T.J. Miller has been to some pretty crazy Christmas parties, but nothing that will top what audiences will see in his new movie, “Office Christmas Party.”
In “Office Christmas Party,” which officially hits theaters on Dec. 9, Miller plays Clay Vanstone, a manager throwing a wild party in a last-ditch effort to land a huge client to keep his CEO (and sister) from shutting down his branch. As parties in movies tend to do, the night gets very, very out of hand.
Paramount Pictures hosted a college conference call on Dec. 6 to let Miller shed some light on the movie, his own experience with Christmas parties and which ingredient he represents in the giant recipe that is the movie’s cast of comedy stars.
“I’m paprika,” Miller said. “Paprika’s sort of the spice that is it’s own kind of flavor, but helps to enhance and heighten the other flavors, and that’s what I was. Hopefully I was the ingredient that both added something to the overall film but also helped sort of enhance and elevate the flavors of comedy around us.”
The star-studded cast features comedy legends like Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman, along with some of Hollywood’s hottest rising stars like Kate McKinnon, Olivia Munn, Randall Park and Karan Soni.
“You can’t have a great dish without great ingredients, and this is an ensemble comedy so there are quite a few ingredients,” Miller said. “This ain’t no chicken marsala. White wine, capers and a little vinegar. This is a very complicated dish, like a Baked Alaska or a soufflé that does rise to the occasion.”
Looking at the cast, there seems to be one name that stands out: Courtney B. Vance, the winner of the 2016 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or a Movie. Landing a role in this raunchy comedy may not seem like an obvious next step after Vance’s performance as O.J. Simpson’s lawyer Johnnie Cochran in “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” but Miller said goofing off with Vance was one of the best parts of filming. Miller said his favorite scene involved sliding down a Slip’N Slide with Vance.
“That was a real stunt, we really did it,” Miller said. “We were moving like really fast, like 15, 20 miles an hour with the harnesses on. But it’s just funny, he’s like this award-winning dramatic actor and he was such a silly goose in this movie. We just both had so much fun doing that, doing different poses, dabbing, just joking around and it ended up just being kind of, I don’t know, that was a part of the movie that was just fun.”