Macaulay Culkin Reveals The Reason He Quit Acting For A Decade At The Age Of 14

Oct 10, 2023 by apost team

Macaulay Culkin is known to people the world over as the adorable yet mischievous Kevin McAllister, the little boy from the "Home Alone" movies from the '90s. And even though he grew up and continued working as an actor, albeit in more niche and alternative roles, he's never really shaken his image as the "Home Alone" kid. 

Culkin was just 10 years old when he starred in the first "Home Alone" movie, which was released in 1990. The Christmas comedy film was a huge success and earned a total gross of $476.7 million dollars, which made it the highest-grossing live-action comedy ever until it was overtaken by "The Hangover," all the way in 2011. 

Aside from the holiday film, which many people loved and adored, he also became successful with other movies such as “My Girl,” “The Good Son,” “Uncle Buck,” and many more. He was so in demand at the time that he starred in several movies within the span of a few years.

Even though many would perceive him as a successful person financially, he had problems with his personal life that the public didn’t know about until much later in his career.

His parents, who had never married, separated, and his mother filed for full custody. There was a heavily publicized spat between the star and his parents over his earnings that had gone into a trust fund and were worth almost $20 million.

It is known to the public that Culkin was a hardworking child during the early days of his career, but there was a time when he quit acting when he was only 14 years old, as he mentioned in an interview.

In a rare interview on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” in 2018, Macaulay Culkin took a trip down memory lane and recalled some of his memories while filming “Home Alone” when he was a kid.

In the conversation, host Ellen DeGeneres asked the actor if he remembered all of what happened behind the scenes back in the 90s.

Culkin said “yes and no” and revealed that he didn’t watch his movies often, even though it would pop out almost every single year during the holiday season.

“I can’t watch it the same way other people do,” he told the host.

Later in the interview, DeGeneres asked the actor if people would come up and ask him to put his hands on his face like he did in the famous Christmas comedy movie, to which he revealed that everybody wanted him to do it, but he refused to.

“No. I’ve already been there, done that, already, guys,” he said of his answer whenever fans would request him to do the face.

The subject of his childhood was later brought up as he opened up about growing up with a big family, as he had six siblings. He later revealed that he and his brothers and sisters grew up in a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan, New York, and all of them would sleep in one room, including their parents. Although he joked that his parents would “stack” them up in bunk beds, he still considered his younger years memorable.

“It was a good time. We were a close-knit family because of that. There’s just no such thing as privacy,” he said. 

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At a very young age, Culkin began working as an actor, and there was a point in his career when projects came to him non-stop as he was so in demand. He later grew tired of it, so he quit acting for over a decade as he was about 13 or 14 years old.

He then got honest about his true feelings and told DeGeneres: “I was tired of it, to be honest. I did 14 movies in six years, or something like that. It’s a lot.”

He further noted that since he was a child actor, he had to be away from home and school most of the time, and the reason why he took a break was because he “needed something else.”

“I needed to grow and develop as a person, I was looking forward to going to high school,” he added.

When asked whether it was hard for him to be famous in school, Culkin admitted that he was treated differently and he had no choice about it.

However, he clarified that it was a part of figuring out things on his own because, at the time, it happened during his formative years.

Even though he had no projects for a while, it appeared that Culkin didn’t regret taking a break from the entertainment industry.

“It was the smartest thing I possibly could have done, was taking eight years off or whatever,” he added.

According to the Independent, Culkin returned to acting in 2003 in the movie “Party Monster.”  

Regarding his personal life, he met Disney star Brenda Song in 2017. They have two children together named Dakota and Carson. In January 2022, it was reported that they had been engaged shortly after welcoming their firstborn. 

What are your thoughts about Macaulay Culkin’s decision to quit acting and spend over a decade taking a break? Do you think it was a great idea for him to do so? Let us know your thoughts, and make sure to pass this on to your friends and family.