Advertisement

The Reason Macaulay Culkin Retired From Acting

Source: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Macaulay Culkin is often regarded as one of the most well-known movie stars of his time. Culkin, who has been performing since he was four years old, rose to fame after appearing in the first "Home Alone" film when he was just nine years old. The American actor, who was ranked no. 2 among all-time child stars by VH1 in 2005, received a Golden Globe nomination for his part in the classic holiday movie. Additionally, he took home the Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor in a Film that year.
Perhaps his most well-known performance was in "Home Alone" (and its sequel, "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York," which was released two years later in 1992). But Culkin kept acting for years after that, appearing in movies including "My Girl" in 1991, "The Good Son" in 1993, and the comedic movie "Richie Rich" in 1994, according to IMDb. Culkin eventually made the decision to take a (temporary) break from acting in his teenage years, like many other budding actors in the business. The precise reason he took such a drastic choice may surprise fans.

He quits acting to search for a normal upbringing

Source: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Following his major role in Donald Petrie's comedy "Richie Rich" at age 14, Macaulay Culkin opted to leave the acting business, according to Vanity Fair's 2018 feature of his younger brother Kieran. He made this decision primarily because he was fed up with the business and his parents' dominance over him. He remembers telling his folks, "I'm done, guys. Hope you all made your money because there is no more coming from me." This resulted in a contentious legal dispute in which the adolescent sued his parents to keep them from having authority over his $17 million in earnings.
The Culkins do not get along well with their father, Kit, (who has eight children, two of whom died). For example, Macaulay has discussed how he mistreated them during their childhood. In a 2019 interview with Esquire, Macaulay painted his father as a tyrannical, domineering guy who pressured his sons into the film business because he couldn't find success in the field himself.
According to Vanity Fair, he wrote in an open letter to his father, "You hurt people a lot, you know. I am not just talking about your family and the other important people around you; you hurt our name. I should know ... You made a lot of people cry. You made my mother cry."

Initially, Macaulay Culkin wanted his departure from Hollywood to be final

Source: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

Macaulay Culkin didn't always want that to be the case, despite the fact that he has since made a comeback to the big screen, most notably as a part of the 10th season of FX's "American Horror Story." He revealed to Esquire that he "began to feel like work. I began shouting something out loud but was not heard: "I want to go to school."" Additionally, he revealed to Time magazine in 2001 that "When I quit, I simply assumed that it was ended and that I would never, ever do it again. I only wanted to vanish off the face of the planet." The six years he spent away from the business, he continued, had taught him that "you can't back out of this."
During his break, Culkin married Rachel Miner, a fellow colleague, when they were both 18 years old in 1998. They divorced formally two years after their separation in 2000, indicating that their marriage did not went the way they wanted. Since his union with Brenda Song in 2017, the two have been expecting a boy, who was born in 2021. Culkin and Song appear to be doing well right now. He told CNN in 2018: "I'm with a lady right now, and she is so good to me that they feel like blows." She just does nice things, and I feel like at first, I didn't know how to be treated well in that kind of way. It was a strange, almost foreign concept."
Share this article
Advertisement
 
Advertisement