Actor Chevy Chase’s Awkward Antics Made Director Quit Iconic Film

The classic 1989 film National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation could have been a different film with Chris Columbus in the director’s chair, but the veteran filmmaker said that awkward meetings with star Chevy Chase turned him off.

“I was signed on… and then I met Chevy Chase,” Columbus said in a Vanity Fair interview. “Even given my situation at the time, where I desperately needed to make a film, I realized I couldn’t work with the guy.”

Columbus—who later made Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire and two Harry Potter movies—said things seemed to sour on his first meeting with Chase, “just the two of us.”

Hoping to engage Chase in a conversation, “I talked about how I saw the movie, how I wanted to make the movie,” said Columbus. “He didn’t say anything. I went through about a half hour of talking. He didn’t say a word. And then he stops and he says—and this makes no sense to any human being on the planet, but I’m telling you. I probably have never told this story. Forty minutes into the meeting, he says, ‘Wait a second. You’re the director?’”

According to Columbus, Chase added, “Oh, I thought you were a drummer,” and then told him he had to go after about 30 seconds.

“I still haven’t been able to make any sense out of it,” said Columbus, adding that a second meeting with Chase at dinner with writer and co-producer John Hughes didn’t go much better.

“I was basically nonexistent,” said Columbus, as Chase and Hughes talked about everything but the movie.

“We spent two hours together, and I left the dinner and I thought, ‘There’s no way I can make a movie with this guy,’” Columbus said.

Although the film became a holiday classic, with the directing job ultimately going to Jeremiah S. Chechik, Chase has been unable to shake off a reputation for being difficult to work with.

After starring in the NBC sitcom Community for four seasons, Chase left the show in 2012 amid rumors of off-screen feuds with his co-stars. He later claimed the show wasn’t funny enough for him.