Vince Vaughn on maintaining a high standard with each film given the backlash against other similar movies:

"I never even think of that. I think there's room for everybody, and those guys have done great stuff. I just don't approach it that way. I never have. I just am fortunate that I try to find stories that I think are going to be fun, like, from a child place to go work on. Boy, it's easy when you've got David Dobkin directing a movie, this - Wedding Crashers, Clay Pigeons, and look at the actors I have the fortune of working with. Everyone's been nominated or won but me. I sort of get a complex on the set after a while. [Kevin] Spacey would look at me like, ‘Well, that's a choice. You could do that. That's nice, you're making a nice turn in the movie.’ But now, we had such an unbelievable cast of actors that really elevated everything. Jessie came up with such a great story. I think it was a bedtime story she was telling her daughter. Then David's [Dobkin] so good both at shooting and then finding the story in the editing room. I just think that what really worked most in this film was the unique thing about is are there naughty kids or not? It's such a drama that's been done so many times, I think Jessie was able to stumble on a different way of looking at the Christmas holiday movie."

Vaughn on the cyclical nature of popular movies:

"You know, you can't control it. I leave that to you guys. For me, it's just unbelievable. You guys got my Russian friends handing the microphone out to create an atmosphere. These guys are the best, by the way. These guys were really our good luck charm. They perform in a circus in Russia and came in and they had such great spirits every day. That was a lot of fun to be around."

Paul Giamatti on what it took to play his character:

"I did a lot of deep back story. [laughs] Part of the nice thing about it is that it’s such an archetype. You know a lot of the stuff you're supposed to do. I had to work up a good, 'Ho-Ho-Ho.' So I worked on that, I worked hard on that... I put in as much effort as I could to get the right things down that everyone expects. You know, it’s a character on the page and he’s supposed to be sort of a regular guy who is overworked and overstressed, runs a huge business that drives him crazy. I took a character like that and then I overlaid all the typical Santa Claus stuff, tried to lay that stuff on top of it.

Vince Vaughn, Kevin Spacey, and Paul Giamatti on the secret wishes they didn't receive:

VAUGHN: I guess understanding... Sometimes under the shell of this turtle is kind of a soft interior. [laughs] No. I don’t know, as a kid Christmas is fun because you want toys. Then when you get socks or shirts you kind of don’t want those. As you get older that is all you get. It’s nice to have kids around because you kind of get to enjoy Christmas. I have a nephew and some nieces and them opening presents and being excited in that way is fun... My secret gift wish was understanding. My secret gift was...

GIAMATTI: You didn't get it. You're still not getting understanding.

VAUGHN: That’s okay. [laughs] Sometimes you have to wait until next year and be thankful for the things that I did get. Thank you, guys.

SPACEY: I didn’t really have a secret gift wish. I never went through a childhood wishing I had gotten something that I didn’t get. My parents didn’t instill that kind of materialism, so we were just happy to be around each other, and to share in what the spirit of Christmas is supposed to be about.

GIAMATTI: Believe me, I could never get what I wanted. I could never really get everything I wanted.

VAUGHN: Paul, come over here and hug me right now. [laughs]

Vince Vaughn on his favorite scene in Fred Claus:

"I think the best thing--my favorite scene in the movie is the Superman cape between Kevin and Paul. They're two both great actors doing the scene, and the circumstances are absurd at first glance, obviously, in that Santa Claus and this efficiency expert having this moment. The emotional truth of the scene is really kind of relatable and really human and kind of a nice message, a nice theme in it, and it’s played by these guys really very real and committed to what their circumstance is. But, it also has kind of a fairy tale element to it that the circumstances are, obviously, make believe."

Kevin Spacey on whether he prefers to play villains:

"No, sometimes people say, 'Isn’t it great that you are at this place in your career where you can pick the parts that you want to play?' That is only true in the sense that you can pick the parts that they offer. You can pick the parts that you are available to do, given the schedule that I have is primarily now based in the theatre in London. It’s a funny thing, because I suppose when people see movies they then label the character a bad, evil, villainous, or good or triumphant or heroic. The truth is that when you are playing a character you don’t ever label a character. You don’t say, 'Oh, now I’m playing this villain.' You are playing a human being who might do bad things, and might do good things. I think what I liked about Clyde in this film is that even though he starts off in a certain place, he ends up in an entirely different place. There is actually a journey. I reject the idea that he’s a bad guy. Yeah, he’s kicking Santa’s ass, but at the end he actually is--they are finally using spreadsheets and it’s efficient. It’s gotten much better.

Vaughn on how many times he had to slide down the chimney:

"Here is the good news, sometimes I would come down the chimney, and that was fine because I would just kind of come down the chimney. When you see people falling and doing weird stuff? That is a stunt guy named Joe Bucaro, out of Chicago. A lot of actors - it's not fashionable - a lot of actors like to be like, ‘Yeah, I do my stunts.’ I don’t do any of my stuff. I don’t like to do my stunts. I like to have a stunt guy do my stuff. So, Joe will go and fall on his head and then we’ll do some kind of high five thing or something, and then I will lie there and get up. I have sort of a sense memory moment of when I fell when I was much younger. A lot of the harder falls was a stunt guy."

Vaughn, Spacey, and Giamatti on signing on to do a Christmas movie:

VAUGHN: Obviously, for me, I am just thrilled to work with all of these guys, truthfully. These are great actors. The thing in doing more comedies, as I get older, comedy sometimes, and especially the way that David does it, the jokes can come out of the circumstances. It’s not so sketchy or just like a sketch show. It really does come from human conditions. When you are fortunate enough to have guys, and the girls like Kathy Bates and Miranda [Richardson] who are in the movie as well, that are really good actors, then you are able to work on such a higher level where it’s funny. But like David said, you approach it dramatically. It makes it better and it makes the movie much better."

SPACEY: No, for me I had always wanted to work with Ed Guin, Ricardo Montalban, Gary Collins. I’m sorry what movie are we? I’m sorry, I got lost. [laughs] In my life now, the truth is I am dedicating myself to doing theatre now more than I have films. Whenever there is a movie that comes along, that can fit around that priority for me, particularly one that has in its cast an actor I got to work with on stage 9 years ago in The Iceman Cometh, and still to this day gave one of the great performances that I have ever been that close to. And Vince, who I’ve known, but we’ve never worked together. For me it was a very easy decision to say yes to coming on, having as much fun as we had. Even though it is in its essence a comedy, I think that what David [Dobkin] says about the way in which we worked, the process in which we got to the places--you want to fulfill and check all the comedy boxes. But, you also want it to be rooted in something so that by the end of the film an audience walks out and says, 'Yeah, the movie has a theme. It’s got some ideas to it, it’s got a spirit to it,' as you always with these kinds of movies do, and there is a kind of lesson to be learned. I did a movie a bunch of years ago, the only other Christmas movie I’ve done, and it was called The Ref, which was a movie that I loved and had a great time. Again, it is a movie that has a slightly twisted way into what is sort of the more traditional and a little more sentimental. I had a blast, we had a really good time. I think the question is: why the hell did you do this film?

GIAMATTI: Why did I do this picture? I have to say, I get a script like this and I’m not thinking, ‘Oh, I’m doing a big holiday movie.’ I just got a good script. I got something that was interesting to me. It’s a nice part, a fine director, and then when I hear all the other people doing it I know it’s going to be a good time. Working with him, I know how great he is. This guy is a great director. I never think of it in terms of, ‘Oh, I’m going to do a holiday picture.’ It just was a good script.