So, your favourite ‘Home Alone’ scene was actually an accident
Home Alone is the ultimate holiday movie for so many reasons. Not just because you can watch it with the entire family, but also because it is entertaining as hell since every other scene is iconic and imprinted in our minds forever. But what if I told you, your favourite Home Alone scene was actually a total accident?
The reason Home Alone works so well has got a lot to do with the adorable charm of Macaulay Culkin, who plays eight-year-old Kevin McCallister, accidentally left behind by his family during Christmas. Now home alone, the kid has the time of his life indulging in every little mischief that he would otherwise get reprimanded for, until of course, a home invasion by two burglars makes him miss his dysfunctional family.
One of the scenes from the 1990 film where Kevin, now the man of the house, tries to act all grown up and use aftershave, only to scream as his hands slapping his face burn his cheeks, has become an iconic moment of the franchise. And in a recent interview, director Chris Columbus revealed that the face slap gesture was partially an accident and wasn’t exactly written like that.
On The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, Columbus was talking about a bunch of things, including producing Nosferatu, directing and producing the Harry Potter films, and some juicy details about John Hughes’ Home Alone franchise, of which he directed the first two films. And he talked about how the placement of hands in that aftershave scene was actually an impromptu idea by Culkin and he couldn’t take credit for giving him the direction.
Columbus’ initial direction to nine-year-old Culkin was to apply the aftershave by placing his hands on his face, then quickly remove them, and then scream. However, for reasons unknown to Columbus, the child actor decided to keep his hands on his face and scream right away.
“Maybe he was nervous. He just didn’t move his hands from his cheeks and it made all of us laugh. Now, usually when the crew laughs, it’s not funny. But the crew laughed, and we kept it in the first preview of the film, and the audience loved it. So it was a complete accident,” Columbus said.
Other than this revelation, the filmmaker and producer also managed to solve a mystery that has long been plaguing fans of the franchise. What exactly did Kevin’s dad do to afford that huge house? How is that McCallister family so rich? Is the father into organised crime or something? And what about the mother? She was wearing all these sleek pantsuits, clearly she had to have been a professional, right? Well, now we know.
Turns out, Columbus and John Hughes had a discussion about it back then and decided that Kevin’s father, Peter McCallister (John Heard), was probably in advertising, while his mother, Kate McCallister (Catherine O’Hara), was a successful fashion designer, indicated by the mannequins that were in their house’s basement.
I don’t know about you, but this makes me want to rewatch Home Alone right away to spot all these details!
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