Sisters Catherine and Aubin Bradley are starring in Nickelodeon’s live-action original holiday movie, “A Loud House Christmas. Based on the animated series Loud House, the film follows Lincoln Loud as he prepares for the ultimate Christmas, only to learn most of his sisters have alternate have plans.
Catherine will bring the goofy, fun-loving prankster ‘Luan Loud to life,’ while Aubin transforms as the fifth-youngest Loud sibling, starring the gloomy and cynical ‘Lucy Loud.’
We chatted with the Bradley sisters about their transformations, what they loved about playing the Loud sisters, and their favorite parts of the upcoming holiday film.
You’re both about to appear in the Loud House Christmas live-action movie. So the series has been around since 2015. How familiar were you with the series before landing this role?
Catherine: Actually, I grew up watching it a lot because I was always when I was little, I watched Nickelodeon shows like Henry Danger and Loud House, and that was my whole life. So I loved the Loud House.
Aubin: I also watched the Loud House from when I was about six. I always watched it. I also watch a bunch of other Nickelodeon shows as well because we all watched the same stuff. Catherine: Actually, Aubin’s character was always my favorite character on the show.
Can you tell me a bit about the movie?
Catherine: Well, the storyline is fantastic, but you’ll have to watch the movie for that one. But it’s a Christmas caper. It’s a fantastic Christmas movie filled with joy and family bonding, and we can relate to that a lot. We have a big family with one brother as well.
It’s a great Christmas movie that adults and kids will love, and you should watch it to check out the storyline.
What was your favorite part about playing Luan, Catherine? Aubin, what was your favorite part about playing Lucy?
Aubin: My favorite part about playing Lucy was not only is she fun, cool, and different, but she’s unique from the other siblings because she just had her different style. I also loved showing her somewhat devious sense of humor at times. I just thought she was entertaining to play and bring to life.
Catherine: My favorite part about playing Luan was getting to work with Mr. Coconuts, my puppet. Before I had played Luan, I had never worked as a ventriloquist, and I got to set, and they gave me this puppet.
They told me to figure it out, and we were going to shoot the movie with it. It was so cool because my character Luan never had any puppet training, so it made it real for me to learn as she did.
It was fantastic and what I feel like many people don’t understand is you get emotional and connected to your puppet because it’s like another part of you. It’s almost like Luan’s alter-ego. Getting to play two different characters in a movie was incredible for me, and I enjoyed that a lot.
Yes, I watched some of the behind-the-scenes stuff, and I was going to ask, are you a comedian like your character? How was it playing some of those pranks?
Aubin: Catherine’s funny. She may tell jokes at the dinner table, and she’s a comedian. So it was a good role for her.
Catherine: I’m a comedian at the house. I love to play pranks on my siblings. I have an older brother who is the best to mess with. Aubin is my youngest sister. It was not a reach at all because I’m very sarcastic, just like Luann.
I love cracking dad jokes, as my father would say. It was an incredible experience getting to the play to a different character from me but shared similar qualities.
You were somewhat like your character then.
Yeah, definitely. I’m a little more polished, and Luan’s a little quirkier and more devious and fun, but we are pretty similar in that we both love comedy and share a great love for our family and our puppets.
Aubin, were you and Lucy at all alike?
Aubin: Well, yeah. Well, one thing is that I tend to like spooky things like Halloween, which is my favorite holiday. I was also born on Halloween. So, that was fun for me. But I do sometimes like to crack dark humor jokes.
I also brought some of my moves to Lucy, which you will see in the breakfast scene.
Catherine: Yeah, Aubin was born on Halloween. So that is something that they share.
Let’s talk about the transformation from how you look now to how they made your characters look. What was it like with hair and makeup?
Catherine: They did very natural makeup on me. They also gave me braces. And I had braces when I was in second grade, but they gave me braces for this movie, and it was basically like a retainer with the braces on it.
I looked so different. It took about a month to get the braces on. I had to make several various dental appointments for all of this.
They put my hair in a ponytail, which took a lot of time to curl since my hair falls out quickly. My transformation was mainly the braces part and the incredible costumes.
Aubin: My favorite transformation was the bangs because, of course, I didn’t have them. It’s a little secret here. It was a clip-on thing, and I actually still have it. It was fun. I had a name for the bangs. They were called squirt. I thought the bangs were a unique thing from all the other characters.
My hair used to be down to near my stomach, and now it’s on my shoulders, and I like it. The transformation mainly was my hair. Then, the makeup was white and dark and spooky. Catherine: The show also dyed her hair black, which took months to wash out.
So have you two been in any other projects together?
Catherine: This was our first movie together. But when I was 12, we did a short film together called 40 Nickels, where she again played my younger sister, but I think this was the first big thing we got to do together.
Being with your sister on set is such a unique experience because, of course, the whole cast feels like a family, but getting to go home after filming this movie together and sharing all those memories was special.
It’s just so cool to share such a close bond with my sister and act with her in a movie where she is my sister.
Aubin: I thought it was also unique because we could share thoughts and ideas of what we could do together for different improv scenes. And I thought that was special because we could give each other helpful notes, which was so fun to do with your sister.
So I saw from YouTube that it looks like you guys have had a lot of fun on set with the other castmates. Can you share some of the fun behind the scene moments?
Catherine: There are so many behind the scene moments. One of my personal favorites was getting to pie Jonathan Judge, our director, in the face because if you see in our behind-the-scenes stuff in our movie trailer, the opening cut is me pieing Lincoln in the face.
We filmed that in 10 minutes on the last day of shooting. It was very stressful, and I wanted to get it right. So to prepare, Jonathan had me pie him in the face, and that was so funny.
The kids were great. We had so much fun in the hotel rooms as we ran through the hotel. We met so many incredible people. It was just a fantastic experience. We’re still super close to this day, and everyone does feel like a family.
Aubin: I made some of my best friends on that set, which was special because I was only with them for three months, but somehow they still feel like family. Even though I can’t see them every day, I still try to keep in contact, which we do, and it’s incredible because I love every one of them for different reasons.
I have specific memories that I made with each of them, and I miss them so much.
Catherine: The first day we got to the hotel, all of us got together in the basement and filmed a movie together because we were going to try to prepare it for our director the first day we met them. It never happened. We made this whole babysitter plot.
We were in the basement of the Georgian Terrace running through the catacombs. It was entertaining. We had a lot of great memories.
That does sound like fun. What are some of your favorite parts of the upcoming movie that people should look for?
Aubin: I liked the snow. Spoiler alert! We had a snowball fight. I think that was in the trailer, actually, and it was real snow on a sweltering day, and the snow is frozen. So we were all throwing snowballs. It was crazy.
It’s the first scene we shot altogether. It was such a special thing. I loved it. It didn’t even feel like we were filming. It just felt like a fun activity to do, which I thought was super fun.
Catherine: I think being in the mall was probably one of the best parts of filming. It was a fantastic abandoned mall, and we got there at eight in the morning every day. We did school together there, but I think my favorite part was when we found out the considerable plot point turn of the movie.
We were all together, and we were sweating, and so they would have to bring fans on every minute. But it was enjoyable to be with everybody at this moment. We were by a Christmas tree, we were all singing, and it was just incredible.
It sounds like it. So do you think that fans of the animated series will enjoy the live-action movie?
Catherine: I do think the fans will enjoy this live-action movie. I think everybody plays their part so beautifully and all the different scenes. Aubin and I are excited about upcoming Loud House events, maybe a live-action TV series or a movie sequel or two. I hope there’s an April Fools or Halloween movie.
Honestly, that would be fun to watch Luann getting diabolical on April Fool’s and Lucy in her element on Halloween until things don’t go as planned for either of them.
Anyway, I think the fans will love this Christmas movie. The storyline is incredible. The characters are great. And my one of my favorite moments was the ending song where Luna gets up on the stage, and she starts rocking it out.
I think that’s one of the show’s best moments because you can see the Loud House warmth that the fans know and love.
Aubin: I think also the fans will love the aspect of the transformation, not only like the outfits and everything. Many people have reached out with their fan art, which I thought was super cool.
I see a lot of supporters, and I think it’s so special to watch everybody see what these iconic characters do and have them love it. I thought that was special.
Catherine: They’re going to see the characters that they see in the cartoons come to life. I think that will be incredible for the fans.
A Loud House Christmas premieres Friday, November 26th at 7/6 c on Nickelodeon and will stream on Paramount + the same day.
Laura Nowak is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.