The young actor from The Santa Clause has shared a rare update about his life.
It’s been over 30 years since the beloved Christmas movie featuring Tim Allen hit theaters and became a staple in our home video collections in 1994. The film tells the story of Scott Calvin, played by Allen, a divorced toy company marketing executive, who inadvertently causes Santa to fall from a roof on Christmas Eve.
Assuming Santa has perished in the incident, Scott is compelled to complete the festive duties while donning the iconic red suit, due to a legal loophole called ‘the Santa Clause,’ which essentially makes him the new Santa Claus.
The heartwarming family comedy quickly won over audiences in the 1990s. Now, Eric Lloyd, the child star who portrayed Scott’s eight-year-old son, Charlie Calvin, has offered fans a nostalgic update on his life.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, the now 39-year-old Lloyd reflected on clips from his time working alongside Allen, including a 1994 interview where he abruptly ended the conversation.
Describing the film as being about ‘parents listening to their kids and a lot of people believing in magic,’ young Lloyd suddenly said: “Well, gotta go! Bye!”
Laughing at the footage, the adult Lloyd remarked, “I must not have liked interviews!”
After his role in The Santa Clause, Lloyd took a step back from acting, with few film appearances since. Instead, he transitioned to a career in the music industry, establishing Lloyd Production Studios in California in 2014.
“Today, I do a lot of sound design and re-record mixing,” he told the outlet, adding, “So I get to work from home a lot, which is really, really nice.”
Despite his move away from acting, Lloyd cherishes his memories from those days, which include roles in the 1997 movie Batman and Robin and the ’90s sitcom, Jesse. He also returned as Charlie in The Santa Clause 2 (2002) and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006), and made a guest appearance in the spinoff series, The Santa Clauses in 2022.
“It’s awesome, honestly, to be able to go back and see all that,” he shared, expressing gratitude for his experiences, “So I’m so grateful that I’ve had the life I’ve had.”
Reflecting on his time working with Tim Allen, Lloyd expressed fondness for their collaboration.
“He was always joking on set,” he recalled. “So making the crew and everyone laugh.”
According to Lloyd, the team had a sense that the movie would succeed due to Tim Allen’s involvement, though they didn’t fully anticipate its lasting impact.
“It wasn’t necessarily the typical holiday film back then, you know? It dealt with divorce and broken family and whatnot, it’s much more normalized now but then it really wasn’t.
“I feel like that’s one of the reasons that it became so beloved is because it was honest and real.”