Home Alone's Daniel Stern Shares Why He Felt 'Really Bad' For Macaulay Culkin

In his new memoir, Home and Alone, the actor -- who starred as burglar Marv Murchins in the 1990 holiday comedy and the 1992 sequel -- recalled feeling "really bad" for Culkin because the child star had a "different life" than other children, such as his own.

According to USA Today, Stern brought up a time during filming for Home Alone 2: Lost in New York when he picked up Culkin from his hotel for a playdate in the park with kids.

"He was a sweet kid but had lived a very different life than my kids," the 66-year-old wrote. "He didn't know how to play tag or throw the ball around. He was more of an indoor kid and had a lot of adult pressure on him from show business and parents and such."

"We realized he had formed a friendship with Michael Jackson, because when we picked him up, his hotel room was stacked, literally from wall to wall and ceiling to floor, with toys. Every conceivable toy, as if someone went through Toys 'R' Us, took one of each, and dropped them in his room," he continued. "All a gift from Michael Jackson."

"It made all of us feel really bad for Mac. My kids had experienced a taste of the distortions that fame can bring, but seeing what Mac's life was like put things in a different perspective," added Stern, who has two daughters and a son.

Culkin famously had a close friendship with Michael Jackson as a child. The now 43-year-old formed a bond with the international superstar after the success of Home Alone, spending time hanging out at the singer's Neverland Ranch. After several allegations of sexual misconduct between Jackson and underage boys arose, with some alleged incidents supposedly taking place at Neverland, many have looked to Culkin to comment on the situation.

"Look. I'm gonna begin with the line -- it's not a line, it's the truth: He never did anything to me," he told Esquire in 2020. "I never saw him do anything."

Culkin -- who attended Jackson's funeral in 2009 -- is the godfather of the late star's children: Prince, 27, Paris, 26, and Michael Jr., 22.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Stern's memoir, he spoke about an alleged situation regarding his salary and contract for Home Alone, claiming that he almost didn't end up starring in the 1990 film because of it.

In the book, per Page Six, Stern wrote that he was to receive a $300,000 paycheck for the job, which was set to be six weeks of work. However, things went awry after the shooting scheduled changed.

"I got a call saying they had redone the shooting schedule and they would now need me for eight weeks instead of six," he said. "They were asking me to add on 33% more shooting time, so I asked if they were going to raise my salary the same amount, and they said they would not."

Stern said producers even cast another actor for rehearsals to work alongside his costar, Joe Pesci, who played fellow thief, Harry Lyme. However, he wrote that producers changed course a few days later, and asked him back, saying they would "honor the original contract and make the schedule six weeks."

Stern went on to recall that there were even bigger issues with his sequel contract, which he said led to him firing his agent. Following the first film's worldwide success, Twentieth Century Fox quickly greenlit a sequel. However, according to Stern, it took six months for him to receive an offer.

While his offer was $600,000, aka double his original salary, he said it was "not quite the pot of gold I was hoping for."

"I asked if that was the same as Joe [Pesci] was getting, and they said it was not," Stern wrote.

He said they came back with an offer of $800,000, but according to Stern, that was still significantly less than Pesci, writing that he learned that his costar was offered "somewhere between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000 plus gross percentage of the profits."

Stern explained that he wanted to earn at least half of Pesci's salary, but his agent told him to agree to the studio's offer. As a result, Stern said he fired his agent.

While he noted that it was a "prideful thing to do," he believed his agent wasn't "very good at his job."

Stern then negotiated himself, asking for $1.5 million and 2% of gross. As the back-and-forth with the studio continued, Stern said that the head of Fox at the time called him and told him to begin shooting the movie even though they had to settle on a contract.

Ultimately, Stern received the salary he wanted, and 1% of profits.

"I knew they couldn't do the movie without me, but I was also insecure, since I almost blew it the first time," he said. "I didn't want to be too greedy when I loved the movie and the part so much."

Home and Alone is out now.