Christina Applegate stars in the new film Vacation, that opens nationwide on Wednesday. She plays the wife of the original National Lampoon’s Vacation’s character Rusty–who is all grown up and married with two boys. Rusty is played by The Office’s Ed Helms.
Despite the fun of making this new movie–don’t call it a remake or a sequel, because it’s not–and enjoying the cameo appearances by the original Griswolds, Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo, and a trip to Wally World—-Christina Applegate admits to experiencing a great deal of fear while filming. One case in point was when she was hanging upside down on a stuck roller coaster ride.
“Hanging upside down is not something I ever need to do again. I thought that lights out were going to happen to me. I know it’s not dangerous, but it was not good for me. I didn’t enjoy that,” she said in a recent interview.
Christina Applegate is seven years out from her diagnosis of breast cancer and doing well–well enough, in fact, to engage in even more harrowing activity while filming.
Even though most of Vacation was filmed in and near Atlanta, the whole gang traveled to South Carolina for a white water rafting adventure.
“They had guys in wetsuits and rescue gear all down the thing because if you did fall out of the boat, you were gone, and you could drown,” she explains. “So there was an element of fear for me there, and when we were in that boat and the water would come and push it down, you really felt…I mean, a couple times I almost fell out.”
Did Christina Applegate grow up taking road trips like the Griswold family?
“We didn’t really do stuff like that, my mom and me. We struggled a lot, but we did go to Tijuana once in a car. That’s it. That’s all I got for you. We went to Tijuana,” she says.
Griswold family selfie w/ @ChevyChaseToGo @1capplegate @chrishemsworth @SkylerGisondo @SteeleStebbins @vacationmovie pic.twitter.com/u8Z7QBzZ8t
— Ed Helms (@edhelms) July 28, 2015
Christina Applegate and Ed Helms look like the perfect couple to take a road trip with. Sons James and Kevin are played by Skyler Gisondo and Steele Stebbins, respectfully. Applegate says they loved to make her laugh during filming.
“They made me laugh really hard. So any time we were doing scenes with them, they tickled me,” she says.
Christina Applegate also adds, “I’m a child of the ‘70s. You know what I mean? I was saying worse stuff when I was five than they were saying in this movie.”
Will you be checking out Christina Applegate and Ed Helms in Vacation?
