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When it comes to Christmas flicks, Home Alone is a chef-d’oeuvre. Watching Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) outmaneuver the bumbling Wet Bandits is a holiday tradition. But what if this beloved film nearly never happened?
Believe it or not, Home Alone exists because of an awkward, borderline bizarre meeting. One that had nothing to do with Kevin, burglars, or booby traps—but everything to do with Chevy Chase.
Back in the late 1980s, director Chris Columbus was in a rut. He needed a hit, and fast. Enter John Hughes, the legendary filmmaker behind Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and The Breakfast Club. Hughes handed Columbus a golden opportunity: directing National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
Columbus was eager to take it on. That zeal, however, didn’t last long. The trouble started when he met the film’s star, Chase. The conversation was anything but smooth. Columbus later recalled to The Hollywood Reporter, “I’m asking him all these questions, and he was just dead and not interested and distracted.”
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Then, things got weirder. After nearly an hour of awkward chatter, Chase suddenly blurted, “Wait a second, you’re the director?” Columbus, twisted, confirmed it. Chase then answered, “Oh, I thought you were a drummer.”
A drummer? That was the moment Columbus knew something wasn’t right. Things didn’t improve. At a later dinner with Hughes, Chase barely acknowledged Columbus. Every time the director brought up the movie, Chase changed the topic.
However, Columbus got the message loud and clear. This wasn’t going to work. He made the stern call to step away from Christmas Vacation. Walking away from a prominent project wasn’t straightforward, but it turned out to be the best judgment of his calling.
John Hughes didn’t let Columbus walk away empty-handed. Just a week later, he sent him a brand-new script—Home Alone. Hughes had already envisioned Macaulay Culkin as Kevin, but Columbus wasn’t persuaded yet. He wanted to give other kids a fair shot at the role. So, he auditioned 300 young actors.
After all that searching, though, he realized Hughes had been right all along. Culkin was the perfect Kevin McCallister. With Columbus at the helm, Home Alone became a runaway success. It smashed box office records. It cemented Macaulay Culkin’s stardom and spawned a franchise.
Ironically, Christmas Vacation also became a holiday favorite. But for Columbus, dodging that Chase fiasco led him explicitly to one of the biggest hits of his career. Sometimes, the best things happen when plans fall apart.
For more such stories, check out Hollywood News
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