With director Michael Dowse’s 8-Bit Christmas now streaming on HBO Max, I recently spoke with June Diane Raphael and Steve Zahn about making the family-friendly, holiday film loaded with ‘80s nostalgia. Written by Kevin Jakubowski (and based on his book), 8-Bit Christmas takes place in the late 80’s when the Nintendo NES was the video game console everyone wanted, and the film follows ten-year-old Jake Doyle’s (Winslow Fegley) desperate quest to get the latest and greatest video game system for Christmas. The film also stars Neil Patrick Harris as the older Jake Doyle, Raphael and Zahn as Jake’s parents, and David Cross also appears. 8-Bit Christmas was produced by Tim White, Trevor White, Allan Madelbaum, Nick Nantell, and Jonathan Sadowski.
During the interview, June Diane Raphael and Steve Zahn talked about what they were both desperate to own as kids, how the film has A Christmas Story energy to it, the timelessness of the script, what someone should watch if they’ve never seen anything Raphael or Zahn has done, and more. In addition, we talked about Big Mouth, The White Lotus, and Zahn’s favorite Bourbon.
Watch what June Diane Raphael and Steve Zahn had to say in the player above and below is exactly what we talked about.
June Diane Raphael and Steve Zahn
- If someone has never seen anything they’ve done before what is the first thing they should watch and why?
- Did they feel like 8-Bit Christmas has a similar energy to A Christmas Story?
- June talks about why she wanted to do the film and the timelessness of the script.
- What were they both desperate to own as kids?
- June on why she loves voicing Devin on Big Mouth?
- Zahn on people texting and calling him when The White Lotus was on.
- Zahn on his favorite bourbon and whiskey.
