What do you think makes Holiday in the Wild stand out from all the other holiday movies coming out this year?

Kristin: The fact that it’s shot in Africa, number one. Even if we leave out the animal part, it’s just in a different setting. It’s more of a travel-adventure movie, in a way; it just happens to be a Christmas movie, but we’re having Christmas in a different place—which is nice. It makes you think about your own Christmas traditions, and then you look at other people’s Christmas traditions and think about them in a new way. Rob [Lowe] brings so much wry humor, which I don’t think you always get in a Christmas movie.

It does feel like the holiday movie genre is having a bit of a renaissance. Why do you think it’s so popular?

Kristin: I think people are very stressed. The world is a stressful place, and the holidays are a time when hopefully we get a little break from that stress. People want entertainment that gives them a good feeling. It’s a nice break. People want to be together; they want to watch things they can watch with the whole family. It’s a time that’s become more important because of the continual 24-hour news cycle and all the things going on in the world. All the difficulties.

Would you be open to doing another holiday movie?

Kristin: Of course! Holiday in the Wild sets the bar pretty high. I think now I’m just going to have to only do holiday movies with animals!

Like a sequel?

Kristin: A sequel would be amazing. I don’t know exactly what we would do or what would happen. For me, shooting in South Africa and Zambia and being able to be around elephants, which is one of my big loves of my life, and getting to write a love letter in the script to the people who take care of them, it really is a dream come true. I never really actually thought the film would get made, so it would be hard to live up to this one.

What did you most relate to with your character, Kate? She sends her son off to college and within seconds her husband leaves her. She goes through a lot just in the first 10 minutes of this movie.

Kristin: I responded to her having her eyes open on this trip she ends up taking by herself to a whole other world and a whole other way people are living and to this crisis of elephant poaching that she had no idea about. I responded to that because that’s very much like my own life.

When it comes to your own holiday pop-culture consumption, what are you looking for?

Kristin: I’m looking for something that I can watch with my daughter [Gemma Rose]. She loves Christmas, and when you have kids it’s all about their enjoyment.

How do you think Charlotte York from Sex and the City would take to Kate’s situation in Holiday in the Wild?

Kristin: I think she would be exactly like me! If for some horrible reason Harry left her—which I don’t think he would—and she was going on a single trip to Zambia and found an orphan elephant, I think she’d respond exactly the way that Kate does or that I did.

Holiday in the Wild is now streaming on Netflix.

Christopher Rosa is the staff entertainment writer at Glamour. Follow him on Twitter @chrisrosa92.

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