Macaulay Culkin is best known as the kid who outsmarted burglars in Home Alone, but his real-life story is far more layered than any script he’s acted out.
Now 44, Culkin has stepped back into the spotlight—not for a new role, but for a rare and brutally honest conversation about his past: from a major role he regrets passing on to the decades-long rift with his father.
A Role That Got Away
While chatting on a recent episode of Hot Ones, Macaulay looked back at a missed opportunity he still thinks about to this day—the lead role in Wes Anderson’s 1998 film Rushmore.
At the time, he had stepped away from acting, taking a break after years of non-stop work in Hollywood.
“I was technically retired,” he said, adding that he was around 17 when Rushmore came across his desk.
But the script got buried under a pile of others, and by the time he came across it again while clearing out old papers, it was too late.
“I was like, ‘Oh dang,’” he said, admitting he could picture himself in the role that eventually went to Jason Schwartzman.
“That would’ve been a ball and a biscuit,” he added.
Walking Away From Hollywood
Macaulay’s early success was meteoric. By age 10, he was a household name thanks to Home Alone, and the roles just kept coming.
But after starring in Richie Rich in 1994, he hit the brakes—hard.
“I went to high school. I got married way too young,” he said candidly.
After nearly a decade away, he returned to acting in Party Monster in 2003. But even today, he refers to himself as “mostly retired,” while his younger brother Kieran Culkin continues to thrive in the industry, recently winning an Oscar.
A Lifetime of Tension with His Father
Behind Macaulay’s childhood fame was a complex and painful relationship with his father, Kit Culkin.
For years, Kit served as his manager—but Macaulay says that role was mixed with resentment and control.
On the Sibling Revelry podcast with Kate and Oliver Hudson, he didn’t hold back.
“One of my earliest memories was thinking, ‘This is exactly how I won’t treat my kids,’” he said.
Now a dad to two young sons, Dakota and Carson, with fiancée Brenda Song, Macaulay says parenthood has stirred up emotions about his own upbringing.
Abuse, Control, and the Breaking Point
Macaulay described his father as both physically and emotionally abusive.
As a child, he recalled being forced to sleep on the couch or stay up all night rehearsing lines.
It wasn’t discipline, he said—it was domination.
“He was trying to break my spirit,” Macaulay recalled.
He also shared how Kit’s own failed dreams in acting seemed to create bitterness. “He wanted to be an actor,” Macaulay said.
“But then I came along and succeeded in everything he tried, and I think he resented me for that.”
A Legal Battle and Taking Control
Things hit a breaking point when Macaulay’s parents split in 1995, leading to a bitter custody dispute.
During that time, he learned just how much money he had earned—about $50 million.
Wanting control of his own future, he went to court to remove both parents’ names from his trust fund.
Even during legal proceedings, he stood his ground.
When a judge ordered him to continue visitation with his father, Macaulay pushed back hard.
“I said, ‘I dare the judge to put the most famous kid in the world in jail for not wanting to visit his abusive father.’”
No Reconciliation in Sight
Today, Macaulay says he hasn’t spoken to Kit in nearly 30 years—and neither have his siblings, including Kieran.
He remains clear that the separation is for the best. “He was a bad man,” Macaulay said plainly.
“He was jealous. He was abusive. Everything he wanted in life, I accomplished before I was 10.”
Looking Forward, Not Back
Despite the pain, Macaulay has taken the lessons from his past and tried to build a better life for his own family.
He’s kept a low profile in recent years, choosing privacy and peace over fame.
While the missed roles and childhood traumas still echo, he seems content to focus on what matters now: being the kind of father he never had.
