Kieran Culkin Reveals He Was Stalked as a Child During Brother Macaulay’s Home Alone Fame
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Growing up Macaulay Culkin’s younger brother, Kieran Culkin was introduced to life in the spotlight far before starring as Succession’s crass yet lovable Roman Roy.
“It was pretty nuts. And I think what people sometimes fail to remember, too, is that he was a kid,” Kieran Culkin said of his brother’s instant fame while on NPR’s Fresh Air on Monday. “He didn’t really choose that. It’s something that happened to him. And I think when you’re a kid, you obviously don’t have the tools to handle something like that.”
Culkin went on to share several instances in which fans would accost his brother, revealing that he and his brothers were once stalked by a cab driver on their way home.
“Mac and I, and my brother Shane, who is the oldest, we took a cab home and the cab driver recognized Mac,” he said. “My brother Shane was smart enough to not give him the real address.”
Culkin explained that Shane asked the driver to drop them off a block away from their home, but once they started walking, the driver slowly followed them in an attempt to find out where they lived.
“My brother Shane said, ‘Get down, tie your shoe.’ And we tied our shoe and the cab stopped,” he added. “I was about nine and my brother Shane was probably a teenager. He had to be in charge of this thing happening.”
The cab driver eventually drove away after getting honked at by people behind him, yet the moment was still “frightening” for Culkin, who as a child became aware that people want to know where he lives due to his brother’s fame.
The Succession star also revealed that witnessing how people treated Macaulay convinced him that fame “is not something would want to pursue.”
“It’s not a very nice thing, fame. No anonymity, it’s terrible. I have friends that are very famous. They can’t walk down the street without several people stopping them,” he continued. “Forget trying to board a plane. It’s ridiculous. They can’t go out to a restaurant with friends because people are going to come to the table saying, ‘Oh, I never do this,’ or ‘Sorry to interrupt.’
“Some people probably enjoy it, and they probably have been able to figure out life with it. But I think, for the most part, it comes to people and they go, ‘Oh, I’ve made a horrible mistake,’ and now they have to manage it,” he continued. “That’s the way I look at it. Any reasonable person would not, could not, look at fame and go, ‘I want that!'”
Listen above, via NPR.
