Kate Hudson Clarifies Her Cameo in Home Alone 2

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Okay, this is a fun little bit of Hollywood trivia! When Home Alone 2: Lost in New York was released, Kate Hudson was actually 13 years old – the perfect age to be part of the choir scene with Macaulay Culkin’s character, Kevin McAllister. It’s amazing how these things connect, and it’s a sweet memory for anyone who remembers that film!

Kate Hudson often playfully mentions the very small amount of money she earns from her brief appearance in the popular 1992 film Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. However, she isn’t actually in the famous scene where Kevin hits his brother Buzz, causing a chain reaction that topples the children and stops the Christmas pageant.

Hudson explained in an upcoming episode of The Awardist podcast, according to Entertainment Weekly, that she doesn’t appear in the film itself, but she did contribute to the movie’s soundtrack.

She added, “I’m just one of the little kids that went to the recording studio and sang.”

Kate Hudson continues to receive small royalty payments, sometimes as little as two cents, for her work on past projects. Her very first film credit is Home Alone 2, though it’s listed as an uncredited role on her IMDb page.

Whether you notice Devin Ratray (who played Buzz) in the background or not, the Home Alone 2 soundtrack is fantastic. It includes music by the famous composer John Williams, along with the charming song “My Christmas Tree” by The Home Alone Children’s Choir.

While Home Alone 2 often doesn’t get as much credit as the first movie, Macaulay Culkin actually prefers it – and he has his reasons why.

The actor, who shares two sons with Brenda Song, jokingly revealed on the August episode of Hot Ones that he negotiated a significant financial stake in the movie. He estimated he earns five percent of the film’s overall profit and fifteen percent of all merchandise sales, like the iconic Talkboy device. He even playfully encouraged fans to purchase a Talkboy as a Christmas gift.

A Talkboy is the cassette player and recorder that Kevin uses a lot, both at home and during his adventures in New York City.

Considering Home Alone 2 earned $359 million worldwide, it’s safe to say Macaulay Culkin has made a lot more than just a couple of pennies in residuals.

Want to uncover more fun facts about the world of Home Alone? We’re bringing them to you, just like a band on tour!

The idea for the film came from John Hughes’ own worries as a parent. His son, James Hughes, shared in a 2015 interview with Chicago Magazine that his father first wrote down the concept on August 8, 1989, shortly before a family trip to Europe. James explained that two weeks later, after they returned home, his father began to explore a specific scenario: what if one of the children had been mistakenly left behind?

Oh my god, you won’t BELIEVE how fast John Hughes wrote this! The genius behind The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink basically lived and breathed this story, finishing the first draft in just NINE days! Can you even imagine?! He was up for a full eight hours straight, hammering out the last 44 pages to finish it! It’s insane, but get this – even WHILE he was writing it, he was worried he wasn’t going fast enough! He was jotting notes to himself, stressing about the pace! It just proves how much this story meant to him, and how much pressure he put on himself to get it perfect. I’m obsessed!

Macaulay Culkin doesn’t enjoy watching his famous movie, Home Alone, during the holidays like most people. He told Ellen DeGeneres in 2018 that he actually changes the channel when it comes on TV.

He admitted to occasionally making an exception to his rules, explaining that if a new girlfriend asks to watch Home Alone, he’ll sometimes agree. He described a scenario on The Tonight Show, saying he’ll often watch and quietly recite the lines along with the movie. He acknowledged it’s a little odd, but added, “If it makes her happy, that’s what matters.”

Maybe that’s why he returned for the popular 2018 Google ad, which imagines what Kevin would be like as an adult with modern technology?

He even jokingly tweeted, “Hey @Disney, call me!” when Disney announced in 2019 they were making a new version of the ’90s movie. That new version ended up being Home Sweet Home Alone.

The movie National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation could have looked very different. Director Chris Columbus revealed to Chicago Magazine that Chevy Chase was difficult to work with. During their first meeting, a dinner intended to build rapport, Chase was openly rude to Columbus, treating him poorly according to the director.

Columbus’s next film wasn’t successful either, and he ended up calling producer Hughes to withdraw from the project. He remembered receiving two scripts at his in-laws’ home in River Forest about two weeks later. One was for Home Alone, and it included a note from Hughes asking if Columbus would direct it. Columbus felt Hughes was truly supporting him at a time when no one else in Hollywood was, and he considered Hughes a lifesaver.

The movie almost didn’t get made because of a money disagreement between Warner Bros. and the filmmakers. It was put up for sale, and Joe Roth, who was head of 20th Century Fox at the time, found out during lunch with Hughes’ agent that they were arguing over just $700,000.

Roth recalled being told that Home Alone had a $14.7 million price tag, but Warner Bros. was only willing to contribute $14 million. When he asked about the shortfall, he was given a solution, and he agreed to move forward if it could be resolved. He felt it was an easy decision – the cost wasn’t high, he needed a film for the Thanksgiving holiday, and he admired the people working on the project. It proved to be a smart move, as the film ultimately earned over $476 million at the box office.

Macaulay Culkin was the frontrunner for the main role. John Hughes, who had directed him in Uncle Buck with John Candy the year before, was confident Culkin was the right choice. However, director Chris Columbus felt he needed to audition other young actors. As Columbus explained, Hughes was supportive, saying, “Take your time and do what you need to do.”

Oh my gosh, after hundreds of auditions, they finally brought in Macaulay! And honestly, it was instant. You just knew he was the one. It was like John Hughes knew all along, but he was so cool about letting me feel like I discovered him too. It was amazing!

Marv (Daniel Stern) and Harry (Joe Pesci) were friends even before they became the criminals known as the Wet Bandits.

People think we first met on Home Alone, but Joe and I actually worked together years earlier on a movie that didn’t make the final cut, I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can. We both played patients in a mental institution. Joe’s character always carried a rolled-up set of architectural drawings. I remember one take where there was a Ping-Pong table, and he pretended to snort a line of Ping-Pong balls using the tube! I fell to the floor laughing and we became friends instantly, as told to Chicago magazine.

Stern was incredibly eager to land the role. He connected with the script immediately, saying it reminded him of the physical comedy he loved as a child. He felt confident he could excel in the part and was determined to make a strong impression during the audition. In fact, he was so passionate that he actually called back and asked for another chance – something he’d never done before. Chris later revealed he’d already decided to cast Stern, but wanted to see him audition again.

Despite their tough on-screen personas, Joe Pesci and Marv Stern weren’t actually mean people. Stern revealed in a 2015 online chat that he’s a softie when it comes to children and really enjoyed working with Macaulay Culkin.

While filming Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, his son Henry (who is now a California state senator!) and daughters Sophie and Ella visited the set much more often than during the first movie. They all enjoyed spending time with the cast, especially taking young Mac to Central Park to play tag and catch. He believes his character in the sequel was noticeably kinder than Joe Pesci’s.

It’s understandable, given reports that Pesci intentionally avoided interacting with Culkin during filming to make him genuinely scared of his character.

The show featured genuinely dangerous stunts, like the infamous moment a tarantula was placed on someone’s face – a scene that still unnerves viewers today. Surprisingly, Stern mentioned it was one of his most enjoyable scenes to film.

He described the experience as both really fun and funny, but also a personal challenge because he had to overcome his fear of having something so unpleasant and dangerous on his face. It was even more unsettling because he also had to scream, leaving his mouth wide open and worrying that the creature might crawl down his throat!

It’s no surprise he described his shout as coming from a deeply buried part of himself – a place he never wanted to revisit.

The stunt performers really took the biggest risks during the filming of Home Alone and Home Alone 2. Director Chris Columbus told Chicago magazine that he genuinely feared for their safety multiple times. There were no computer-generated effects used for those stunts, making them especially frightening to watch. The crew only breathed a sigh of relief – and laughed – once the performers were okay and reviewed the footage.

Stern remarked that the stuntmen truly made the show possible. He often points out that when people praise a particular scene, it’s usually the work of stuntman Leon Delaney.

The sound designers were incredibly creative with the physical comedy. They used unexpected objects – like a frozen roast beef for the sound of a fall and a soldering iron on chicken skin to create the effect of burning flesh – to make the pratfalls really impactful.

Surprisingly, it was actually Macaulay Culkin who got hurt during the making of Home Alone. He remembered that in one rehearsal for a scene where Joe Pesci’s character threatened to bite his fingers, Pesci actually bit him and broke the skin, as Culkin shared in a 2004 interview with Rule Forty Two.

More than thirty years later, while celebrating the 35th anniversary of the film in November 2025 at an event called ‘A Nostalgic Night with Macaulay Culkin,’ he revealed he still has a small dent on his face from the scene. He joked that Macaulay Culkin gave him a lasting souvenir, and while it’s a fun story to tell now, at the time he just wondered, ‘Who was this kid?’

Oh my gosh, can you believe Chris Farley almost starred in that movie?! I read this amazing story from Ken Hudson Campbell, the guy who actually got the Santa role. He said Chris showed up to the audition looking… well, let’s just say he’d had a night. Apparently, he was dropped off after being out all night! Ken said Chris went in for the audition, but it didn’t even last a minute – he just walked right back out! Ken felt good about his own audition, and a few weeks later, he got the part. It’s just incredible to think how close we were to seeing Chris Farley as Santa! I can’t stop thinking about it!

Several other well-known actors were almost cast in the film. Robert De Niro and Jon Lovitz both considered, but ultimately turned down, the part of Harry, and Kelsey Grammer decided against playing Uncle Frank. It’s hard to imagine anyone else in those roles!

The real owners of the famous house in Winnetka, Illinois – a suburb about 16 miles from Chicago – actually lived there while the movie was being filmed. Although the production team rented an apartment for Cynthia and John Abendshien, anticipating a four- to five-week shoot, the location manager explained they had the right to make changes to the house even when the owners weren’t home. As Cynthia told Chicago magazine, they were advised to stay at the house to avoid any issues with filming.

The family of three spent five and a half months living in their four-room master bedroom suite. They used a hot plate for cooking, but mostly ate from the crew’s food truck, which their six-year-old daughter especially enjoyed. Luckily, most of the scenes requiring destruction to the house were filmed at a nearby, temporarily closed high school.

People living in the North Shore neighborhood are now accustomed to sightseers driving by to admire the beautiful, $1.585 million Georgian-style house.

According to Ann Smith, a local resident, most people who live on the street enjoy it and find the filming location exciting. She told the Chicago Tribune in 2019 that the movie shoot was a significant event, and people still visit to take pictures of the house regularly.

Fans discovered a funny connection between Friends and the movie Home Alone. Someone noticed that the house Monica and Chandler move into on Friends is actually the same house used as the McCallister family home in Home Alone. They were able to prove it by comparing footage from both shows.

Chicago’s weather cooperated towards the end of filming. To create the snowy scenes, the filmmakers used snow machines and trucks loaded with shaved ice.

When they filmed Kate McCallister (Catherine O’Hara) arriving home, they were lucky enough to have beautiful, natural snow. Location manager Jacolyn Bucksbaum remembers it being the biggest snowstorm in years, and it happened on Valentine’s Day – a perfect stroke of luck from Mother Nature.

The scene of the family rushing to catch their flight to Paris was filmed at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. According to director Columbus, they filmed it quickly, needing only a couple of tries to get the shot of the whole family running through the terminal. He described it as a very tense experience.

Improvisation was definitely welcomed during filming. That’s why John Candy was so popular in movies and TV shows from the 1980s and 90s.

O’Hara recalled filming his small role as Polka King Gus Polinski – a favor to John Hughes, according to Columbus – as a grueling, 21-hour improvisation session. He described a spontaneous back-and-forth with John Candy, building on each other’s ideas and letting the scene unfold naturally. Hughes later told O’Hara that much of their playful improvisation had to be cut because his character was supposed to be searching for his son, not enjoying himself with the people in the truck.

Macaulay Culkin was also known for thinking on his feet during filming. He often came up with lines himself, like when he’d respond to strangers with, “Because you’re a stranger,” as he recalled on the August 2025 episode of Hot Ones. He explained that he contributed many similar improvised moments to the movie.

Although he’s known for the line, “Do you guys give up or are you thirsty for more?” which he supposedly threatened to Marv and Harry, he explained it was actually written in the movie’s script and wasn’t something he improvised.

He made up a lot of the scene where Kevin acts like he’s having a big party to scare away the burglars.

You might remember in ‘Home Alone’ when those burglars, the Wet Bandits, show up and I act like a big party is happening? I always loved creating that illusion! There was this whole elaborate setup with a miniature train set – and get this, a little Michael Jordan figurine was part of it! – plus music and these strings I’d pull to make the mannequins move. Originally, the plan was for me to play the piano and do a lot more, but it was way too complicated. The director basically said, ‘Let’s just tie some strings to you and have you be silly!’ And honestly? That was perfect. It was exactly my kind of thing!

Here’s a surprising story about Buzz’s dog girlfriend from Home Alone: she wasn’t played by a girl at all! Actor Devin Ratray shared with Yahoo! that the role was filled by the art director’s son in disguise. The producers thought it would be insensitive to cast a young actress in a role specifically designed around being unattractive.

The short scenes from the fictional film Angels with Filthy Souls were all created by Hughes, including the famous line, “Keep the change, ya filthy animal.” He even cast local actor Ralph Foody to convincingly portray a 1940s movie star. According to director Columbus, people still mistake the scenes for a real, vintage film, a testament to Foody’s performance.

The first draft of the script had a clever moment where Marv and Harry, while watching the movie Angels in prison, realized they’d been tricked all along.

Even after more than thirty years, the movie continues to be popular with people all over the world. Actor Devin Ratray, who played Buzz McCallister, now grows tangerines. He told Chicago magazine about a surprising experience he had in 2003 while visiting troops in Iraq. While traveling to a jewelry store in Baghdad with the soldiers, he was suddenly surrounded by Iraqi children shouting his character’s name, ‘Marv!’ Despite being in a war zone, these kids recognized him from Home Alone. He says the movie is truly ubiquitous and still reaches people everywhere.

The cast of the movie still keeps in touch. For example, Macaulay Culkin and Catherine O’Hara, who played mother and son onscreen, hadn’t seen each other for a long time when they unexpectedly ran into each other at an art show hosted by Martin Mull in 2013.

I hadn’t seen my mother in a long time, and when I finally did, I just blurted out, ‘Mama!’ She responded with ‘Son!’ and that’s become our little greeting whenever we see each other. She’s a wonderful woman.

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2025-12-27 23:21