Macaulay Culkin reveals why he walked away from fame as a teenager
Macaulay Culkin was a star long before he appeared in everyone’s favourite Christmas film, Home Alone.
Before making his feature film debut in 1988’s Rocket Gibraltar, the actor appeared on stage, gained a TV credit from the CBS American crime show, The Equalizer, and starred alongside Drew Barrymore and Jeff Bridges in 1989’s See You in the Morning.
A year later, Chris Columbus’ Home Alone would hit cinemas, and the rest, as they say, is history.
After the holiday staple propelled him to stardom, Culkin, now 45, reprised his role as Kevin McCallister in its subsequent spin-off before later moonlighting in episodes Frasier and Will & Grace.
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Despite his early successes, the father-of-two took a hiatus from the entertainment industry after starring in Richie Rich.
Speaking about his decision to step away from acting in 1994, Culkin revealed on an episode of Mythical Kitchen that he wanted some semblance of a childhood.
“What I wanted is to be with people my own age. You have to remember: a lot of the stuff I did when I was a kid... I'm not doing ensembles. It's me," he confessed, as per People.
"You'll watch Home Alone... and I go, 'Oh my gosh, I'm in Castaway, except he had a volleyball to talk to,'" Culkin added, referring to the beloved Tom Hanks movie.
He continued: "People will be like, 'Oh, what was it like working with Joe Pesci?' I'm like, 'Have you seen the movie?' We do maybe two scenes together. And then me, in a house, by myself, almost home alone.”
Culkin claimed his main motivations for taking a break were wanting to ‘date girls’, go to party's, and attend Bar Mitzvahs.
On finding fame at such a young age, the Golden Globe-nominated actor confessed: "For me, it kind of just happened.
“I didn't really do a lot of tugging on my parent's sleeve, saying, 'Mummy, daddy, I want to be famous. I want to do movies'. I kind of just started doing it and I was good at it and I kept booking it.”
Following his hiatus at 14-years-old, Culkin returned to acting with the biographical drama film Party Monster in 2003.
The American Horror Story favourite has been pretty selective about his credits in recent years, seemingly preferring voice roles over physically demanding moments.
Between 2022 and 2025, he has lent his voice to projects including Intergalactic, The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy, and Zootopia 2.
Outside of his career, Culkin is raising his two sons, Dakota, four, and Carson, three, with wife and Disney Channel icon, Brenda Song, 37.
The pair initially met in 2014, but didn’t become a couple until they reunited whilst working on Seth Green’s directorial debut, Changeland.
Topics: Celebrity, Macaulay Culkin, Home Alone, Entertainment, Film
Ella Scott