Macaulay Culkin has cleared up rumors about filming Home Alone decades after the hit Christmas movie’s original release.
Culkin, 44, was a guest on Thursday’s episode of the popular YouTube series, Hot Ones, where celebrities are interviewed while eating chicken wings with hot sauce that gets increasingly spicier. One of the questions revolved around his character Kevin McAllister’s iconic line, “You guys give up? Or are you thirsty for more?” and whether or not Culkin improvised it.
Despite the long-standing rumor that Culkin created the line in the 1990 holiday classic, he admitted during the episode that although he ad-libbed in the movie, that was not one of them.
“Not that one,” he said. “That was in the script.”
“When I was at the grocery store, it’s like, ‘Where are your parents?’ ‘Why won’t you tell me?’ And I said, ‘Because you’re a stranger,’” he continued. “That one was mine. I did a lot of that kind of stuff.”
The My Girl actor also talked about meeting his stunt double. In the movie, Culkin’s stunt double was played by a 30-year-old man named Larry. After meeting, Larry had Culkin try to guess his age, where he guessed 13 since he was only nine years old at the time of filming.
The actor then recalled one specific scene where he was afraid to watch what happened to his counterpart.
“He’s climbing the shelf, trying to reach the thing on top, and the whole shelf collapsed. It was vicious that first take,” Culkin said.
“They do it again, and there’s another take, and just boom. They didn’t like the way everything fell. And they do it again, and they do it again, and they do it again, and I’m going, ‘Please take it easy on Larry! He’s only 13 years old!’”
Despite the film’s popularity around the holiday season, Culkin doesn’t watch it very often which was a struggle during his first Christmas with his fiancée, Brenda Song.
“When we started dating almost eight years ago now, Christmastime came around — and it’s a tradition, I’ve always watched Home Alone every Christmas,” the Suite Life of Zach & Cody alum said during an appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show in March.
“He hadn’t seen the movie in almost a decade — he didn’t want to watch it — and I forced it. I was like, ‘We have to.’”
She remembered that once the movie began, Culkin “started telling me all the behind-the-scenes stories. And I was like, ‘Stop. Stop. You’re ruining it for me.’”
“The movie holds such a special place in obviously so many people’s hearts. It’s just hard for me, that’s all,” she explained.
