Nutcrackers is based on a true story in the sense that the kids in Nutcrackers are not actors, and were more or less being themselves on screen. They are the kids of a friend of David Gordon Green’s, and it was their real-life dynamic that inspired Green to make the movie in the first place.

Ben Stiller tells USA TODAY’s Marco della Cava what it was like working with kids and animals on his new Hulu movie “Nutcrackers.”

Ben Stiller returns from relative dormancy (he hasn’t starred in a movie in seven years!) to headline Nutcrackers (now streaming on Hulu), a holiday comedy in which he’s absolutely upstaged by four young boys.