'A Christmas Story' separated child actors during filming to create tension

Holiday favorite "A Christmas Story" is the story of typical boy Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley) as he deals with the typical hardships children face during the Christmas season. One of the many thorns by his side during the film is his issues with bullies Scut and Grover Dill, played by Zack Ward and Yano Anaya, who harass him throughout the film. In order to create real tension between the two and the other child actors, they were separated from the rest of the cast, as Ward revealed in a recent interview with .

“Most of the time, Yano and I didn't hang out with the other kids. They had different filming schedules than we did,” Ward said. just want Yano and Zack to hang out and be friends, and if possible, without being rude to the other kids, don't hang out with the other kids too much." ”

According to Ward, Clark made the decision to create "an innate nervousness" in Billingsley and the other child actors, including Ian Petrella, who played Ralphie's brother, Randy Parker, when "those two kids - the two bullies - show up on set like they're not quite sure what's going to happen."

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Despite the intentional separation of the cast, Ward said the cast generally got along while on set. Ward, Anaya, Billingsley, Petrella and co-stars Scott Schwartz and R.D. Robb all returned decades later to reprise their film roles in this year's "A Christmas Story Christmas."

“We liked each other,” Ward said. "And then, growing up, we always had this touchstone that we could relate to, and then we had to put that touchstone into another movie."

"A Christmas Story Christmas" was released last November to mixed reviews. In her review for IndieWire, editor Kate Erbland wrote that “Despite the apparent warmth with which [director Clay] Kaytis, co-writer Nick Schenk and returning star and co-writer Peter Billingsley approach the material, whatever magic that propelled the original to fame in the holiday movie canon is sorely lacking.”

"A Christmas Story Christmas" is streaming now on HBO Max.

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