Macaulay Culkin Owns Up To A ‘Disaster’ Of An Audition For ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’

Macaulay Culkin (who’s still fondly known as the star of Ritchie Rich, and of course Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost In New York) is doing just fine these days with a variety of non-acting projects. He’s also covering the March issue of Esquire (you can see the full image at the bottom of this post) with a wide-ranging interview that dives into the depths of fame. Mac, as he introduces himself to Ryan D’Agostino, seems well-adjusted despite his unusual life and child-stardom history. He calls himself “pretty peerless,” which isn’t wrong, and he appears to be amused by people’s perceptions of him as “a kook” or “cracked.” Overall, he’s quite well spoken.

However, the former frontman of The Pizza Underground admits that he suffered a great embarrassment a few years ago while auditioning for Quentin Tarantino. Although Mac doesn’t identify the role that he wished to play in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, he owns up to the experience not going well at all:

“It was a disaster. I wouldn’t have hired me. I’m terrible at auditions anyway, and this was my first audition in like eight years.”

Naturally, I want to know which role he’s discussing. It’s tempting to imagine that he wanted to play Charles Manson (a role portrayed by Dewey Crowe Damon Herriman that got whittled down, even to the exclusion of a “brilliantly written” scene). However, I’m gonna guess that Mac wished to portray Manson goon Tex Watson (the role went to Austin Butler). Can you envision Macaulay snarling lines like “I’m the devil, and I came to do the devil’s business” or “I’m as real as a donut, m*therf*cker”? I can squint and see it, but it didn’t happen for a reason, as Mac admits.

The rest of the interview is worth reading. Culkin treads (arguably too) carefully on the subject of his late friend, Michael Jackson, stating, “[I]f I had something to speak up about, I would totally do it. But no, I never saw anything.” He’s said this type of thing before, but this tidbit about James Franco asking Culkin about Jackson is something:

“I ran into James Franco on a plane. I’d bumped into him two or three times over the years. I give him a little nod as we’re putting our bags overhead. Hey, how you doing? Good, how ya doing? And it was right after the Leaving Neverland documentary came out, and he goes, ‘So, that documentary!’ And that was all he said. I was like, ‘Uh-huh.’ Silence. So then he goes, ‘So what do you think?’ And I turned to him and I go, ‘Do you wanna talk about your dead friend?’ And he sheepishly went, ‘No, I don’t.’ So I said, ‘Cool, man, it was nice to see you.'”

Yes, awkward. You can find the rest of Macaulay Culkin’s interview with Esquire here.

Esquire/Robbie Fimmano

(Via Esquire)

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