Macaulay Culkin Only Agreed To 'Home Alone 2' If He Could Also Play A Horror Villain
We gave readers a list of slashers and asked them who would come on top in a fight. Consensus tilted toward Jason Voorhees, but if we had to pick a winning answer, it would have to be the one from a reader whose name actually is Michael Myer. Michael did not vote for his namesake from the Halloween movies, instead picking a character more devious than any of the ones we listed: Kevin from Home Alone.
Soon after Home Alone, Macaulay Culkin did star in exactly one horror film. At the time, 20th Century Fox were really keen on getting him to do a Home Alone sequel (Home Alone had been ridiculously successful, for a while the third-highest-grossing film of all time). His father and manager Kit said that if they wanted him, they also had to give him the role of the evil kid in their upcoming R-rated thriller The Good Son.
The studio already had an actor lined up, but they agreed and replaced him. And though they publicly denied the decision was anything other than just hiring the most bankable star, sources privately revealed how Culkins' people had kinda extorted the part out of them. Kit further influenced the studio into casting his daughter Quinn and even casting a third Culkin, Rory, as a character who only appears as a photo.
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For the lead in the film, however, the cousin to Macaulay's character, the studio looked to a different child actor: Charlie Korsmo, who'd appeared in six films in two years. Charlie turned down their $1 million offer, retired from acting altogether, and would go on to become a professor of law. So the studio had to hire someone else—some kid named Elijah Wood.
Like we said, the film's rated R. Though it centers on two 12-year-olds, it is not meant for children. That didn't stop a fair number of parents from taking their kids to see it, fooled by the movie's innocuous title and poster. These parents were then surprised to see Macaulay Culkin swearing at them ...
... and also committing some slightly more serious offenses, including (spoiler) child murder. Also, killing a dog with a crossbow, tossing a fake body into traffic to cause an 11-car pileup, and trying to murder his own mother by dropping a rock on her to send her off a cliff. All of which strongly implies that this movie might have been a sequel to Home Alone after all.
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For more things Macaulay, check out:
The Plot Of The Rejected 'Home Alone' Sequel Was Insane
6 Characters Whose Lives Fell Apart In Little Known Sequels
'Home Alone 2' Conned Children Into Wanting A Toy ... That Didn't Exist
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Top image: 20th Century Studios
