Is it too early to talk about Christmas 2025?
Not for the actors and director of “The Housemaid.”
The Lionsgate film based on the bestelling book already has a Dec. 25, 2025 release date.
In celebration of the fact that filming is underway in New Jersey, director Paul Feig and the stars of the movie collaborated for a video (watch below) shared by the film’s TikTok and Instagram accounts.
Feig and actors Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Michele Morrone and New Jersey’s own Brandon Sklenar took part in a #BookTok-style homage to the book behind the film.
“The Housemaid,” written by Freida McFadden and published in 2022, has been one of the books propelled by TikTok fandom. The book, billed an “addictive psychological thriller with a jaw-dropping twist,” is the first in McFadden’s “Housemaid” series, which also includes “The Housemaid’s Secret” (2023), “The Housemaid’s Wedding” (2024) and “The Housemaid is Watching” (2024).
Feig, Sweeney, Sklenar, Morrone and Seyfried gamely lip-synched a reader reaction to the book (here’s the original video):
“This is me before ‘The Housemaid’ by Freida McFadden,” Seyfried began, acting out the TikTok audio.
“It’s day one and there’s red flags all alround,” Sklenar continued.
“She’s crazy,” Feig shared with requisite hand gestures. “She’s actually clinically insane.”
“It’s the delulu for me,” continued Italian actor Morrone (”365 Days”).
An incredulous Sweeney picked up the baton.
“They are living in this big-a– house and they put her in the attic with a cot and an itchy blanket? Like, red flag.”
Production on the movie began in December. Filming is New Jersey slated to run through February.
READ MORE: Meet N.J. actor Brandon Sklenar, starring in ‘It Ends With Us’ with Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni
“The Housemaid,” helmed by Feig (”Bridesmaids”) and adapted for film by screenwriter Rebecca Sonnenshine (”The Boys”), stars Sweeney (”Euphoria,” “Anyone But You”), 27, as Millie, who takes a job as housemaid to a wealthy couple, Nina and Andrew Winchester, played by Emmy winner Seyfried (”The Dropout,” “Mank”) and Sklenar.
The success of the bestselling book “The Housemaid” has been fueled by social media reactions and reviews. Grand Central Publishing
“Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom,” Millie says in “The Housemaid” teaser. “I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor. I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband. I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out… and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late. But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am. They don’t know what I’m capable of…”
McFadden, 44, is also a doctor specializing in brain injury and has penned other thrillers as well as books like “The Devil Wears Scrubs.”
Sklenar, 34, a Dover native who grew up between Sussex and Warren counties, attending Hopatcong Middle School and Hackettstown High School, is known for playing Spencer Dutton in the “Yellowstone” prequel series “1923.”
He hit the big screen in a big way in the 2024 movie “It Ends With Us,” starring alongside Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, so he’s no stranger to film adaptations of viral books.
Brandon Sklenar with Blake Lively in “It Ends With Us,” another movie that filmed in New Jersey.Jojo Whilden | Sony Pictures
“It Ends With Us,” which was released in August and became a box office hit, is based on the bestselling 2016 novel by Colleen Hoover. Sklenar plays good guy Atlas Corrigan in the film, which takes on domestic violence and has since become associated with dueling allegations made by Lively and Baldoni against each other — and related lawsuits. Baldoni directed the movie, which also filmed in Jersey.
“The Housemaid” is similarly filming all over North Jersey — not limited to but including Morris, Bergen and Hudson counties.
READ MORE: ‘Echo Valley’ thriller starring Julianne Moore, Sydney Sweeney, Domhnall Gleeson filming in N.J.
Sweeney also filmed the Apple TV+ thriller “Echo Valley” in Jersey.
The upcoming Pennsylvania-set movie, filmed in 2023 and 2024 in locations including Hunterdon and Morris counties, also stars Julianne Moore and Domhnall Gleeson and was written by “Mare of Easttown” creator Brad Ingelsby and Michael Pruss. Moore and Sweeney play mother and daughter in the film.
Lionsgate, the studio behind “The Housemaid,” is planning to have a sustained presence in New Jersey in the near future through a TV and film studio in Newark’s South Ward.
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Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com and followed at @AmyKup on Twitter/X, @amykup.bsky.social on Bluesky and @kupamy on Instagram and Threads.
