Freddie Prinze Jr. enters the holiday rom-com Christmas with You the only way a romantic hero could for a music-obsessed movie : from behind a piano. Over the course of the yule-themed film, his character, a single dad named Miguel, will go on to charm pop star Angelina (Aimee Garcia) with his ability to tickle those very ivories. But first, let’s get to the question that everyone will want to know: was that really Prinze on the keys? 

“I am a top shelf air piano player. Not as good at air guitar, but very good on the [air] piano,” he tells Tudum. In fact, Prinze doesn’t really count himself as musical at all.  

“I didn’t get any of that stuff from my dad [comedy icon Freddie Prinze]. He could sing, he could play any instrument pretty much, he was self-taught and I can’t do anything,” Prinze says. “I can’t sing, can’t play an instrument. I wish I could, but I guess my lip sync skills are probably pretty good.” 

While Prinze “pretended” his way through Christmas with You’s musical moments, one big piece of the movie came directly from the heart: playing a dad. Although Prinze rose to stardom as a teen heartthrob in blockbusters like I Know What You Did Last Summer, She’s All That and Scooby-Doo, Christmas with You was his first chance to portray on-screen fatherhood after 13 years of playing the part off-screen. Prinze and his superstar wife, Sarah Michelle Gellar, share two children together. 

“When my daughter was born, I walked away from the business and became a full-time dad,” he says. “That was my main priority.” Although offers for rom-com parts came over the years, Prinze says, “It just wasn’t for me.” 

So what changed his mind? Read on to find out… 

You did a lot of teen projects in the Y2K era. What made you want to do Christmas with You, which has a much more mature romance for your character? 
It wasn’t until my daughter took an interest in performing that my wife and I decided to take a more active role in our careers and show her what we think is important to succeed in this business. [My wife] and I approach everything differently. We deal with success differently. We deal with rejection differently. We deal with preparation differently. We wanted our daughter to see both sides, so that she could decide what works for her and what doesn’t. 

To do a romantic comedy, there has to be something different. Otherwise it would be very hard for me to get excited. Otherwise I just want to make a horror movie, because that’s kind of my favorite type of film. But Miguel was a father, and this was [the] first opportunity I had to be a father in a movie. 

And Aimee’s character, Angelina, is really attracted to that side of Miguel. What was it like working with her? 
There are very few people who have earned my respect and made me fall in love as quickly as I did with Aimee. Right away, she was a force to be reckoned with. I came in on a dance rehearsal for the big dance number she does. When they were finished, I leaned over to the choreographer, Jessica. I was like, “How many weeks has she had on this?” And she said, “Today … she had about six to eight hours.” I was like, “Oh my god.” Aimee just killed it! She had three days to learn and execute three songs. It was her idea to have the one stanza in Spanish, and she translated the whole verse. How can you not have chemistry with someone you love and respect, and how could it not be instantaneous?

It’s great that Aimee was able to celebrate her Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage with the song update. What was it like for you to explore a Latinx romance like this? 
I always felt I had treated my Puerto Rican culture with the utmost respect. So when [director Gabriela Tagliavini and writer German Michael Torres] brought the movie to me and were excited for me to do it, I was doing backflips. They’re like, “Oh my, you’re so excited.” And I was like, “You don't understand. I’ve been ready for this since I was 18 years old.” 

What was it like to show the film to your family? 
I don’t watch myself on camera. I went to the premiere because I can’t say no to Aimee. She was like, “You’re going to this movie!” During the premiere, I went upstairs when they all watched. [Afterwards] my daughter came and gave me a big hug. My wife, she’s always been a fan. My son, he goes, “It was a good movie, Dad. Can we watch Predator next?” 

Did any moments stand out to you or your kids? 
My daughter’s 13 and old enough to get all the messages. That scene with myself and Deja Monique Cruz [who plays Cristina] was special. Miguel’s letting Cristina know how proud he is of her, and how her mother would’ve been proud of her. That was a big scene for me. I remember being nervous about it. It was the only time I’ve been nervous since I Know What You Did Last Summer. I would prep that scene over and over. I wanted it to be perfect.

I still call Deja “Bambi” to this day because she looks up and she has those eyes like when Bambi loses his mom. Right away I was like, “Everything I planned I’m just going to throw away and live in this moment with this little girl and see what happens. If she breaks you down then she breaks you down.” It ended up being my favorite scene in the whole movie. I love that girl to death. I thought she did a great job. 

She did. So would you do another holiday rom-com?
Yeah, it just has to have some kind of hook, so that it’s not the same movie I made a whole bunch of times. Christmas with You was unique, because I got to be a father for the first time. I can’t play a teen anymore. I got a lot more gray hair than I did back in the ’90s and early 2000s. And I love rom-coms and horror movies. They are really the only two kinds of things that I look for — that I take seriously. I definitely fell in love with romantic comedies again, making this movie. 

Maybe you could do a horror rom-com? Those have to exist, right?
I don’t think they exist, but maybe we’ll come up with the first one right now.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.