Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin has revealed one role that he regretted skipping as he retired from acting in the mid-1990s.
The 44-year-old actor, who was recently seen comforting his goddaughter Paris Jackson, spoke openly about stepping away from acting as a teenager.
He opened up on an episode of Hot Ones released on Thursday about his hiatus before returning to acting for 2003 flick Party Monster.
Macaulay said, “You have to understand… back then, I was essentially retired for about six or seven years. I attended high school, got married too early in life, things like that.”
‘I was actually pretty good at reading. I was kind of voraciously reading through the scripts, but there was a couple that slipped through.’
He then disclosed that there was a film he wished he had known about earlier—the 1998 Wes Anderson-directed Rushmore, featuring Jason Schwartzman, Olivia Williams, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, Brian Cox, Connie Nielsen, and Sara Tanaka.
Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin (pictured in LA back in March) shared he regretted passing on a role during his acting hiatus in the mid-1990s.
Macaulay elaborated, “I remember a couple of years later, I was cleaning out the house and discarding old scripts, and I realized the one I hadn’t read was Rushmore. I thought, ‘Oh dang.'”
He was considered for Schwartzman’s role as Max Fischer. Macaulay expressed on the chat show that he “can’t imagine” anyone else portraying that character.
Macaulay said: ‘But at the same time I’m like, “Oh man, that would have been a ball and a biscuit.” I probably could have done that one.’
The former child star had a great run early in his career but paused his acting career in 1994 after playing the titular character of Richie Rich.
Earlier this year the star revealed why he has not spoken to his father, retired stage actor Kit Culkin, in about 30 years.
Macaulay catapulted to stardom at the age of 10 in the first Home Alone film in 1990, instantly eclipsing his father in terms of fame and success.
In 1995, Macaulay’s parents split up, triggering an explosive custody battle over their lucrative son, who ultimately went to court to have their names removed from his trust fund and an executor appointed in their place.
Now he describes himself as mainly ‘retired,’ while his brother Kieran Culkin is the more active actor and won an Oscar earlier this year.
Neither of the two brothers are currently speaking to Kit, nor are any of their six other siblings, Macaulay disclosed.
He has shed fresh light on the rift between him and his ‘narcissistic’ and ‘abusive’ father, on the podcast Sibling Revelry With Kate Hudson And Oliver Hudson.
The 44-year-old actor (seen with longtime partner Brenda Song in LA back in March) talked candidly about leaving the acting business behind as a teenager.
He (eseen in New York in March) opened up on an episode of Hot Ones released on Thursday about his hiatus before returning to acting for 2003 flick Party Monster
He then went on to reveal that it was 1998 Wes Anderson directed film Rushmore starring Olivia Williams and Jason Schwartzman
Macaulay noted his father has become a model for him for how not to raise his sons Dakota, three, and Carson, two, whom he shares with his fiancée Brenda Song.
‘One of my earliest memories of him was: “When I grow up, this is how I’m not going to be with my kids.” And now that I got kids of my own, it makes me even more, it kicks up some dust that I kinda go: “I can’t believe he was like that,”’ said Macaulay.
When he was a child, living in a one-bedroom apartment with his parents and all his children, his father propelled him into showbiz.
‘He had all these lovely kids, and talented kids too. And the thing is, he had a certain amount of resentment towards me, I think is what it was, it’s cause he wanted to be an actor and he kinda did some stuff,’ Macaulay recalled.
He noted his father worked on Broadway and in ballet, ‘then all of a sudden he has this kid that didn’t look anything like him, to be honest. I look a lot like my mother. I don’t look like him,’ he observed.
‘And I right out of the bat just was, like I instantly got the lead stuff in the ballet company, I instantly booked all these things like that, and I think he resented me for that kind of stuff. I think he hated me a little bit for that, and so I think that’s why he was a little bit harsh with me.’
Macaulay recalled ‘butting heads’ with his father when he was young, describing him as a ‘bad man’ and saying: ‘I would take his whoopings and stuff like that, but it was – I knew, the whole time I was sitting there, going: “Oh, I’m gonna win at the end.”‘
Kit managed Macaulay’s career in the early years of his stardom – and only during the custody battle did Macaulay realize he was worth $50million (£39million).
Earlier this year the star revealed why he has not spoken to his father , retired stage actor Kit Culkin, in about 30 years; pictured in 2023
Macaulay is pictured with his parents Kit and Patricia Culkin and his brother Kieran in London in 1990, in the early years of his stardom
Macaulay catapulted to stardom at the age of 10 in the first Home Alone film, instantly eclipsing his father in terms of fame and success
He ultimately went to court to remove both of his parents’ names from his trust fund, after they had pocketed 15 per cent of his earnings.
Macaulay has now shared that ‘during the whole custody thing, I wanted nothing to do with my f***ing father. Like he was just the worst, and the judge was like: “Well, you have to do visitations with him.”‘
Being a self-described ‘smart-a**,’ he declared that he had no intention of visiting his father – a decision his lawyer told him would be regarded as contempt of court.
‘I go: “Okay, well how about this? I dare the judge to put me in jail for not wanting to visit his abusive father,”’ Macaulay remembered.
‘And I also, I actually doubled down on that. “I double dare him to arrest the most famous kid in the world” And I never played that card, but that was the one time I kinda played that card.’
In 2001, after Macaulay had quit acting, he shared that he used to plead with his father to allow him to take a break from work only to be rebuffed.
‘My father was jealous of me,’ he told New York magazine. ‘He was a bad man. He was abusive. Everything he tried to do in life, I excelled at before I was 10 years old.’
Macaulay noted Kit has become a model for how not to raise his sons Dakota, three, and Carson, two, whom he shares with Brenda Song; pictured with Brenda and Dakota in 2023
A few years ago, Macaulay told comedian and podcast host Marc Maron that his father would compel him to act well with the threat of physical violence.
‘[He said], “Do good or I’ll hit you.” He was a bad man,’ Macaulay said on WTF. ‘He was abusive, physically and mentally – I can show you all my scars if I wanted to.’
Macaulay has recalled Kit making him sleep on the sofa or stay up all night running lines, as a way of attempting to ‘break my spirit’ as a child.
‘He wanted me to know that he was in charge and if he didn’t want us to sleep on a bed, we weren’t gonna sleep on a bed,’ Macaulay told ABC News.
