Peter Billingsley's Success Story Teamed with producer, Jon Favreau on the Thanksgiving 2005 Columbia blockbuster Zathura, Peter Billingsley still holds fond memories of his holiday classic A Christmas Story. Against all odds, the 1983 family comedy A Christmas Story has proven to be a watershed moment in cinema’s long-standing relationship with the Yuletide holiday. After an initially lukewarm reception from fans and critics, the film gradually found a modest but vociferous audience, first via TV reruns and then, more recently, through video and DVD. As a result, thirteen-year-old star Peter Billingsley’s character of Ralphie has become one of the most beloved figures of the contemporary silver screen. The actor, who now works as a producer, recently told FilmStew he never suspected the MGM and Warner Home Video title had the makings of a perennial holiday classic. “You really don’t know, because I have been involved in movies that you probably haven’t even heard of that were huge,” says Billingsley, a New York native whose crystal blue eyes still shine with a childlike glow, even from behind a decidedly more mature countenance. “Honky Tonk Freeway, at the time, it cost $26 million dollars, which was like the T3 of its day, and it didn’t really make any money. Paternity was with Burt Reynolds, who was the number one box office draw, and it bombed; you feel this hype and this energy and this confidence on the set, [like] ‘Wow this is going to rock!’ and ‘We’re great!’ And then, it doesn’t open.” “The difference with A Christmas Story is that there was none of that,” he continues. “It was really a collaborative effort. People that had limited resources really believed in the material that they were making in a genuine way and tried to make a good movie. It was a good lesson in, ‘Don’t focus on the results, focus on the process,’ and just to have faith.” Billingsley began his career in 1978 at the age of seven with a film called If I Ever See You Again, which audiences didn’t. Then, after the after the kid-friendly Massarati and the Brain and the aforementioned Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds duds, Billingsley stumbled upon the role of a lifetime. The actor says that much has changed since the original release of A Christmas Story, when public fervor could build a film’s success in a matter of months rather than over a single three-day period. “Times have changed since,” he suggests. “You could platform a movie slowly, even amidst a theatrical run. You would release it and it would stay around.” “Now, there’s a lot of effort put forth in opening weekend and that kind of defines the life of the picture.” For Zathura, a forthcoming adaptation of yet another Chris van Allsburg book (following Jumanji and The Polar Express), Billingsley says his experiences as an actor have helped enormously. Especially when director Jon Favreau (Elf) faced trouble getting the right performances from newcomers Jonah Bobo and Josh Hutcherson. “It’s been sort of a fun thing, and nice to relate to the parents,” he explains. “I think there was sort of a comforting factor in having me around, because unfortunately, there haven’t been as many examples as we’d probably like to see of the transition into adulthood as a success story. It can be a difficult factor, I think, for a child.” Billingsley says that because Favreau does not like to impart too much onto his actors, he sometimes needs reassurance that what might work with an adult worker is not necessarily what flies for a child. “Jon has an improv background and he likes to be told, ‘What place am I working from in this scene?’” explains Billingsley. “[But] sometimes with children, they might want a line reading.” “No one would give Tim Robbins a line reading,” the actor-turned-successful-producer continues. “But sometimes, where children are concerned, it’s preferential to do that. You can cut to the quick to get what you want more easily.” Ironically, Favreau occasionally offers his Zathura stars advice at his co-producer’s expense. “He’s like, ‘Do it like Peter in A Christmas Story,” Billingsley confesses with a chuckle. What’s more, it was Favreau’s familiarity with Billingsley’s 1983 classic, and their emerging partnership as a producing and directing team, that led to the world’s best known fan of the Red Ryder BB gun to play a small role in last year’s Elf. “Jon said, ‘Do you want to come up and do something? Maybe you’ll bring a little A Christmas Story magic dust to it.’” “It was fun and I’ll act again, but it’s more fun to act in that kind of way now, where if I’m doing something and a part opens up,” he adds, confirming his intention to focus mainly on producing. “Maybe I’m the Christmas guy now, and I’ve got to do more of these scenes.” Regardless of what the future holds for Billingsley as an actor, he admits he’s still baffled by the enduring success that A Christmas Story. “You know, they tried for twelve years to get that movie made,” he recalls. “Bob Clark had to agree to direct another junky film for the studio [MGM] to greenlight it. They hardly gave him any money, they didn’t support the release of the movie.” “[But] he really stuck to his guns,” Billingsley continues. “He collaborated with [author] Jean Shepherd, they worked on the script for all of those twelve years, and they really believed in something. Bob really had such a great take, because you don’t know when you’re stuck in it if you’re doing [good] things.” In addition to Zathura, Billingsley continues to work as a producer on Favreau’s IFC TV series Dinner for Five. For one half of this nascent powerhouse duo, which first worked together on 2001’s Made, the world of Hollywood has changed mightily since the days of his Saturday Evening Post-like tale. “Today, there are so many things that are out of your control: release dates, schedules, marketing,” he says. “All you can do is try your best to make a great movie. All that you can really ever do, which is what we did with A Christmas Story, is tell a great story.”

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