It was pretty easy though.
They were kind of easy to direct.
Is that learning from lessons past?
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Not necessarily.
Ive worked a lot with kids before.
They can be very, very difficult, just because theyre kids.
But at the same time they give you a lot…
He continually had this endless energy for mischief.
But he understood intuitively that thats what was also required.
He did whatever he did in front of the camera with the same spirit, and it was perfect.
It made him a wonderful Dennis The Menace.
From your point of view, particularly with your theatre pedigree, thats all part of the fun?
Being kept on your wits?
You work with it.
It brings out things you might not necessarily have planned, and good things.
It was a proper, nasty villain for large parts of it…
Uh-uh.
And we seem to have kind of lost the proper villain over the past 10-15 years.
How do you approach it?
Do you deliberately look to go quite sinister?
No, I just saw this man as someone who hes pretty cut and dried.
Its just what he does.
He lives an isolated life.
Hes not socially involved or committed to the community.
He has a job that doesnt require anybody else that he has to work with.
He takes advantage, he exploits them.
As simple as that.
You might be able to clear this up.
I swear in Santa Buddiesat one point you walk past the Hill Valley clock tower in the background?
Somebody else brought that up today!
It was a little village west of Vancouver, Canada!
Going back to Judge Doom, then.
For many of us, hes a really iconic villain, really evil.
With Robert Zemeckis now talking aboutRoger Rabbit2, do you think well see Judge Doom again?
Ive heard talk about a sequel.
I havent been approached specifically about being involved with it.
I dont know if theyve got to that stage yet.
Judge Doom was dissolved in that liquid, totally.
So I dont know how theyd bring him back plausibly.
But Ive thought about it, because Id love to do it again.
I was thinking that if he comes back he would be in some manner very distorted.
Physically in his face, and everything.
He wouldnt come back like himself, or hed be a toon that had sort of melted.
Its one of the few movie worlds where it could be plausible that hed return…
Yeah!
Theyve got such a cross-generational appeal…
Its astonishing.
Its still happening, it still plays, and they still seem just as thrilled.
The film doesnt seem to have become passe.
It just seems to have the same impact today on fresh eyes as it did in 1985.
I love the third one, personally…
Thats the one I enjoyed doing most.
I loved the first, because thats first discovery of the whole story.
But the third one!
Its a western, so you get to ride the horses.
Theres risk involved, and I wasnt strapped to it, so had to hold on to it.
And then I had a romance!
So it was such a departure from the others.
It was filmed immediately after the second was there just a month shutdown, if memory serves?
Yeah, they did two, and it was a three week interval, and they did three.
But I didnt feel I was run down.
I kept going…!
[laughs]
And with that, our time was suddenly up!
Christopher Lloyd, thank you very much!
Santa Buddies is available on Disney DVD and Blu-ray now.
