Amid Christina Milian and Devale Ellis’ sweeping onscreen love story in Meet Me Next Christmas, they busted a move in a no-holds-barred lip sync battle.
“It was dope,” Ellis, 40, exclusively told Us Weekly on Wednesday, November 13. “I think the energy in that room when we were going over the scene, it was so great. Like, they were cheering for us. It was exciting, man.”
In Meet Me Next Christmas, Layla (Milian, 43) races across New York City ahead of Christmas to secure a ticket to the sold-out Pentatonix holiday concert and meet her dream man (Kofi Siriboe). Ellis plays Teddy, a concierge who Layla hires to help her quest.
Layla and Teddy’s journey takes them all over NYC, including a drag queen lip sync battle in Brooklyn for a chance to win tickets. Under the direction of Teddy’s cousin (Kalen Allen), the pair perform an impressive dance set to the holiday classic “Santa Baby.” (Unfortunately — spoiler warning — Layla and Teddy’s performance finishes in second place and, thus, not good enough to earn the ticket prize.)
The rehearsal scene, in fact, was Ellis’ favorite of the entire movie.
“The scene with Kalen in the house and we were learning how to dance … was so funny,” he told Us. “But then it transitioned into the romance with us two in the kitchen making the food. It was just that whole scene at the house [that] just brought everything together.”
Devale Ellis as Teddy, Christina Milian as Layla and Kalen Allen as Jordy in ‘Meet Me Next Christmas.’ Marni Grossman/Netfli
While the scene further showed off Milian’s longtime musical talents, it was something entirely new for Ellis.
“No singing and dancing experience, but I do love to sing in the shower and Michael Jackson‘s one of my favorite artists, so I grew up just imitating Michael,” Ellis quipped. “So, I just threw a couple of those moves in [the scene] so that I didn’t look too bad and anytime you could throw a little Michael Jackson in there, it’s always fun.”
Milian’s favorite moment in the flick, meanwhile, was the scene when Teddy tagged along with Layla as she tried to buy scalped tickets from another vendor.
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“I’m, like, making fun of [Teddy’s] outfit and here is this guy, he’s all dressed up and he turns out [has tickets from last year’s show],” Milian said. “I think that scene was pretty funny because I think that was one of the [earliest] things we had shot and you get to see the characters kind of, like, blossom in comedy in that scene.”
Meet Me Next Christmas kicked off Netflix’s holiday movie rollout, already landing the top place in the weekly Top 10 ranking.
“The family of Netflix is awesome,” Milian gushed to Us. “I’m happy we were able to kick it off in a big way. Being No. 1 amongst all the different types of shows and everything that you could see and tune into right now just speaks to the heart of so many people. Like, people love joy, they love Christmas, they love the holidays. They love love and I’m glad that we gave them all of that and Meet Me Next Christmas!”
Ellis concurred, noting that it “feels good” to see viewers enjoying the film.
Meet Me Next Christmas is streaming on Netflix.
With reporting by Travis Cronin
