Whatever Happened to Macaulay Culkin After Home Alone?
He's done a few roles, but none of them surpassed his early success.
In 1990, the first Home Alone movie was released, becoming a Christmas comedy hit for years to come and making its lead child actor, Macaulay Culkin, famous all over the world. Though he was only 10 at the time of filming, Macaulay showed such immense talent in the movie that his later success in Hollywood seemed predetermined.
However, that did not happen, as Culkin took a break from acting soon after the second Home Alone movie came out in 1992 and dropped off the public's radar for years.
Besides the popular family franchise, the young actor starred in the Michael Jackson music video Black or White in 1991, as well as the movies My Girl (1991), The Good Son (1993), Richie Rich (1994), Getting Even with Dad (1994).
Unfortunately, the prominent actor soon followed the fate of many young stars who became famous too early in their lives. In 1998, Macaulay suffered an emotional burnout and took a break from his career. In the 2000s, the actor was arrested for possession of marijuana and illegal substances for which he did not have a prescription.
Culkin said that his addiction to drugs was nothing serious — although he admitted that he used them, it never got to the point where he had to go to rehab or seek outside help.
Around the same time, the Home Alone star attempted to make a comeback to the industry by starring in the biographical crime drama Party Monster (2003), which was met with a wave of criticism. A year later, Culkin managed to impress the audience with his role in the independent satirical comedy Saved! However, this one successful role apparently was not enough for a career revival.
Trying to establish himself as an adult actor, Macaulay also starred in the 2005 melodrama Sex and Breakfast, which was released on DVD and received low ratings.
He continued to make television appearances, mostly as himself or his character Kevin McCallister from Home Alone. For example, Culkin played his most famous character in a Google Assistant commercial in 2018.
The actor later appeared in two comedy series, Dollface and The Righteous Gemstones, but only in supporting roles.
In 2017, Macaulay Culkin launched his own podcast, Bunny Ears, featuring interviews with celebrities. You can listen to the episodes of Bunny Ears on the actor's channel on YouTube, which has just over 20K subscribers — not an impressive number for such an important star of the 1990s!