John Candy’s Kindness: Macaulay Culkin Reflects on Their Bond

When peo­ple think of Macaulay Culkin’s child­hood, they often remem­ber the fame, the suc­cess of Home Alone, and the pres­sures of being one of Hollywood’s most rec­og­niz­able child stars. But behind the cam­eras, Culkin faced a far more com­pli­cat­ed and painful real­i­ty at home. In a new doc­u­men­tary, John Can­dy: I Like Me, Culkin opens up about how the leg­endary come­di­an qui­et­ly looked out for him dur­ing some of his dark­est moments.

Culkin and Can­dy first worked togeth­er in Uncle Buck (1989) and reunit­ed the fol­low­ing year in Home Alone. While their time on set might have seemed like just anoth­er Hol­ly­wood col­lab­o­ra­tion, Culkin reveals it meant much more. At a time when his father, Christo­pher “Kit” Culkin, was mak­ing his home life unbear­able, Can­dy became one of the rare adults in the indus­try who noticed some­thing was wrong — and cared enough to check in.

“He would pull me aside and ask the sim­plest, most human ques­tions: ‘You doing good? Every­thing good at home?’” Culkin recalled. Those small acts of kind­ness, he explained, stood out because they were gen­uine. “It doesn’t hap­pen that often. I remem­ber John car­ing when not a lot of peo­ple did.”

Culkin describes his father as a “mon­ster,” some­one who was already con­trol­ling and harsh before fame, but who became even more dom­i­neer­ing once mon­ey and suc­cess entered the pic­ture. Kit Culkin tight­ly con­trolled his son’s career and finances, cre­at­ing what the actor now open­ly calls a tox­ic envi­ron­ment. In 1995, Culkin even had to take legal steps to pro­tect his earn­ings, ensur­ing that his trust fund would be safe from his par­ents’ reach.

Against that back­drop, John Candy’s warmth shone even brighter. Many adult actors, Culkin not­ed, did not par­tic­u­lar­ly enjoy work­ing with chil­dren, yet Can­dy showed remark­able patience not only with him but also with oth­er young co-stars, includ­ing Gaby Hoff­mann in Uncle Buck. His gen­eros­i­ty of spir­it and father­ly con­cern left a last­ing impres­sion on the young actor, who often felt iso­lat­ed despite his fame.

For Culkin, Candy’s kind­ness became a mem­o­ry that last­ed long after the cam­eras stopped rolling. While the world remem­bers Can­dy for his unfor­get­table comedic per­for­mances in films such as Planes, Trains & Auto­mo­biles, The Great Out­doors, and Cool Run­nings, Culkin remem­bers some­thing more per­son­al: a man who cared when few oth­ers did.

John Can­dy passed away unex­pect­ed­ly in 1994 at just 43 years old, but to Culkin, his lega­cy lives on not only through laugh­ter on screen but also through qui­et moments of com­pas­sion that shaped a fright­ened child’s life. Decades lat­er, Culkin still car­ries those mem­o­ries as a reminder that even small ges­tures of kind­ness can leave a pow­er­ful mark.