Exclusive Interview: Director Angel Gracia Brings Us Behind the Scenes of ‘How the Gringo Stole Christmas’

Angel Gracia is an award-winning director, writer, and producer best known for bringing timely and important narratives to the screen, including From Prada to Nada, Kings of Killers, and Grayer.

This December, he directs an all-star cast in How the Gringo Stole Christmas, featuring George Lopez, Mariana Treviño, Emily Tosta, and Jack Kilmer. The soon-to-be holiday classic unfolds as a Mexican father’s Christmas celebration goes from merry to messy when his daughter arrives with her new boyfriend—an uninvited gringo—in this hilarious comedy.

Angel takes us behind the scenes of the making of How the Gringo Stole Christmas.

PC: Tell us about How the Gringo Stole Christmas and how this script came across your desk.
Angel: A decade ago, while finishing up From Prada to Nada, I received a call from the studio executive. They said, “You have to read this. It’s called How the Gringo Stole Christmas.” The title alone interested me immediately. While reading, I found myself laughing out loud. However, working on something Latin-themed wasn’t the easiest to raise funding and garner interest a decade ago.

It took a while before we realized this could possibly be made. We attempted to make this before social media took off and before there were other means to get people interested. Now, it’s finally happening, with the same studio that produced the other film. The industry changes have made it a little easier for projects like this to get funded and distributed.

PC: The chemistry between the cast is incredible, and you genuinely believe they are a family. Was there a moment during the filming experience when you realized you were all creating magic on screen, and they had the dynamic needed to bring this family to life on screen?
Angel: Every time I said action and watched them interact, I felt it was working. We did this under very limited time and with a limited budget. We shot this in three weeks, right before the SAG strike and at the beginning of the writer’s strike. It was sandwiched in between them, making it difficult to think straight. You try and prep as much of the logistics as you can in a really jam-packed period of time. You’re never 100% sure that you made all the right decisions, but when you have all the actors on set, you realize it’s working. You’re like, “That’s great.” With every scene, I realized that I had the right actors in place and that it was working. Throughout the process, I was realizing the decisions we were making were the right ones.

PC: Comedy is a genre that encourages improvisation, and you have a cast that’s well-versed in this space. As the director, how did you create opportunities for them to do just that?
Angel: That happened with most scenes. I embraced and encouraged that improvisation but within the limitation of what each character needs to say and get across in the scene. We had very little time to play, but every actor had the opportunity and chance to bring their own take to their characters. We had comedians, writers, and content creators from George Lopez to Mariana Treviño to Romy Peniche playing the crazy Aunt Carmen. They all have those skills to improvise.

Even our younger cast, Emily Tosta (who plays the daughter) and Jack Kilmer, were encouraged to bring their own mojo to their characters because in the film, they’re actually the adults in the room. They’re not the crazies. Everybody was encouraged and allowed to make it more authentic, unique, and funnier.

PC: You were talking about From Prada to Nada earlier, which was your debut feature. It was incredibly well received. What did you learn from that project that you were able to bring to this one?
Angel: That situation was similar in that we had a good, solid foundation. The script was written based on Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, so it was an adaptation that we brought the Latin experience to. I was adapting to a lot of the personalities of the actors and their experiences because they’re all immigrants to this country.

It was similar for How the Gringo Stole Christmas with me being an immigrant to this country and finding the bits and pieces to poke fun out while bringing social commentary. It felt similar but ten years apart. But I drew from the experiences of being a Latino in this country and the comedy that comes from what I call “cultural confusion.”

PC: You shared on social media and during this conversation that you faced a lot of adversities bringing this project to life. What does it mean to you to have it out in the world, especially for the Latin community?
Angel: It’s difficult to make a film in the first place, let alone one with a Latin theme. I’m extremely happy to have made it and be able to talk to you about it now. We just released the trailer, and we had four content creators/influencers who are in the film, so we’ve seen a lot of positive responses on social media. We can see how many people have viewed the trailer.

Back in the day when I did Prada, you didn’t have that information at your hand. You didn’t know what was happening with the marketing. Now, we can see all this information in real time on our phones. The trailer has thousands of views. We can see that people are responding positively to it.

PC: What do you hope audiences take away?
Angel: I hope they have a great laugh. It’s PG-13, so you can bring your whole family and see how silly it is the way that we tend to reject each other for absurd reasons, whether it’s the color of your skin, the food you like, the way you dress, etc. It’s pretty silly. We poke fun at that in a fun, light-hearted way. It happens in any culture, not just the Latino community. I hope that audiences can laugh and know that we’re in this together.

To keep up with Angel, follow him on Twitter and Instagram. How the Gringo Stole Christmas is out now in theaters and wherever you stream movies.

Photo Credit: Bjoern Kommerell