Macaulay Culkin has revealed just how bad things were for child actors back in the day.
Just a year after his breakthrough role in Home Alone, Culkin won (and broke) hearts in the 1991 coming-of-age classic when he was just 10 years old.
Speaking on the podcast On Film…. With Kevin McCarthy earlier this week, he revealed that producers actually released thousands of bees on him to capture the movie’s most devastating moment. Now 45, Culkin admitted the method “would not fly nowadays.”
Culkin starred in the 1991 coming-of-age classic when he was just 10, playing Thomas J opposite Anna Chlumsky’s Vada. The infamous scene shows Thomas J entering the woods to look for his best friend Vada’s mood ring, unaware the beehive they knocked down earlier is still active. The bees swarm him, triggering his fatal allergy and shaping one of the saddest moments in early 90s cinema.
According to Culkin, the fear on screen came from real bees and real danger. “They put this stuff on my fingertips that smelt like the queen bee, so they were attracted to my hands. So I wasn’t a threat. They actually released thousands of bees on me, like imagine that.”
When the host asked, “Are you joking?”, Culkin replied, “No I am not joking, those are real bees. That would not fly nowadays.”
He said the crew told him to wave his hands in front of his face to attract the bees so it looked good for the camera. Once the director called cut, he was rushed to hot soapy water before sprinting into the woods. They filmed the moment four times. Culkin was stung only once, on the neck.
“Human beings can run faster than bees fly,” the bee handler advised. Culkin laughed, remembering his response: “But I am 10, how fast do you think I am?”
The extremely young age of the film’s leading actors still surprises Jamie Lee Curtis, who also reflected on her role in My Girl during a November 25 interview with Entertainment Tonight.
“This is emotional for me because they were so young,” said Curtis, who played Vada’s new stepmother, Shelly. “I loved My Girl. That was another beautiful, unexpected, beautiful little bit of work and a wonderful character that I got to play.”
Though Culkin already had a few years of acting experience under his belt, the film was the first big role for Inventing Anna actress Anna Chlumsky, who knocked it out of the park.
