“The Perfect Holiday,” opening today, is a Christmas comedy that pairs Gabrielle Union and Morris Chestnut. After filming it, the handsome and dashing Chestnut had this to confess about playing somebody attracted to Union, 35: “Not a lot of acting called for there,” he laughed. “I mean, she’s stunning, right?”
Indeed.
But looks aren’t all she is known for. Union, a friend of Oprah’s and a Hollywood star since 2000’s “Bring It On,” typically plays the straight woman, the no-nonsense lawyer, the smart cookie. She talked about that comfy pigeonhole — and Hollywood’s discovery that African-American families celebrate Christmas too — when we reached her in Los Angeles.
Q: We’ve had the novelty of two black-family Christmas movies this holiday season, yours and “This Christmas.” Do you see much of a racial difference in the ways Christmas is celebrated in America?
A: The great thing is Hollywood (is) putting a different face on a holiday that so many people, of all races, celebrate. We did it in a lighter way. “This Christmas” is, I understand, more of a dramedy. Every family’s tradition is different, and while you might have ham-hocks and collard greens in some houses, and African-American families might be more inclined to incorporate church into their celebration, we’re all the same.
Q: But the movies show us how we’re supposed to look. And for years and years, that look has been New Yorkers in “Miracle on 34th Street” or the white “Family Stone” or Tim Allen in suburbia in “The Santa Clause.”
A: Maybe by next year we’ll have Asian Christmas movies, or Latino ones. Movies like this really do capture that we’re not really that different. “This Christmas” didn’t make all that money just by pandering to a black audience. People like Christmas. That’s all there is to it.
Q: What is it about you that is so uptown? Hollywood loves casting you as characters who have it all together, at least professionally.
A: Maybe the fact that when I audition, not one double-negative crosses my lips! I’m OK with these roles, really. Somebody’s got to be “the smart one.” I’m cool with that. I don’t do “victim” well. It’s uncomfortable to portray or to have my family see me that way. I like to play characters I can respect. So if I come off as strong, college-educated, intelligent, maybe flawed in most roles, that’s because that’s what I like to play.
