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Spencer Grammer and Kelsey Grammer are teaming up for their first true onscreen collaboration in Lifetime’s The 12 Days of Christmas Eve. Spencer spoke EXCLUSIVELY with HollywoodLife about the holiday film, and she said it’s just the “beginning of many other projects down the line” for her and her father.
The 12 Days of Christmas Eve follows Brian Conway, a successful businessman whose relationships with those around him have suffered. His relationship with his daughter, Michelle, is strained, and he doesn’t have a meaningful connection with his only granddaughter. When Brian gets into a car accident on Christmas Eve, Santa gives Brian 12 chances to re-do the day and repair the relationships in his life while finding the true meaning of Christmas.
Spencer revealed that working with her father was a joyful experience. “I think it’s because my father has been such a great influence in my life and really taught me about the business, and we’ve always been kind of a vaudevillian family,” Spencer said. “My mom is also a dancer and was a dancer on Broadway. That’s how my parents met, so performing was always the place that was really easy. You leave all of your personal stuff at the door and you come in and you work. It’s always been a sacred space, so we both treat it that way. It was super fun. We had a blast. We worked really well together.”
She added, “I think that we have a good work ethic, and I’ve honed my craft a lot over these years, so working with him was just truly a pleasure. It was nice to put all the other personal stuff we may have had at the door and then come in and play father and daughter actually.”
Spencer admitted that, like Brian and Michelle, she and her dad “struggle” sometimes. “I’m the firstborn, so I’ve seen everything,” the actress noted. “When you are the firstborn you sort of set the tone for everyone else in a weird way, and your parents are also figuring it out, too. So I think it’s just one of the most challenging relationships for the children as well as the parents because you’re both learning how to be a family for the first time in a weird way.”
The Greek alum pointed out that “family’s complicated for everybody. It was nice that we brought some of that to the story as well, which I think allows people to want to change some of their family dynamics when they watch the film or realize that it’s a catharsis that it’s okay to struggle sometimes and that you can eventually have forgiveness for one another and move through it and enjoy the spirit of Christmas together.”
Spencer and Kelsey have already spoken about doing another film together in the future. “There’s like a chance I might work on some other things with him, and we were talking about maybe doing another film similarly, but if I’ve learned anything in this business it’s there’s a lot of ‘it going to happen’ and a lot of ‘it didn’t happen.’ It’s definitely a possibility, but also, you never know. I like to put positive ideas out there, but I think we probably will. We really did have a great time working together. It was really easy and nice. It would just be a nice experience to do it again,” Spencer told HollywoodLife. The 12 Days of Christmas Eve will air November 26 at 8 p.m. on Lifetime.
