Nutcrackers, Hulu’s new holiday movie, is a heartwarming mix of chaos, humor, and touching moments. This Christmas story is directed by David Gordon Green, who is known for rebooting Halloween movies. Ben Stiller plays Mike, a grumpy workaholic who has to take care of his four wild nephews after a family tragedy. The story of the movie is fictional, but the Kicklighter boys who play the nephews are based on real siblings. Let’s find out in detail.
Here is all the information you need to know about the interesting link between the family in the movie and a real family.
What is the story of Nutcrackers?
Ben Stiller plays Mike, a tense real estate agent from Chicago, in Nutcrackers. Following the sudden deaths of his sister and her husband, Mike is tasked with taking care of her four sons, Justice, Junior, Samuel, and Simon Kicklighter. This turns Mike’s life upside down. Mike is having a hard time balancing his career goals with the chaos of raising four active boys after moving from the city to the farmhouse his late sister owned in the country.
The Kicklighter children each have their own unique traits, but they all love ballet, which is a link to their late mother who taught them the art form. While the boys work on their own ballet, “The Nutcracker’s Mustache,” Mike learns about love, family, and accepting the flaws in life.
Are the Kicklighter Boys Based on Real Siblings?
Yes, the Kicklighter boys in The Nutcracker are based on and played by Homer, 13, Ulysses 10, 8-year-old twins Atlas, and Arlo Janson, who are all brothers in real life. This Ohio family of eight to thirteen years old gave David Gordon Green the idea for the movie. Green met the boys’ mother, Karey Williams, who used to be a second-unit cinematographer and is now a farmer. Green has known Karey Williams for a long time. Green was so moved by the family’s life in the country and their lively personalities that he decided to make a movie about them.
“When I went to Karey’s farm, I was amazed by her kids and how much energy they had,” Green told IndieWire. “Their house, their pets, and the way they lived together were all so inspiring.” “This is a movie,” I thought as I left that weekend.
The Jansons: Inspiration from Real Life
Green wanted to make a movie that stayed true to the brothers’ real relationship. He asked his friend Leland Douglas to write a script that was just right for the siblings. The movie was shot on the Janson family’s real farm in Wilmington, Ohio. The pets, the house, and even their late family dog, who the movie is named after, are shown on screen.
The story is made up, but the Janson brothers’ personalities come through. For example, their love of ballet comes from a deep place in their hearts. Homer, the oldest, has been dancing ballet for seven years. Ulysses, who is ten years old, helped choreograph the boys’ final ballet performance in the movie. He came up with the idea for “The Nutcracker’s Mustache.”
Even though the Janson brothers aren’t professional actors, the cast and crew were very taken with their charm. Linda Cardellini, who plays a social worker in the movie, said that the set felt like a big family where everyone worked together.
Cardellini told Screen Rant, “Their whole family worked on the project.” “Their mom, dad, and even grandmother were there all the time.” Everyone seemed to really want to be there, which made the event so special.
When the movie was first pitched to Ben Stiller, he was told that he would be working on a farm in the cold with people who weren’t actors. But the boys’ personalities made him want to work with them. “David Gordon Green said, ‘We’ll have something special if we can figure out what makes these kids so interesting.'” “And he was right,” Stiller said in a talk.
Fact vs. Fiction
Even though the brothers and their personalities are real, the story is not. What they really do is live on a farm in Ohio with their parents, Karey and Jeff. They are not orphans who might be split up or put in foster care like their characters are.
The Janson brothers’ connection to ballet is also like the plot of the movie. Their mother encouraged them to follow their love of dance, and many of the scenes in the movie were based on their real-life dedication to ballet. Even though they weren’t actors, the boys handled the challenges of filming like pros, and they even found time to laugh along the way. “We had to redo some scenes because we couldn’t stop laughing,” Ulysses remembered. Homer had to leave the room at one point because he couldn’t keep a straight face.
A Different Holiday Story
This movie is not just another Christmas movie. This song is a celebration of family, being yourself, and the magic of everyday life. Green captures a level of realism that is rarely seen in Hollywood by having the Janson brothers play themselves. The movie is a great holiday movie because it has both humor and heart, and the story behind how it was made makes it even more charming.
It’s been said that “Sometimes you see something in real life and think, ‘This should be in a movie.'” You might even get to make it happen. There is Nutcrackers for the Janson brothers at that moment.
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