How Chevy Chase's Dickish Behavior Turned HOME ALONE Into a Christmas Classic

Evergreen Movie Home Alone Chevy Chase Chris Columbus about 8 years agoby Ben Pearson

If Chevy Chase wasn't such a jerk to director Chris Columbus, the 1990 Christmas movie Home Alone might not have become the beloved holiday classic we fondly look back on now. The film is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and Chicago Magazine put together an oral history that revealed a fascinating what-if scenario for its director.

Writer/producer John Hughes asked Columbus, fresh off the abysmal box office performance of a previous movie, if he wanted to direct National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, which Hughes wrote. Columbus recounts the story:

In 1989, I directed Heartbreak Hotel, and it was a disaster. It opened on a Friday, and by Wednesday it was only playing at two o’clock in the afternoon. Around that time, John Hughes sent me the script for Christmas Vacation. I love Christmas, so to do a Christmas comedy had been a dream. I went out to dinner with Chevy Chase [the movie’s star]. To be completely honest, Chevy treated me like dirt. But I stuck it out and even went as far as to shoot second unit [collecting establishing shots and special sequences, usually without principal actors]. Some of my shots of downtown Chicago are still in the movie. Then I had another meeting with Chevy, and it was worse. I called John [who was producing the film] and said, “There’s no way I can do this movie. I know I need to work, but I can’t do it with this guy.” John was very understanding. About two weeks later, I got two scripts at my in-laws’ house in River Forest. One was Home Alone, with a note from John asking if I wanted to direct. I thought, Wow, this guy is really supporting me when no one else in Hollywood was going to. John was my savior.

Jeremiah Chechik went on to direct Christmas Vacation, which is still a terrific movie despite Chase's off-screen dickishness. (You don't have to look very far to find stories about how Chase can often be a legendary douchebag, ranging from incidents with Bill Murray on the set of Caddyshack to a famous dust-up with Dan Harmon about Community a few years ago.) Columbus, of course, went on to direct Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Mrs. Doubtfire, and the first two Harry Potter films, but there's a very good chance none of that would have happened had he directed Christmas Vacation instead. (Chechik went on to helm Benny & Joon, 1998's The Avengers, and then mostly stuck to TV after that.) It's an interesting example of one of the millions of alternate universes that could have formed with every decision made in Hollywood, and thankfully, we ended up with two really great Christmas movies because of it.