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Dominic Sessa is finding a merry little niche for himself in holiday-centric movies.
The actor, 23, told PEOPLE at the New York City premiere of his Prime Video movie Oh. What. Fun. on Tuesday, Dec. 2, that while he did not intend on two of his first four film roles to come in holiday-themed movies, he’s embracing it.
“I don’t know how this happened, but I’m leaning into it,” Sessa says. “I also just love Christmas. I want to be the Christmas king. So however I can exist in a Christmas movie, I’m there.”
His breakout debut role was opposite Paul Giamatti in 2023’s The Holdovers, in which he plays a teenager at a New England boarding school in 1970 who is forced to stay at school with his least favorite teacher (Giamatti, 58) over Christmas break. Two years later, Sessa finds himself back in the Christmas swing of things with a role as Michelle Pfeiffer’s onscreen son in Oh. What. Fun.
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The movie follows Pfeiffer’s Claire Cluster as a woman whose family leaves her behind, Home Alone-style, when it comes time to set out for holiday celebrations.
“By the time they realize she’s missing, Claire’s already set off on a festive adventure of her own — one that doesn’t involve cooking, cleaning or coordinating anyone else’s chaos,” teases a synopsis. “As her family scrambles to find her and salvage their Christmas, Claire rediscovers what the holidays mean when you’re finally free to put yourself first.”
“It was flattering to think that she could have created me,” Sessa tells PEOPLE of pretending to be a member of Pfeiffer’s onscreen family. “Living in that context was like really, really nice and flattering. She’s just amazing and she had a very sweet kind, maternal air on the whole production and treated us like her kids in very many ways.”
Prime Video
Sessa also recently appeared in the sequel Now You See Me: Now You Don’t. Next, he will portray Anthony Bourdain in an upcoming movie titled Tony, but for now, Sessa is happy reveling in his own favorite holiday films.
“I was always really obsessed with the old stop-motion movies,” he says of his Christmas favorites. “So like [Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer], of course, classic. Year Without a Santa Claus, Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, Frosty the Snowman, like those. The old classic ones.”
Oh. What. Fun. is streaming now on Prime Video.
