'The Best Christmas Ball Ever' star Christian Oliver says he trained with cast of 'Dancing With the Stars' for his dance scenes
Christian Oliver has acted opposite Oscar winners such as Tom Cruise and Cate Blanchett, performed in multiple languages, and filmed all over the world, but this year he got to check a new item off his bucket list: star in a Christmas movie.
The actor sat down with MEAWW reporter Alana Jordan to discuss his new movie, 'The Best Christmas Ball Ever'.
Despite having starred in American classics like 'The Baby Sitters’ Club' and 'Saved By The Bell: The New Class' in his youth, the international actor was especially thrilled to star in a Christmas movie, as he views it as an American right of passage.
He said he’s excited about it because it’s literally the first Christmas movie he's ever done. "I feel like it’s kind of part of American culture to be a part of this festive holiday season, so it’s great. I mean, for me, it was one of those moments where I felt like ‘Oh, I finally made it. I’m in a Christmas movie'".
One of the best parts of filming for Oliver was the fact that the film was just as family-friendly on set as it was on screen.
He was able to bring his entire family with him to set on location in Vienna, Austria, which was also a new experience for the veteran actor. “Vienna is just to die for, an amazing city, so it was really nice to be there with the family to enjoy all those great sights and, you know, have them be on set for the first time ever. So it was fun.”
Even though Oliver loved his time on set, filming was not without its challenges—one such challenge being filming a Christmas-themed movie in summer-time heat. They shot “in the middle of summer—the hottest summer you can imagine in Vienna. I mean we were walking around with scarves, hats on you know, like all Christmas-y, but it was HOT, so we were sweating bullets.”
While he had to downplay the heat outside, he also had to turn up the heat on the dance floor since the film is about Viennese ballroom dancing. "I play a Viennese prince who is supposedly one of the best dancers in the town, so I had to dance my butt off.”
Impressively, he was able to pull it off with some short but intense training. “We were vacation actually, in Germany, visiting friends, and they called me on a Thursday, and on a Monday I was working. I had two days to prep for the dancing. It was nuts.”
The cast from another popular program stepped in to help whip the actor into shape, and they even make an appearance in the film. “The whole cast of 'Dancing with the Stars' [Austria], all of the professional coaches are in the movie actually and trained us. So it was amazing but also intense.”
You can watch 'The Best Christmas Ball Ever' on ION December 21, 23, and 24.
You can also catch Christian in the upcoming series 'Hunters' on Amazon Prime premiering early next year.