From Working with A-Listers to Dreams of Directing: What to Know About Rising Star Judah Lewis

At just 17 years old, Judah Lewis is quickly making his mark in Hollywood.

After some notable performances on the big screen, the actor is now taking his talents to the small screen in Netflix’s new holiday movie The Christmas Chronicles. The film also stars Kurt Russell, and Lewis says working with the Overboard actor was “absolutely amazing.”

“I cannot say enough good things,” Lewis tells PEOPLE. “What really struck me about working with him is just how he conducted himself and just how generous and giving he was. For example, there was a night where it was 11:30 p.m. and 10 degrees outside. We were filming in Toronto in the snow and they had already shot Kurt’s piece of the scene, but he stayed out there the entire night and gave his full performance. He didn’t need to, and nobody would have second-guessed it since they had already filmed his piece of it, but he stayed out there just for me and just to enhance my performance. I think that really speaks to him as an artist and as a person.”

Lewis says his favorite holiday movie is Elf and that it’s tradition for him and his family to cuddle up on Christmas Eve and watch it together.

“For me, with this film, my hope is just that even if it’s just for one family, that this film gets to be a part of that tradition for them,” he says.

Read on for five fun facts about Lewis before getting in the holiday spirit with his new film.

1. He has worked with multiple A-Listers

Russell isn’t the first A-lister that Lewis has acted on screen with.

In 2015, Lewis starred in the Jean-Marc Vallée-directed drama Demolition alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Naomi Watts. He’ll next be seen in the upcoming thriller, I See You, with Helen Hunt.

“It’s definitely nerve-wracking,” he says of working with some acting legends. “Luckily I’ve had the chance to work with really kind, nice people who don’t act intimidating and who are very welcoming. I’ve gotten the chance to learn from some incredibly talented people. I’m not sure how I got this lucky.”

“[Whenever I’ve been] on a set with somebody of the Kurt Russell status, because you never know with a huge movie star, I’ve been lucky enough to work with people who are incredibly humble and who are incredibly kind and who are also into showing me the ropes which is something super cool,” he adds.

2. Gyllenhaal gave him a piece of acting advice that he still uses to this day

Many of Lewis’ former co-stars have decades of experience behind them, but there’s one piece of advice that Lewis received from Gyllenhaal when they worked together on Demolition that still sticks out in his mind.

“That was my first big film,” he says. “It was one of our first days filming, and I had a couple of scenes in the film which were just like pages of me talking. I remember [Gyllenhaal] was like, ‘Okay, check this out. Whenever you learn your lines, learn them as fast as humanly possible. Like, no matter what, memorize them as quickly as you can and then get faster and faster and faster and keep doing that until they call action. And when they call action, slow it down, and it’s impossible to forget your lines.'”

“It’s something that has really worked for me, actually, and something that I’ve used on pretty much every project since then,” he continues.

3. Even though he comes from a family of actors, he didn’t like acting at first

Lewis’ parents have their own drama school and would bring him with them to the theater since he was 4 years old – though, he says, they had to drag him there at first.

“I really didn’t enjoy it,” he says. “I definitely wasn’t into it. I was probably around 10 when I really started getting into film and I started watching films.”

Lewis was fascinated with one film in particular, Hugo, and Asa Butterfield’s performance in it.

“I remember being so taken by his performance,” he says. “I remember watching it and looking at his performance like, ‘I want to do that.’ That was definitely the start of me actually having a passion and loving the film industry.”

His parents, though, had some hesitations when he first told them that he wanted to follow in their footsteps.

“I remember when I was first like, ‘Well, I’m thinking I might want to [act],’ my mom was like, ‘Oh, c’mon. Really?'” he says. “The thing that they’ve taught me is just to stay humble and grounded. All the projects and the working is just secondary to being a kind, gracious human, and I think that’s definitely the biggest lesson that they’ve instilled in me.”

He also recognizes that it’s a tough business in which it’s easy to lose yourself but that he has a “really amazing support system” behind him.

“My family doesn’t really care, in the best way possible, about whether I work or not,” he says. “So there’s no pressure around it. It’s just if I love it, then great. If I say I want to take a break and play baseball, then that’s great too. I have a lot of really incredible friends and people who are definitely keeping me grounded.”

4. He dreams of directing one day

Lewis might have quite the impressive resumé already, but his aspirations don’t stop in front of the screen.

“In the future, I definitely have a dream of directing,” he says. “That’s something I really love to do, and I’m just incredibly passionate about film and the film industry in general. I just love being on the other side of the camera and hopefully in the future I’ll get a chance to do that.”

5. Despite appearing in major films, he says his life is “incredibly normal”

Though there are many aspects of Lewis’ life that are out of the ordinary, he says that, for the most part, his life is similar to that of any normal teenager.

“I always like to say, ‘Yeah it’s cool, I’ll be filming and then I’ll come home and play with my dog Milo and go to school,'” he says. “It’s incredibly normal. There’s definitely a piece of my life that’s super not normal, especially for a teenager, but that’s super cool and I get to learn a lot of cool things and have cool experiences that I’d never get to have. But then when I come home, I think I definitely restore that sense of normality. I go to school and I have friends and I am just a teenager. I play baseball.

Aside from acting, Lewis loves playing baseball every weekend and says he’s “really passionate” about photography.

The Christmas Chronicles is available to stream on Netflix now.