Watching the classic at Christmas Home Alone: for many this is tradition. Actor Macaulay Culkin is just ten years old when he plays the iconic role of Kevin McCallister. But then he disappears from view. How is he now?
Culkin grew up in a large family, with six brothers and sisters. His parents, Kit Culkin and Patricia Brentrup, are not well off. When a neighbor offers to introduce the family to casting director Billy Hopkins, his parents seize the opportunity. Hopkins is immediately impressed by the “angelic” appearance of the then eight-year-old Culkin and offers him his first acting job. Rocket Gibraltar will be his film debut.
Culkin manages to impress again, this time director Chris Columbus. Culkin is chosen from more than two hundred young actors for the role of Kevin McCallister in the Christmas comedy Home Alone. The 1990 film grossed a whopping $476 million worldwide. That gigantic success has everything to do with Culkin’s talent and charisma. It’s a performance that earned him a Golden Globe nomination.
This followed in 1992 Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, with the same cast as the first part. About playing the role of Kevin McCallister, Culkin says in an interview with New York Magazine in 2006: “To a lot of people, I’m still that kid. It’s a blessing and a curse. I can go to any restaurant without a reservation, but when I get there, everyone is staring.”
Macaulay Culkin with his fiancée Brenda Song at the unveiling of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on December 1, 2023. Photo: NL Image
‘I didn’t know I was worth $50 million’
Culkin instantly becomes the breadwinner for his family. The financial problems come to an end, but that cannot keep the family together. Five years after the first Home Alonefilm, the actor’s parents separate. What follows is a custody battle between Culkin and Brentrup over their seven children.
Brentrup ultimately gets full custody. Macaulay Culkin chooses to no longer have contact with his father. The actor says he was mentally and physically abused by his father. “He is a bad man. I have scars that show that,” he said in 2018 podcast WTF.
His father, who managed Culkin and his brothers, pressured him to work. Even when the actor doesn’t want that. It doesn’t help that his children are more successful than he will ever be. “Everything he wanted in his own life, I achieved before I was a teenager,” Culkin says of his father, who became an actor himself.
At The New York Times the actor says years later that until the custody case between his parents, he had no idea that he was worth around $50 million. His father, who manages his money, is said to have deliberately kept him in the dark about his finances. “My father hid newspapers from me so I wouldn’t find out how much I earned.”
To gain access to his own income, the actor appoints someone outside the family to manage his money from now on. Culkin has not seen or spoken to his father since.
‘Drugs are old friends’
Culkin does the occasional acting job, but Home Alone he does not surpass. It remained quiet around the actor until he made headlines in 2004. Culkin, then 24, is arrested for drug possession. The misery doesn’t end there. The actor’s sister, Dakota, dies at the age of 29 when she is hit by a motorist while crossing the street.
The events in his private life seem to have a major influence on his acting career and health. Meanwhile, rumors are swirling about Culkin’s possible drug addiction. Something that he himself has always denied. Even when photos of him appeared in 2012 in which he looked very emaciated and fragile. The actor says about his drug use in an interview with in 2021 Esquire yes: “I really love them (drugs, ed.). They are like old friends. But sometimes you outgrow your friends.”
At the beginning of this month, the now 43-year-old Culkin will appear in the media again when he receives a star on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. The actor beams, with fiancée Brenda Song at his side. The couple has two sons together.
Culkin still does acting. He was recently seen in the series The Righteous Gemstones in American Horror Stories. Nowadays, Culkin chooses his roles on his own terms. He prefers to keep his life out of the spotlight. And in case you’re wondering: Culkin isn’t watching the Home Alone-films.
2023-12-23 19:50:25
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