racing around the house. “The squirrel had a heart attack,” said D’Angelo.
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As a result, production used an untrained squirrel to fill in for some scenes, and a fake for the scenes in which the animal latched on to Clark’s back.
“So the squirrel that we ended up using was not the original squirrel. It was not trained. And Chevy ended up wearing a stuffed squirrel on his shoulder for everything but the leap at the camera. I’ve destroyed the magic,” concluded D’Angelo.
“That was sad,” commented Lewis. Sad, indeed.
