Macaulay Culkin opens up about Michael Jackson and his abusive relationship with his father
Macaulay Culkin has spoken about the ‘mental and physical’ abuse he suffered at the hands of his father when he was growing up in the movie business.
The Home Alone star is still estranged from his father, Kit Culkin, who himself was a former actor before managing his son’s career.
“I’m going around the country locked in a room with a man who didn’t like me,” he told Marc Maron on the WTF podcast of their relationship.
“Everything he tried to do in life, I excelled at before I was 10 years old.
“He was a bad man. He was abusive. Physically and mentally. I can show you my scars. He was just a bad dude. A bad abusive man. He was a piece of work.
“After I did Richie Rich in 93 or 94, my father and mother called it quits, which is one of the best things to ever happen to me. I was able to walk away from the business. I was able to say, ‘I hope you made all your money, because there’s no more coming from me’.”
He also talked about the time he hosted Saturday Night Live aged 11, and what his father made him do.
“My father was such a crazy person that I had to do the whole episode without cue cards,” he said, adding that he was later told by a friend on the show that no one has ever done the show without using cue cards.
“That meant that every other person in the cast couldn’t use cue cards, either. That’s insane. That’s completely insane.
“My father was jealous of me. He made threats including, ‘Do good or I’ll hit you’.”
As to whether he’d ever consider reconciling with his father, he said: “I don’t think he’s willing to say the things he needs to say.”
He famously split from his parents aged 15, suing them over $17 million in earnings, and removing them as his legal guardians.
Culkin also opened up about his relationship with Michael Jackson.
“We were friends. We were actually best friends for a stretch of time while I was growing up. It was a legitimate friendship,” Culkin said.
“He enjoyed my youthfulness. He liked being a kid. He liked being a kid with me. He like being around kids, and it never struck me as odd. It never felt weird. It was just the way that it was. I looked at him for who he was. I was not enamoured by him. We were friends.”
The retired actor now lives in both Paris and New York.
“It was one of those things where I thought no one recognised me, but what it was is that they recognised me, but they just didn’t care,” he said.
“I’m a 30-something retired person walking around with a baguette under my arm. I’m living a good life.”
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