NEW YORK, Dec. 14 (UPI) — Actor Daniel Stern said he hadn’t heard the news, but totally gets why his iconic 1990 comedy, Home Alone, was enshrined this week on the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
“It should be!” Stern, 66, told UPI Thursday in a phone interview.
The movie starred Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, an 8-year-old Chicago boy whose family accidentally leaves without him for a European Christmas vacation. That causes him to match wits with the two burglars — Marv (Stern) and Harry (Joe Pesci) — determined to break into his house.
“It has a life and touches people in an incredible way that I understand,” Stern said, adding that he couldn’t put into words what it’s been like to be a part of the Home Alone “phenomenon.”
“Every year, [I’m] knowing that millions of families are gathering around and laughing at my silly stuff,” he added. “We had such a blast doing it.”
Stern praised his stunt man, Leon Delaney, who died this year, and Pesci’s double, Troy Brown, for making the making all of the pratfalls and booby traps look as realistic as possible.
“They were responsible for a lot of the success,” Stern said.
The actor said he embraces the fact that he will forever be connected to the movie.
“I’ve relaxed into it after all of these years — the love coming my way,” he said. “I’ve learned to accept that after my wife said, ‘People like you! Just shut up!’ I’m getting the love and it is so appreciated.”
Obviously, he had no idea when he made the film that he still would be talking about it so frequently with so many people.
“I know when I read it, I fell on the floor laughing. I literally rolled off the sofa [where] I was reading it. It was the funniest thing I’d ever, ever read,” Stern recalled.
“John Hughes wrote it shot by shot, so you could really see the movie unfold. I knew I wanted to be a part of it. I was desperate to be a part of it because it was so freaking funny,” he added. “I hadn’t thought this far ahead, but I didn’t think I’d be this old man either.”
Earlier this month, Culkin was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Catherine O’Hara, who played Kevin’s forgetful mom, attended the event and said, “It is Macaulay’s perfect performance as Kevin McCallister that gave us that little every boy on an extraordinary adventure.”
She added: “I know you worked really hard, I know you did, but you made acting look like the most natural thing in the world to do. It really was as if ambushed the home of this real little boy named Kevin and he went along with it just for the fun of it. He is the dearest thing.”
Stern now can be seen in the Apple TV+ space drama, For All Mankind. His other credits include Stardust Memories, Diner, Hannah and Her Sisters, City Slickers, Rookie of the Year and Manhattan.
NEWS: @LibnOfCongress Carla Hayden has announced the annual selection of 25 films to be inducted into the #NatFilmRegistry. Each was chosen for its cultural, historic or aesthetic importance to preserve the nation’s film heritage. See the full list!: https://t.co/B9YdSjIz3E pic.twitter.com/8gjDdQNZIM— Library of Congress (@librarycongress) December 13, 2023
