Macaulay Culkin has reflected on his decision to step away from acting at age 14, revealing that he simply wanted a normal childhood. Speaking on a recent episode of Mythical Kitchen, the 45-year-old actor said, “What I wanted is to be with people my own age… I wanted to go out, date girls, hang out, go to parties. I can’t tell you how many Bar Mitzvahs I missed.”
Culkin, best known for Home Alone, described the isolation of his early stardom: “You’ll watch Home Alone… it’s almost me in a house by myself.” He compared the experience to Tom Hanks in Castaway, joking, “except he had a volleyball to talk to.”
The actor also addressed his early entry into Hollywood, which he said happened almost by chance. “I didn’t really do a lot of tugging on my parents’ sleeves… I kind of just started doing it and I was good at it,” he said, explaining that his first auditions came after his parents took his older siblings for headshots and simply included him.
Culkin admitted the pressures of fame were inescapable: “You can’t un-ring that bell, you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube.” After starring in Richie Rich, he took a hiatus to reclaim a normal life before returning to acting with the 2003 biographical drama Party Monster.
The actor has also been candid about his challenging family life. Born to Christopher “Kit” Culkin and Patricia Brentrup, Macaulay grew estranged from his father after his parents separated in 1995. He has accused Kit of physical and mental abuse during his childhood, telling WTF With Marc Maron in 2018, “[He said] ‘Do good or I’ll hit you.’ He was abusive… I can show you all my scars if I wanted to.”
Today, Culkin is married to actress Brenda Song, and the couple have two sons, Dakota and Carson.
