“Home Alone” director Chris Columbus almost directed another holiday classic, “Christmas Vacation.”
The filmmaker opened up with Vanity Fair about the filmmaking process for “Christmas Vacation,” the third movie in National Lampoon’s “Vacation” series. He said he worked alongside John Hughes to write the script, which of course would star Chevy Chase, the “Saturday Night Live” breakout who was the star of the “Vacation” franchise.
But the first time Columbus met Chase, his experience with the film soured. Columbus explained, “I was signed on . . . and then I met Chevy Chase . . . I realized I couldn’t work with the guy.”
He continued, “I was one of the many who couldn’t work with him. And I called John and I said, ‘This is really hard for me, but I can’t do this movie with Chevy Chase.’”
While they weren’t too far into the production, Columbus said he had to meet with Chase before shooting his scenes.
In their first meeting, Columbus recalled, “I talked about how I saw the movie, how I wanted to make the movie. 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?’ And I said, ‘Yeah . . . I’m directing the film.’”
He continued, “And he said to me the most surreal, bizarre thing. I still haven’t been able to make any sense out of it. He said, ‘Oh, I thought you were a drummer.’”
The filmmaker would go on to meet with Hughes and Chase together but “I was basically nonexistent.” Following the dinner, Columbus thought, “‘There’s no way I can make a movie with this guy.’ First of all, he’s not engaged. He’s treating me like s**t. I don’t need this. I’d rather not work again. I’d rather write . . . Who says anything like that to anybody? It makes no sense.”
Columbus realized there was a silver lining though. He recalled, “I quit ‘Christmas Vacation.’ The next weekend, I got another script from John — and it’s ‘Home Alone.’ ‘Home Alone,’ for me, was even more personal, a better script. And I thought, I can really do something with this, and I don’t have to deal with Chevy Chase.”
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