Juliette Lewis Just Learned A Surprising Detail About A Christmas Vacation Scene

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Juliette Lewis, known for her role in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, recently discovered a surprising detail about one of the film’s most chaotic scenes – and she was kept in the dark about it during filming. The 1989 movie centers on the Griswold family, with Clark (Chevy Chase) determined to create a flawless Christmas celebration for his relatives, though things quickly go wrong.

Jeremiah S. Chechik directed Christmas Vacation, with a script by John Hughes. The film features Beverly D’Angelo as Clark’s wife Ellen, Lewis as their daughter Audrey, and Johnny Galecki as their son Rusty. The cast also includes John Randolph, Diane Ladd, E.G. Marshall, Doris Roberts, Randy Quaid, Miriam Flynn, and Mae Questel. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who had recently appeared in the premiere season of Seinfeld, also makes an appearance.

Clark’s dedication to making the holidays festive causes a lot of trouble, and his attempt to get a real Christmas tree is no exception. It turns out the tree is home to a very energetic squirrel! Filming the scene where the squirrel appears and causes chaos took three days, and they sometimes used a fake squirrel attached to Chase to get the shot.

At Fan Expo Chicago, Chevy Chase and Johnny D’Angelo reminisced about a memorable scene from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Chase recalled filming the “squirrel in the tree” gag for three days, according to Entertainment Weekly. D’Angelo then surprised Chase with a story he hadn’t heard: the first squirrel used in the scene actually died, and Chase was too young at the time to know.

D’Angelo explained they had trouble with the squirrel used in the scene. Their original, well-trained squirrel unexpectedly died of a heart attack right before filming began. As a result, they had to use an untrained squirrel, and Chevy Chase ended up wearing a fake squirrel on his shoulder for most of the scene, except for the shot where it jumps towards the camera. D’Angelo jokingly lamented that this ruined the illusion.

Lewis agreed, saying, “That was sad.” Thankfully, Christmas Vacation is a much more cheerful movie than this story behind the scenes – though it still has its touching moments. When it came out in 1989, the film opened at number two in theaters and quickly rose to number one. While reviews were mixed at first, it’s now considered a must-watch for the holidays.

Just a few years after her Oscar nomination for Cape Fear, Juliette Lewis appeared in films like Natural Born Killers and From Dusk Till Dawn. Meanwhile, Johnny Galecki, who played her on-screen brother in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, later became well-known as Leonard Hofstadter on The Big Bang Theory. However, both actors will always be remembered for their roles in this famously wild movie.

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2025-12-25 01:08