They’re the most famous duo to play the Griswold children, Audrey and Rusty, so why didn’t Juliette Lewis and Johnny Galecki return beyondNational Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation? Of the originalNational Lampoon’s Vacationmovies, the third outingChristmas Vacationhas emerged as the favorite. Of course, the holiday setting gives audiences an excuse to revisit it every Christmas, but it’s also just the funniest and warmest. The sequel continuedthe unspoken tradition of recasting Audrey and Rusty each time, with Juliette Lewis and Johnny Galecki inheriting the roles from Dana Hill and Jason Lively.
Christmas Vacationfound Lewis and Galecki at the beginning of their acting careers, with the duo soon finding fame elsewhere. Lewis went on to roles in 1991’sCape Fearremake, the controversialNatural Born Killers, and more recently, the acclaimed thrillerYellowjackets. Galecki went to roles in two of the biggest sitcoms of the last few decades;RoseanneandThe Big Bang Theory, in addition to movies likeI Know What You Did Last Summer. Despite their rising stardom during the 1990s, there was a clear reason they didn’t come back as Audrey and Rusty.
Where To Watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is a holiday classic, and it’s important to know where to look to stream, rent, or buy it.
Rusty & Audrey Were Still Teenagers In Vegas Vacation (Which Released 8 Years After Christmas Vacation)
Juliette Lewis and Johnny Galecki simply aged out of their Vacation roles
Vegas Vacationdropped theNational Lampoonbrandingand arrived almost a decade after the third movie. Sadly, this fourth outing proved the weakest and felt like an effort by star Chevy Chase to score a hit after a run of flops.Vegas Vacationrecast the Audrey and Rusty roles with24’sMarisol Nichols and Ethan Embry, with one of the better gags involving Chase’s Clark quipping “You guys are growing up so fast, I hardly recognize you anymore!”
By the time the film went into production,both Lewis and Galecki were in their early 20s, so having them pass as teenagers would have been pushing credulity. While Marisol Nichols herself is only a few months younger than Lewis, the sequeljustabout got away with casting her as a teenager. There’s also the chance Lewis and Galecki just weren’t interested in returning and playing third and fourth banana to Chase and co-star Beverly D’Angelo in a sequel that already felt a few years too late.
Vegas Vacationis the only entry in the originalVacationfranchise that wasn’t written by John Hughes.
Recasting Rusty & Audrey Became A Running Gag For The Vacation Movies
No wonder Vacation’s Clark barely recognizes his own kids
TheVacationmovies were produced between 1983 and 1997, so while Chase and D’Angelo aged in real time, Audrey and Rusty kept getting recast. Dana Barron andThe Breakfast Club’sAnthony Michael Hall originated the roles in the Harold Ramis-directed original, whileEd Helms and Leslie Mann took over as the grown-up Griswold siblings for the 2015 legacy sequelVacation.The recasting of the kids became a recurring gag, to the extent that later entries made meta jokes about it.
The only actor to reprise their role was Dana Barron as Audrey in the spinoff National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation 2…
The only actor to reprise their role was Dana Barron inNational Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie’s Island Adventure. This 2003 TV movie followed the misadventures of Randy Quaid’s Cousin Eddie and his family, but the film itself was so poorly received that even devotees tend to overlook it.Neither Chase nor D’Angelo returned for cameos, while Barron’s return as Audrey is just about the only noteworthy thingabout it.
What Juliette Lewis & Johnny Galecki Have Said About Their Christmas Vacation Roles
Both stars recognize the classic status of Christmas Vacation
While every actor who played Rusty and Audrey went on to healthy acting careers, Lewis and Galecki are by far the most recognizable duo. Some performers can feel embarrassed about their earliest work, butboth Lewis and Galecki have embraced their time in the Griswold clan. They’ve taken part in retrospective interviews and screenings, including reuniting with their onscreen parents for a 30th anniversary screening in 2019.
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Talking withRolling Stonefor a retrospective feature onNational Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,Galecki stated the film was “… such a seminal part of my career and understanding of comedy and life in general.“He also recalled thinking he didn’t have a chance of landing the Rusty part, but after auditioning, “Chevy told me right there in the room that I had gotten the role.” Galecki was also attached as producer (and possible star) of a TV series calledThe Griswolds, but despite being announced in 2019, the show has yet to move ahead.
Lewis is also glowing about both the experience of makingChristmas Vacationand the way it’s becoming a Christmas favorite. She spoke about the sequel onThe Kelly Clarkson Showand got emotional about the way a project she worked on when she was 15 is still connecting with people decades later.
You know, I’m midlife, so I’m going through many important emotional transitional things, seizing beautiful — learning how to appreciate what you have. And so I get really — I’m going to cry. Christmas Vacation is so, it’s so touching that every year — I was just 15. Sorry, I didn’t mean to cry. People who have lost their parents, or whatever, what it meant to them. It’s a tradition. And so what I’m saying is no, you can never imagine that is ever going to happen in a film you do.
Christmas Vacationwas truly the high point for the series, and despite the sequels and spinoffs that followed, none came near the third installment’s level of quality. As Lewis said, it’s a movie that bonds people together during the holiday seasons, and likeHome AloneorDie Hard, will remain an evergreen Christmas favorite.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Cast
The third installment in the National Lampoon’s Vacation series, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, stars Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold, father of the Griswold family whose intentions to have a good Christmas with his family face several setbacks. Between his arguing parents, the uncooperative decorations, and the unexpected arrival of some unwanted distant relatives, Clark’s dreams for a wonderful Christmas seem to be fading, forcing him to take some comedically drastic measures.
