‘Santa Clauses’ Actress Casey Wilson Says That Working With ‘Bitch’ Tim Allen Was the ‘Single Worst Experience I’ve Ever Had With A Co-Star’
Somehow, cranky conservative comedian Tim Allen has been the face of Santa Claus in the Disney media empire for almost 30 years, but one of his co-stars considers him to be much more of a Krampus.
The 70-year-old comedy giant’s behind-the-scenes behavior has rarely been described as either “holly” or “jolly,” but Allen’s name is downright synonymous with Christmas media, thanks to the success of the Santa Clause franchise that he’s headed since 1994. Between Home Improvement, Toy Story and The Santa Clause, Allen’s accrued a massive fortune through family entertainment despite his not-so-PG past, a face-turn that would put a smile on many convicted cocaine trafficker’s (egg) noggins. However, despite his ongoing success playing St. Nick in the Disney+ series The Santa Clauses, Allen doesn’t exactly bring Christmas cheer to the set of the project. Saturday Night Live alumna Casey Wilson used many more naughty words than nice ones when discussing her time on the show.
On a recent episode of her podcast Bitch Sesh, Wilson recounted her one-episode experience working with Allen, similarly describing the comedy giant as she did her show. “Tim Allen was such a bitch,” Wilson dished. “It was the truly single worst experience I’ve ever had with a co-star ever” — and that’s coming from someone who had to help James Franco attempt to host SNL.
“I’m in a scene. It’s just me and Tim Allen and I’m supposed to throw things at him,” Wilson explained. “I think he’s a burglar. So he’s coming down the chimney, obviously as Santa, and I am woken up thinking there’s an intruder, basically like a home invasion scene.” However, the chemistry between the two scene partners was off — and Allen acted quickly to rectify the situation.
Instead of addressing the issue with Wilson directly, Allen instead chose to shun her like an ornery Amish Santa. Said Wilson, “(Allen) goes over to the producer who is standing four feet from me and goes — and I hear him — he goes, ‘You gotta tell her to stop stepping on my lines.’ The producer turns to me with horror on his face and has to walk one foot to me and he goes, ‘Um, Tim would ask that you stop stepping on his lines.’” Wilson observed that “everybody was walking on eggshells” while Allen was on set.
And, when Allen decided he was finished, Wilson said that his exit was anything but gracious: “When he was done, he was so fucking rude. Never made eye contact, never said anything. It was so uncomfortable.” Wilson recalled how, when Allen was done filming the shots that required his face, he abruptly announced that he would not stick around for shot blocking. “It’s the end, and Tim Allen goes, ‘Leaving!,’ takes his Santa cape, picks it up and drops it on the floor and walks out.”
“He’s a bitch,” Wilson repeated, “And this is the best… I will not say who said this. This was someone that I do not know, perhaps in the crew. (He or she) breezes past me and just goes, ‘You’re seeing him on a good day.‘”
Though all this is, of course, just one actor’s less-than-explosive experience with Allen on the project, the picture Wilson painted of a surly Santa Claus stomping in and out of scenes without so much as an acknowledgement of the other artists working on the project makes us wonder why Allen is still so attached to the role that purportedly bears so little resemblance to his own temperament. Maybe he thought the whole franchise would feature a different kind of snow.
