Tim Allen couldn’t be more delighted about his 13-year-old daughter’s acting debut. During a “Tonight Show” interview on Nov. 21, the “Toy Story” star beamed with pride while discussing how his youngest child, Elizabeth Allen-Dick, portrays his onscreen daughter in the new Disney+ series “The Santa Clauses.” As the show’s main character and one of its executive producers, Allen originally intended for Elizabeth to play an elf as a fun surprise for fans, but her audition proved she deserved a more prominent role. “She ended up reading the dialogue so well that the kid got the lead in it as Santa’s daughter,” Allen told host Jimmy Fallon. “It was the most amazing occurrence.”
“It was just unbelievable. Everybody was crying.”
Allen admitted that he was initially hesitant about his daughter getting involved in the entertainment industry because she’s “great in school” and “really good in sports,” but her acting chops were too great to ignore. Their real-life father-daughter bond is on display in the upcoming third episode of “The Santa Clauses,” during which Allen’s Scott Calvin (aka Santa Claus) and Elizabeth’s Sandra share an emotional conversation about fear.
“I’m trying to convince her I want to retire and go back to Chicago where I started the whole thing,” Allen teased of the scene. “[Sandra] says, ‘I’m afraid. Have you ever been afraid, Dad?’ And I say, ‘Of course, but I would be less afraid if we could be afraid together.’ I’m doing that with my kid, and I’m looking in her eyes . . . It was just unbelievable. Everybody was crying.”
Allen welcomed Elizabeth with his wife Jane Hajduk in 2009, and he also has a 33-year-old daughter named Katherine, whom he shares with ex-wife Laura Deibel. In “The Santa Clauses,” the 69-year-old actor dons Kris Kringle’s red suit for the first time in 28 years to search for a replacement Santa so he can finally retire and leave the North Pole with his family. Elizabeth Mitchell and Eric Lloyd reprise their roles as Mrs. Claus and Charlie Calvin for the limited series, respectively, and other cast members include Kal Penn, Austin Kane, Devin Bright, and Rupali Redd.
Read ahead for a peek at Allen and Elizabeth starring alongside one another in “The Santa Clauses,” and catch new episodes as they hit Disney+ weekly.