Being a child celebrity doesn’t always go well; many child stars are better known for their struggles with fame than their actual work, particularly once they age out of the ‘cute kid’ roles. The star managed to host Saturday Night Live at the tender age of 11 - only Drew Barrymore hosted the show at a younger age (she was 7). Despite being a huge box office success before puberty, Macaulay Culkin was unhappy and needed a break.
After a long-term break from the industry, Mac is back. Today, he lives a drug-free life and credits his girlfriend Brenda Song, with helping him to stay on the wellness path. Mac says he feels well-adjusted and believes that many assume that he’s strange, just because he’s been away from the spotlight for so long.
He's been back in the game for two years and the press may be seeing more of the former child star in the foreseeable future. The entertainment industry is a small world. Over the years people, actors (and other industry types) develop friendships that may seem unlikely or strange to outsiders. Here are 10 Celebs that Macaulay Culkin is close to, and five that he avoids.
15 Close To: Bob Saget
They are like characters from a TGIF sitcom that we never got to see, so something about Bob Saget and Macaulay Culkin just makes sense. Both are best-known for their family-friendly roles...and their edgy humor, which really contrasts with the characters they've played. Culkin has been known to support his buddy, Saget, by attending his Broadway plays.
14 Close To: Seth Green
Mac and Seth both know what it’s like to be child actors, but that’s not where their bond ends. The pair have been in two films together, Party Monster from 2003, and 2019’s Changeland. In addition to acting in films together, the pair enjoy watching movies together. While promoting Changeland on the podcast, Bunny Ears, the duo set a date to watch Into the Spiderverse together.
13 He Stays Away From Anna Chlumsky
Both Anna Chlumsky and Macaulay have taken sizable breaks from acting since their childhood days. Long ago, they both appeared in My Girl. In a recent interview, Chlumsky admitted that she and Mac haven’t spoken in about 20 years. Maybe it has to do with how vocal Culkin was about not wanting to kiss her.
Hello Giggles reports that Culkin said, while a guest on Ellen, “I did not want to do that, we were friends, We got along, but I was like... 'Ew, a girl! I have to kiss a girl?'"
12 Close To: Former "Best Friend" Michael Jackson
Macaulay Culkin was one of Michael Jackson’s most famous child friends of the 1990s. When Michael was accused of inappropriate behavior towards children, Culkin came forward to support the famed pop star.
Despite an age difference of 22 years, the two had a lot in common, most notably their childhoods in the entertainment industry. They were both pushed towards stardom by manipulative fathers.
11 He Stays Away From: James Franco
Macaulay Culkin had a strange run-in with Franco on a plane. Since then, Mac has steered clear of him.
Culkin told Esquire: “It was right after the Leaving Neverland documentary came out, and he goes, ‘So, that documentary!’ And that was all he said. I was like, ‘Uh-huh.’ Silence. So, then he goes, ‘So what do you think?’ And I turned to him and I go, ‘Do you wanna talk about your dead friend?’ And he sheepishly went, ‘No, I don’t.’ So, I said, ‘Cool, man, it was nice to see you.’ ”
10 Close To: Elijah Wood
Most people have friends from school and actors are no different. While they were filming the 1993 thriller, The Good Son, Elijah Wood and Macaulay Culkin met, acted, studied together, and became good friends. They maintain this friendship today, well into adulthood.
Culkin joked on Twitter in 2018, “Of course we're friends. @elijahwood and I will always be brothers... until he inevitably drops me off a cliff. #SpoilerAlert
9 Close To: Sonic Youth Band
When the idea arose to have Mac star in a Sonic Youth video for the song, “Sunday" in 1998, no one thought it was going to happen.
Thurston Moore talked to MTV about working with Mac: “I think he sort of gravitated towards that because it was something that was interesting to him, and he was there. He was right there, and he did it within our budget, which was somewhat no-fi. It was really nice.”
8 He Stays Away From: Mila Kunis
Beginning in 2002, Culkin had an eight-year relationship with Mila Kunis that most people didn’t know about because the two stars worked to keep their personal lives private.
Nearly a decade after they ended things, Kunis spoke of her regrets on Dax Shephard’s podcast. She said it was a rough breakup and then clarified: “I was an a**hole in my 20s and I’ll be the first to admit it. And that’s something that took me a long time to come out and be like, ‘Yeah, you know what, I was a d*ck,’ and accept it and I own it now.”
7 Close To: Kieran Culkin
While Kieran didn’t have the same level of childhood success as Macaulay, you may remember him as Culkin’s bed-wetting brother, Fuller, from Home Alone. Today, Kieran is enjoying the success of his popular show, Succession.
Like any brother, Mac thought it would be funny to joke around about his sibling online. He faked surprise at his brother’s attendance (and award nomination) at the Golden Globes. Kieran was being honored for his work in Succession.
6 Close To: Devon Sawa
Culkin and Sawa never worked together but were brought together while Sawa found out that Culkin was selling Devon Sawa t-shirts on his website. Sawa debated contacting a lawyer, but decided it might be more fun to start a light online ‘feud’ instead.
Culkin says that since he was a blond 90s actor, he started introducing himself as Sawa on his podcast. The two have joked about wrestling to resolve things, but at the end of the day, a friendship was born out of the joke.
