As each Christmas approaches, Sean Siouty fondly recalls his time on the set of one of the most iconic festive franchises of all time.
Growing up in Los Angeles, the now 29-year-old might have understandably been drawn in by the idea of making it big in Hollywood.
However, he instead got into acting by mistake after tagging along to auditions with his two older sisters.
It was at one that a casting agent declared he ‘had the right look’ and encouraged Sean’s mum to also get him involved in the industry.
‘Contrary to popular belief now, I was told by casting directors that I had the Disney look,’ he laughs when speaking to Metro.
‘I didn’t really care about acting, but I was a lazy kid and just agreed to it.’
Over the next few years, he was cast as a background actor in a series of films – including in the beloved Christmas film franchise, The Santa Clause.
Kicking off in 1994, the original starred Tim Allen as Scott Calvin, a divorced marketing executive who is involved in the accidental death of Santa Claus on Christmas Eve and then inadvertently agrees to a contract that forces him to step into the role.
It was a massive success – grossing $190.3million (£142million) – and quickly became a Christmas classic. It was then followed by The Santa Claus 2 in 2002 and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause four years later.
The third film saw Santa trying to find a way to reverse a spell cast by Jack Frost (played by Martin Short), which caused him to lose his title of Santa Claus.
It was a pivotal scene in that film that Sean appeared in – when Santa emerges victorious and reclaims the North Pole from the villain.
In the scene, Sean can be seen gasping at the turn of events before cheering along with the other kids.
‘They wanted a bunch of kids in a crowd watching as Santa kicks Jack Frost off stage and reclaims the North Pole,’ he recalls.
‘I was nine and I spent about two days on set.
‘It was filmed in a school’s gym, and I remember a guy on stage with a microphone explaining the scene and how we needed to act and hype us up and tell us to boo before we all got poured into the set.’
He continued: ‘I don’t remember how many takes they did, but there was a giant crowd of us.
‘My sister was in it as well, but I don’t actually know if she ever made the cut as she was in a different section of the crowd.’
Although Sean didn’t meet any of the film’s stars while on set, he does remember making friends with other child actors.
‘It was a big crowd, and we were just hanging out. I have vivid memories of having my Nintendo DS and trading Pokemon Cards with other kids,’ he laughs.
Sean didn’t see the movie on the big screen but he loves sharing his cameo in the film nearly 20 years later.
‘I don’t think I saw it in the cinema when it came out, but I do pull up the scene and love showing it to people and joking that millions of people have seen my face on Disney Plus,’ he said.
‘It’s such a minor thing, but it’s still a funny thing to show people.
‘I haven’t seen the full movie in years, at least about 15 years. I only have it queued up to the scene, so when I open up Disney Plus I can just show that scene.’
While it is somewhat strange to see himself on screen at that age, Sean said it was ‘super cool’ to be captured at that time of his life.
Aside from The Santa Clause 3, Sean also appeared in Rob Reiner’s 2007 film The Bucket List – which starred Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson.
He and his two sisters appeared in a scene that was set in India, with Sean fondly recalling an interaction with screen legend Freeman on set.
‘They put me into a make-up trailer and were putting dirt on me and I turned to my left and Morgan Freeman was right next to me getting his make-up done,’ he explained.
‘I was old enough to go oh crap that’s Morgan Freeman and I remember he said hello to me and was super friendly.’
Although he was working alongside some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Sean admitted he wasn’t that interested in actually pursuing a career in acting.
‘I don’t think I was that cognisant of movie sets at nine. It was more just show up and do your thing.’
During his few years acting, Sean also appeared in episodes of L.A. Nights, According to Jim, Las Vegas and Ghost Whisperer.
In that time he earnt a few thousand dollars from his time as a background actor in movies, which he spent on ‘lots of concert tickets and some college textbooks’.
Although he’s closed the book on acting again, he does still sometimes get offers.
‘You’d get auditions based off a website which had our profiles on it, but it hasn’t been updated in years, and I still get emails sometimes as casting directors still think I am a child,’ he laughs.
‘My dad will once in a while forward me the emails and jokingly ask if I want to audition. But it’s a no.’
It was when he was 12 that Sean told his parents he was no longer interested in acting.
But looking back years later, he does wonder ‘what could have been’.
‘I sometimes think about whether I should have kept going,’ he said.
‘But living in LA and knowing a few people who work in the industry, it really chews people up and spits them out.’
Instead, he went on to study economics and now works in the finance industry.
‘I couldn’t decide what to do with my life initially and considered film editing and musician, but I had to sit down and figure out what I was good at – which was maths – so I decided to end up studying economics.’
The Santa Claus films are streaming on Disney Plus.
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