John Candy Looked Out for Macaulay Culkin When ‘Infamous Monster’ Dad Was On Set

“Listen, even before the wave crested and the Home Alone stuff was happening, it was not hard to see how difficult my father was,” says Macaulay Culkin in the new documentary, John Candy: I Like Me, per Entertainment Weekly. “It was no secret. He was already a monster. All of a sudden, the fame and the money came, and he became an infamous monster.”

Many people on movie sets looked the other way. But when Culkin made Uncle Buck with John Candy, the kid actor noticed something different. “I think John was looking a little side-eyed, like, ‘Is everything all right over there? You doing good? Good day? Everything’s all right? Everything good at home? All right.’”

That was because Candy noticed something was up with Kit Culkin. “Before money, before fame, before anything like that, I mean, he just wasn’t always a good person,” Macaulay told Larry King, describing how he and his brother were forced to sleep on couches despite their movie successes.  

“I was making God knows how much money, and I didn’t have a bed. I didn’t even have a room,” he remembered. His father “was very controlling. … He played games with you, just to make sure you were still in your place.”

Uncle Buck was an early entry in Culkin’s whirlwind movie career. He made 14 movies in six years before he “retired” at age 14. “I had to take control,” he told King. “I was going crazy by that point. I knew it was, you know, if I just kept on doing it, I’d go nuts.” 

But Candy made his Uncle Buck experience better than most. “I think that’s why that’s one of my favorite performances, because I think (Candy) put a lot of himself into it,” Culkin says in the documentary. “He showed a lot of respect. When you’re eight years old, you don’t really get respect, whether it’s in a workplace or just from adults and grown-ups in general. You felt invited in.”

That wasn’t always how it went down in Culkin’s movies. A lot of his adult co-stars “don’t know how or don’t like to work with kids,” he said, admitting young actors are “tricky to work with.” But “John was always really kind” to him and kid co-star Gaby Hoffman.

Culkin appreciated the way Candy “was just looking out for” him on the set. “It doesn’t happen that often. It actually happened less as time went on,” he said. “I wish I got more of that in my life. It’s important that I remember that. I remember John caring when not a lot of people did.”