When you think of Christmas movies, the foreseen holiday plot comes to mind — a small town filled with holiday decorations, some type of winter “festival” or event leading up to Christmas Day, and a budding romance between the local and the out-of-towner that leads into a happily-ever-after ending. While these predictable holiday movies are a staple in the season, it’s refreshing to see when the plots take a completely different angle to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year.
Tubi’s latest holiday original, Most Wanted Santa, is breaking the stereotype of cheesy clichés with a female-fronted heist movie that perfectly captures the true meaning of the holidays in an unorthodox way. The film follows an FBI Agent Harper Winslow (played by Denyce Lawton) and an LAPD detective (played by Teresa Castillo) who join forces to track down an art thief whose approach is both clever and festive: he shows up dressed like Santa, but instead of departing with milk and cookies, he makes off with multi-million dollar works of art. Soon Harper begins to suspect that the handsome art lover in her life (played by Donnell Turner) might be the one hiding beneath that iconic red hat.
“It’s a heist movie and it’s a girl-power movie,” says Teresa Castillo, who plays Carly Lopez in the film. “I feel like that’s what sets it apart from other classic Christmas movies.”
“I feel like it’s the love story between the girls,” Denyce Lawton, who plays Harper Winslow adds. “I mean, not in that way, and it’s okay if it was, but it’s the friendship… it’s the sisterhood. This is a love story between Harper [Winslow] and Carly [Lopez].”
Aside from all of the bizarre twists throughout the film, Most Wanted Santa still fulfills your holiday fix. When speaking to Celeb Secrets host Sydney Veda, Denyce shares that she believes women will have just as much fun watching the film as she and Teresa did making it.
“90 percent of our crew were females,” says Denyce. “I think that made it easy to be very comfortable to be in our skin as women. The [women] on set were mostly women of color, so that allowed us to just feel free.”
Given the overall theme of the movie, Teresa says everything about Most Wanted Santa made her get fully into the holiday spirit this year.
“I’m constantly playing Christmas music on Pandora, and my husband told me the other day, ‘stop buying snacks!’ But this is the only time of the year that I cannot resist all of the cookies. I have a holiday cookie jar and I have to fill it.” We totally get it, Teresa. Those cravings are ~relatable~!
Most Wanted Santa is now streaming on Tubi. You can learn more about the film by watching our full interview below and don’t forget to let us know if you’re excited to watch it by either leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post or by sending us a tweet at @celebsecrets.
You can also connect with Denyce and Teresa by giving them each a follow on Instagram at @denycelawton and @teresacastillo_official.
