AC Interview: Chris Kattan Talks About Christmas in Wonderland

For many comedians, becoming a cast member on "Saturday Night Live" eventually becomes a stepping stone to a movie career and Chris Kattan is no exception. After entertaining viewers for years with characters such as Mango and the monkey-like Mr. Peepers, Kattan left the show to focus on a film career.

Along with Carmen Electra and Preston Lacy, Chris Kattan Plays a Crook in His Latest Film.

For "Christmas in Wonderland," Kattan plays a counterfeiter who tries to pass bad bills in a large Canadian mall on Christmas Eve. "Bob Yari's company did it; they did 'Sideways' and 'The Illusionist' and 'Crash,' Kattan said via telephone from Los Angeles. "They wanted to do a family Christmas movie and they put this together. They got a pretty good cast together. It's for the kids; if you've got kids, the kids will love it."

"Christmas in Wonderland" Takes Place in the West Edmonton Mall.

Kattan said that the mall in Edmonton where most of the film takes place was "just crazy." "It had a zoo and an animal park. It had a wave machine and water slides and bungee jumping; it was all indoors. It (the West Edmonton Mall) is the second biggest mall in Canada; at one point, it was the biggest mall in Canada," he said.

Director and Screenwriter James Orr Was the Creative Mind Behind "Christmas in Wonderland"

Kattan said that when director James Orr hired him, he knew that Kattan and character actor Preston Lacy would add their own input and ideas into the characters. "When you hire people that are in comedy, especially somebody with my background of doing 'SNL' and the Groundlings, you like to make things your own a little bit because that's what's going to come across the best," he said. "You don't want to fake something that you're not good at. You want to find a happy marriage between what you can do and what the other person wants you to do."

Pre-Chewed Food on "Saturday Night Live"