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Macaulay Culkin reacts to calls to cut Trump from Home Alone 2
Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin has spoken out in support of a viral campaign to have outgoing US President Donald Trump’s cameo removed from 1992’s Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
Twitter users were quick to call for the 74-year-old to be digitally removed from the hit comedy after he was impeached for the second time on January 13 for “incitement of insurrection” following the deadly US Capitol riots.
Some even took matters into their own hands, editing the scene in order to replace Trump with everyone from US President-elect Joe Biden to Christopher Plummer and Keanu Reeves.
Culkin, who played the precocious Kevin McCallister in both the original and the sequel, appeared to be in favour of a re-edit according to his interactions with fans on Twitter.
“Due to popular request I have removed trump from home alone,” the user tweeted, to which the now-40-year-old star replied, “bravo.”
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He also threw his weight behind another user’s suggestion for Trump to be replaced by Culkin himself.
“Petition to digitally replace trump in ‘home alone 2’ with 40-year-old Macaulay Culkin,” they wrote, prompting Culkin to reply, “sold”.
Canada drops Donald
The former host of The Apprentice was officially cut from the film by Canadian broadcaster CBC in 2019.
CBC stated that the decision was not politically motivated and that Trump’s cameo was simply part of eight minutes of footage axed due to ‘time restrictions’ when the broadcaster acquired it in 2014 — two years prior to Trump’s election.
The president, however, publically claimed that the move was a thinly veiled jab from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
How ‘bully’ Trump got the part
According to the official story, Trump’s appearance in Home Alone 2 came about when movie execs sought permission to film in the Plaza Hotel, in Manhattan, NYC, which he owned at the time.
He reportedly agreed in exchange for a cameo as himself in a scene in which Culkin’s Kevin McCallister asks him for directions.
But, according to a December 2020 interview with director Chris Columbus, even though test audiences responded well to Trump’s appearance, the man essentially ‘bullied’ his way onto the big screen.
“People cheered when Trump showed up on-screen,” Columbus told Insider.
“So I said to my editor: ‘Leave him in the movie. It’s a moment for the audience’. But he did bully his way into the movie,” he added.
In 2017, actor Matt Damon revealed that agreeing to a Trump cameo was a common prerequisite for filming in Trump-owned venues.
No vacancy
Trump purchased the iconic hotel in 1988 for an estimated $4,100,000 but, after poor returns and a failed last-ditch renovation plan, he had racked up $6,000,000 in debt.
On the verge of bankruptcy in 1992, Trump convinced the Plaza’s creditors to take a 49 per cent stake in the hotel in exchange for ‘forgiveness of $250 million in debt’ and an interest rate reduction. The deal was inked at around the same time Trump made his Home Alone 2 appearance.
Just three years later, Trump threw in the towel and sold his share in the hotel which resulted in an estimated $80 million+ loss on his part.
Additional reporting by Tom Beasley.
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