{"id":111869,"date":"2020-11-15T01:16:45","date_gmt":"2020-11-14T22:16:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/macaulay-culkin-is-someone-we-can-all-relate-to-in-home-alone\/"},"modified":"2020-11-15T01:16:45","modified_gmt":"2020-11-14T22:16:45","slug":"macaulay-culkin-is-someone-we-can-all-relate-to-in-home-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/macaulay-culkin-is-someone-we-can-all-relate-to-in-home-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"#Macaulay Culkin is Someone We Can All Relate to in \u2018Home Alone\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#Macaulay Culkin is Someone We Can All Relate to in \u2018Home Alone\u2019<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\">\n                <\/aside>\n<p><!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 3.7.8--><em>Acting is an art form, and behind every iconic character is an artist expressing themselves. Welcome to\u00a0The Great\u00a0Performances, a bi-weekly column exploring the art behind some of cinema\u2019s best roles. In this entry, we recognize <em><em>Maca<\/em><\/em>ulay Culkin\u2019s work as the enfant terrible of Home Alone.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\"\/>The inspiration for the 1990 film <strong><em>Home Alone<\/em><\/strong> came from a very relatable feeling: the anxiety of forgetting something before going on vacation. We all make mental checklists so we don\u2019t worry about whether or not we left the stove on, but writer <strong>John Hughes<\/strong> let his imagination wander even further as he packed his suitcase. <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/4105161\/home-alone-1990\/\">As he told <em>Time<\/em> magazine<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>\u201cI was going away on vacation\u2026 and making a list of everything I didn\u2019t want to forget. I thought, \u2018Well, I\u2019d better not forget my kids.\u2019 Then I thought, \u2018What if I left my ten-year-old son at home? What would he do?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Hughes jotted down this initial idea, and when he came home two weeks later, he started writing what would become the first draft of <em>Home Alone<\/em>. He finished it in a brisk nine days. Even with this quick turnaround, Hughes \u2014 ever the workhorse who wrote, produced, or directed sixteen <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">movies<\/a> within the span of eight years\u00a0\u2014 still <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagomag.com\/Chicago-Magazine\/December-2015\/Home-Alone\/\">wondered if he was writing too slowly<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If an errant thought had before going on holiday was the spark Hughes needed to start writing <em>Home Alone<\/em>, he kept the fire burning by visualizing the actor who would play the lead role of Kevin McCallister: <strong>Macaulay Culkin<\/strong>. Hughes had just worked with Culkin the previous year on <em>Uncle Buck<\/em>, where he played John Candy\u2019s precocious nephew Miles. <\/p>\n<p>Candy anchors the darkly comic film, but we\u2019re enchanted by Culkin\u2019s performance because he doesn\u2019t miss a beat with the film\u2019s adult cast. He\u2019s inquisitive and funny, deftly spitting out rapid-fire questions as he holds his own next to an incomparable co<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a>n like Candy. What makes Culkin a unique child actor is that he doesn\u2019t try to steal the spotlight or out-cute his co-stars. He just has a natural ease in front of the camera that garners our attention and screams, \u201cThis kid is going to be famous.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>No one could sense that star power more than Hughes. He had been looking to write a film centered on a child, so working with Culkin on <em>Uncle Buck<\/em> was a bit like kismet. Hughes even inadvertently gave the young actor a <em>Home Alone<\/em>-esque moment in the film where he grills Amy Madigan\u2019s character from behind his front door, demanding to see her driver\u2019s license before letting her in. <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esquire.com\/entertainment\/movies\/a30680749\/macaulay-culkin-interview-life-now-after-home-alone-2020\/\">As Culkin told <em>Esquire<\/em><\/a>, \u201cThat scene where I\u2019m looking through the mail slot? Hughes saw that and he got the idea: Kid defends house! And he wrote <em>Home Alone<\/em> for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hughes, with director <strong>Chris Columbus<\/strong>, did his Hollywood due diligence and saw hundreds of other kids for Kevin McCallister before ultimately giving the role to Culkin. Looking back at the crop of young child actors we saw in the late 1980s, outside of a veritable unknown, there was no clearer choice than Culkin. He has a vibrant presence that lights up the screen, but more than that he does something so few child actors can ably do: he doesn\u2019t let you see him acting.<\/p>\n<p>Culkin does this by having a great stone face. He doesn\u2019t have to do a lot to convey Kevin\u2019s thoughts and feelings, delivering his lines with cool confidence and sharp directness, simply listening and reacting to his co-stars without resorting to superfluous gestures or expressions that can take you out of a scene. When he does have to make an exaggerated face, it\u2019s through an honest reaction, like the unexpected sting of sl<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ing on aftershave, or the shock of coming face to face with a mysterious stranger like Old Man Marley (Roberts Blossom). Culkin understood at a young age a tenant of performance that even veterans can struggle with: acting is reacting.<\/p>\n<p>The naturalism that Culkin gives his inner monologues helps separate Kevin McCallister from other kid characters. He may be bright-eyed and full of energy, but his performance doesn\u2019t feel forced or over the top like the cheesy Culkin clones of the latter <em>Home Alone<\/em> sequels. He\u2019s practically understated as he muses aloud to himself, devoid of the surly obnoxiousness that typifies other child performances like Michael Oliver in  <em>Problem Child<\/em> (also released in 1990), a character practically designed to get on a parent\u2019s last nerve. Hughes\u2019 story may have Kevin navigate the realities of adulthood, but Culkin never acts like anything other than a normal kid stuck in an extraordinary situation. He is just being himself, and it\u2019s a quality that helped make him a star.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest feat that Hughes and Culkin accomplished was in creating a child character that even adults can relate to. Kids are drawn to Kevin because he gets to enjoy a privilege typically reserved for grown-ups \u2013 getting to stay by yourself \u2013 while we older viewers are envious of the lazy freedoms he indulges in. What adult doesn\u2019t want to eschew the world for a few days? At some point we\u2019ve all secretly wished our end of the year plans would be canceled so we could take a much-needed staycation, gorging ourselves on pizza, ice cream, and all-day movie marathons.<\/p>\n<p>We can even see ourselves in the way Kevin acts out in the film\u2019s opening scenes. It\u2019s easy to label the tantrum he throws over being ignored ahead of his looming European vacation as childishly bratty behavior, but what he\u2019s doing is outwardly expressing something adults often inwardly feel. Who among us hasn\u2019t gotten more than a little annoyed at being forced to do something we don\u2019t want to do? You\u2019d be upset too if your huge family didn\u2019t order you the <em>one<\/em> plain pizza topping you asked for! Kevin\u2019s not so much acting like a spoiled child, but behaving like any of us would under similar circumstances. We adults just have more experience masking our own apathy and disappointment.<\/p>\n<p>But we also see in Kevin our own heavyhearted memories of feeling alone, especially around the holidays. After the initial head rush of being left behind wears off, a creeping sense of melancholy sets in as Kevin realizes he\u2019s never been by himself like this before. We watch him cope with his confused loneliness by talking to his parents like they are still there, hoping that his empty house is just a bad dream he\u2019ll wake up from. Adults have a unique understanding that quality me-time can recharge our batteries, but our engines run on the connection we feel between others. We may want alone time, especially during the busy holiday season, but as Culkin\u2019s Kevin shows, it\u2019s rarely what we actually need.<\/p>\n<p>When <em>Home Alone <\/em>was released in 1990, it topped the box office for a staggering twelve weeks, but it\u2019s remained a perennial holiday favorite because adults and children alike can continue to see themselves in Kevin McCallister. He acts as a blank slate, a character we can project our own experiences on, someone who can accurately capture both the joy and melancholy we\u2019ve all felt before during \u201cthe most wonderful time of the year.\u201d Having audiences relate to your character is an achievement for any actor, but the fact that he was able to do it at nine years old is a testament to how truly talented Macaulay Culkin is.\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. 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Welcome to\u00a0The Great\u00a0Performances, a bi-weekly column exploring the art behind some of cinema\u2019s best roles. In this entry, we recognize Macaulay Culkin\u2019s work as the enfant terrible of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Macaulay-Culkin-Home-Alone-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[26809,80052,74878,15257],"class_list":["post-111869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-home-alone","tag-john-hughes","tag-macaulay-culkin","tag-the-great-performances"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}