LOS ANGELES – We asked several stars about their Christmas plans. Their answers are as varied as their personalities and movie projects:
CHARLIZE Theron: “I’m playing it by ear.” PHOTO BY RUBEN NEPALES
Charlize Theron
Golden Globe best actress nominee for Jason Reitman’s “Young Adult”
“I really wanted to be away for the holidays but I’m working in London. I don’t know when I’m going to wrap this film (‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ with Kristen Stewart) and how exhausted I’m going to be. I’m playing it by ear.
“Every year I spend my Christmas differently. Sometimes I like to travel, sometimes I like to stay home and cook dinner. I didn’t really grow up with Christmas being a specific thing because it’s summer holiday in South Africa (where I was born). We tend to load the car up and drive to the beach. Santa Claus puts on a Speedo and comes down the lagoon. That’s very South African. You have barbecue and watermelon. For me, that’s what Christmas always represents when I was a child growing up. Not the tree, snow and gifts. We didn’t do any of that stuff.”
Christian Bale
ROBIN Williams: “Thanks, dad, for the apartment...” PHOTO BY RUBEN NEPALES
Star of Yimou Zhang’s “The Flowers of War,” a Golden Globe best foreign language film nominee
“Having just come off this mammoth movie (‘The Dark Knight Rises’), our minds are more about getting away from it all. We are just getting over what has happened to us in the last year, so I’ve really got no plans beyond this interview. But with a Serbian family (my wife Sandra ‘Sibi’ Blazic’s side), there’s a different calendar so we always have two Christmases.”
Michelle Williams
Golden Globe best actress nominee for “My Week with Marilyn”
MICHELLE Williams: “A patchwork at this point.” PHOTO BY RUBEN NEPALES
“This movie (Sam Raimi’s ‘Oz: The Great and Powerful’) that I’m on finishes just shy of Christmas, so I’m afraid we’re going to tag along on somebody else’s holiday festivities. Somebody who has a tree and has preordered his turkey because we really haven’t done any of it. I’m still young to have family traditions and in knowing how to put a Christmas or a Thanksgiving spread. It’s a little patchwork at this point.
“My mom’s a consummate holiday organizer. I would like to pick more of that from my mom. Yes, I should.”
Robin Williams (Just married to artist Susan Schneider last October)
“I just have to start looking for my kids to see what they would want for Christmas. It’s weird now that they’re in their 20s. Zack is 28, Zelda is 22 but Cody is 19. So buying a gift is like, ‘How about a Porsche?’ Or it’s that thing about a house. ‘Thanks, dad, for the apartment.’ What do you get them when they’re at that age?”
Naomi Watts
Stars in Clint Eastwood’s “J. Edgar”
NAOMI Watts: “It’s going to be a white Christmas this year.” PHOTO BY RUBEN NEPALES
“I grew up in England and then moved to Australia, so Christmas at the beach was new to me around the age of 14 … And then living in New York for several years now, you do want to break up the hard winter. However, I think this year is going to be a white Christmas. But in February, I’m going to be filming in Australia so I’ll enjoy a good length of summer there which will break up my winter.”
Kirsten Dunst
Cannes 2011 best actress for Lars Von Trier’s “Melancholia”
“We celebrate Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day. We do a tree trimming party. We get a big tree. There are no crazy traditions. We just have a lot of food. Tons of family around. Very simple, just like anyone else’s.”
Colin Firth
Currently starring in Tomas Alfredson’s “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
COLIN Firth: Time split between England and Italy. PHOTO BY RUBEN NEPALES
“My wife (Livia Giuggioli) is Italian so we split Christmas time between England and Italy.
There are surprisingly similar traditions. It’s about the tree, stockings, turkey and overwhelming family get-togethers. Italy is exactly the same without the turkey.”
E-mail the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com. Follow him at https://twitter.com/nepalesruben.
FOR Kirsten Dunst, a tree-trimming party! photo:RUBEN NEPALES