Chris Farley Auditioned for ‘Home Alone’ After Pulling an All-Nighter
Christmas may be over, but that doesn’t mean that we have to stop obsessing over the behind-the-scenes details of Home Alone.
The film’s director, Chris Columbus, has been making the promotional for Nosferatu, which he produced. It might seem kind of weird that the filmmaker behind so many ‘90s family comedies worked on a gory vampire film, but one could make the argument that Mrs. Doubtfire was Columbus’ first real foray into horror.
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Columbus, again, reiterated that Chevy Chase is complete jackass, and clarified that the McCallister family’s wealth was due to Kevin’s mother’s success as a fashion designer, and not because the dad was secretly involved in organized crime like some people on the internet would have you believe. He also confirmed that Chris Farley was “almost cast” in Home Alone, but unfortunately, the future star totally blew his audition.
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While it would have been great to see a young Chris Farley as one of the Wet Bandits, or in old age makeup playing the kindly old man/suspected serial killer living next door, Columbus said that Farley was up for the role of the unconvincing Santa Claus who fields a request from Kevin.
“Farley was just starting out at the time,” Columbus recalled, noting that the sketch performer was invited to audition for the film on a Saturday morning. “This guy came in at 7 a.m. for our first reading for the guy who played Santa Claus in the movie. He was not in any particularly great shape. He had just come out from all night being in Chicago.”
Columbus has talked about this failed audition in previous interviews, noting that he actually knew Farley a bit already because they “went to the same church on Sundays.” But even though he thought Farley was “the sweetest guy in the world,” he couldn’t give him the job. “He came in and I don’t think he had gone to sleep that night so the audition did not go particularly well.”
The part ultimately went to Ken Hudson Campbell, who had worked with Farley at The Second City. Campbell once told Chicago Magazine that he arrived at the audition shortly after Farley, and immediately knew that his colleague’s try-out wasn’t a success: “He walked in and walked right out.”
It was no secret as to why Farley tanked the audition. “Apparently, he was out all night and had just been dropped off after a night of shenanigans, shall we say,” Campbell stated. “Farley was kinda making catcalls to the girls who worked in the office. I was thinking, ‘Oh, boy!’”
“We had to say, ‘Well, not this time,’” Columbus explained. “And then over the years I got to know Farley really well, and we always talked about that.”
At least Farley would finally get the chance to play the role of Santa Claus just three years later — sorta.
