Macaulay Culkin was everywhere in the 1990s, appearing in hit (Home Alone) after hit (My Girl) after hit (Home Alone 2: Lost in New York). Then suddenly, he was nowhere — Culkin didn’t appear in a single movie between 1994’s Richie Rich and 2003’s Party Monster. “After I did Richie Rich… my father and mother called it quits, which is one of the best things to ever happen to me,” he recently told Marc Maron on WTF. “I was able to walk away from the business.”
With his “inheritance” (the money he made from his movies, which he was able to wrestle away from his parents), Culkin now lives a quiet life in Paris away from the spotlight, and he’s able to do whatever he wants. Like form a pizza-inspired Velvet Underground cover band, or paint, or appear on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to explain why he declines fan requests to do “The Face.”
“I’ve been there, done that already,” he said. “I’m 37, OK? OK, Mom?” Culkin also tries to avoid watching Home Alone (he hasn’t seen it since recording the DVD commentary on the 15th anniversary edition), which is especially difficult around Christmas. “It’s my season,” he told DeGeneres. “It’s Macaulay season. I try to go out less and less around that time of year.” Speaking of Home Alone…
Culkin accurately called this candid moment with Urkel, the Fresh Prince, Doogie Howser, and “The Face” the “most ’90s photo I’ve ever seen.” The only thing missing is — oh wait, here it is.
Culkin also talked about why he took a break from acting, even if it meant not hanging out with Stefan Urquelle anymore. “I was tired of it, to be honest. I did like 14 movies in six years or something like that,” Culkin said. “I was away from home a lot. I was away from school. I needed something else… It was the smartest thing I could have possibly done was to take eight years off.” And now, all these years later as an adult, “I felt like some kid worked really, really hard and I inherited all of his money. It allows me to treat everything like a hobby.”
