Nancy Meyers Didn’t Intend to Make ‘The Holiday’ a Holiday Movie

If the 2006 movie The Holiday is included on your must-watch holiday movie list, that actually wasn’t Nancy Meyers‘s intention.

The writer and director recently revealed on the Hollywood Gold podcast that she “never ever saw it as a holiday movie ever in my life.”

“I know it’s called The Holiday because they’re taking a holiday, but it could have been called that if it was in the summer,” she said, adding that she “was a little shocked at how much Christmas was in it” after re-watching it the other day.

The rom-com stars Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Jack Black and the late Eli Wallach. It follows movie trailer editor Amanda, who lives in Los Angeles, and journalist Iris, who lives in Surrey, England. The two decide to swap houses for two weeks at Christmas, hoping to forget their troubled love lives, however, love finds them anyway.

“I never thought it would be, you know, a movie that you watched during the holidays. … Didn’t think of it that way. I just really wanted to tell the story about these people,” Meyers explained. “I set it at Christmas because that can be lonely. As I noted to myself last night while I was re-watching, they’re all damaged.”

The It’s Complicated filmmaker noted that while she finds Black’s character Miles “the least” damaged, “they’re all pretty damaged.”

“And the holidays seem like a good time to deal with those issues,” Meyers continued. “So it was that, not, ‘Hey, I think I’ll make a festive holiday movie.’ Not at all.”

Despite the Something’s Gotta Give director’s intentions, The Holiday still found its way to Christmas classic status.