The One Thing Tim McGraw Regretted About His Wildly Popular Holiday Film, ‘Four Christmases’

Thanks to eye-catching roles in blockbuster shows such as 1883, The Blind Side and Friday Night Lights, Tim McGraw is now equally respected as an actor and a country star.

However, despite his glittering array of credits McGraw has amassed, there is one particular film that he seems a little less eager to watch back - his 2008 festive gem, Four Christmases. The comedy follows Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon as a couple that try and escape their respective divorced parents at Christmas by going abroad, but end up having to spend time with each of their families.

McGraw famously revealed in an interview with KMLE in Phoenix, “I’ve never seen Four Christmases. Never seen it. I saw the trailer and I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m never...”, before hinting at the reason for this, “I can’t look at myself like that for an hour and a half, two hours - heck, no’. I don’t even like to hear myself, much less look at myself”.

This initially comes as a surprise, given the ‘Where the Green Grass Grows’ chart-topper has become synonymous with his good lucks and avid fitness routine over the years.

But for this particular film, McGraw made a point of putting on 25 pounds to try and embody his character, who was a UFC fighter. However, when they started shooting, Vaughn was in the best shape of his life, and he described himself as the “fat guy on set”.

Then, when his daughter, Gracie, observed that he looked “big on the screen”, he felt motivated to make fitness a priority again. Around ten years after the release of Four Christmases, McGraw reflected on his health journey to Men's Health, “I got out of it for a while. I was in the prime of my career, and I wasn’t capitalizing on it...I use my whole body to sing - my legs, my butt. And having more control over those things makes my voice stronger. There’s such a feeling of accomplishment that comes from the feeling of being my age and still being at the top of my game”.

Now, of course, McGraw is known for his gruelling workouts, with Carly Pearce sharing an amusing series of videos of their fitness routines while they were on tour together last year.

Although we respect his decision not to watch Four Christmases because of how he feels about his appearance, it's undoubtedly a lovely, feel-good festive film that was immensely popular upon its release. It brought in more than $164 million worldwide, cementing it as the 18th highest-grossing Christmas film of all-time.

The rollout was marred by rumours of tension between Vaughn and Witherspoon, who seemingly clashed over their different approaches to filming. Vaughn reportedly liked improvising on-set, while Witherspoon preferred sticking to the script.

Thankfully, any behind-the-scenes drama didn't bleed onto the footage, and McGraw holds his own when he appears with his on-screen brothers, Vaughn and Jon Favreau.

Hilariously - and a little crudely - McGraw, Favreau and Vaughn are all named after the cities in which they were conceived. McGraw is named Dallas, Favreau is Denver and Vaughn is Orlando, with the trio producing some laugh-out-loud moments together.

With the Louisiana native tending to leave bigger gaps in-between his album releases in recent years, so that he can focus a little more on his movie and TV projects, we're hoping another Christmas film script might one day find its way onto McGraw's desk. McGraw was set to appear in an untitled Netflix drama series about bull-riding this year, but was forced to leave production due to back surgey. As he continues his recovery, we're excited to see what he has up his sleeve for 2026...

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