Home Alone 2 director reveals Donald Trump bullied his way into the movie
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York director Chris Columbus has revealed that there was no intention to ever cast Donald Trump into a cameo role for the film until the former US President bullied his way into the picture.
In the quirky scene from the 1992 festive classic, Macaulay Culkin’s perennially stranded character Kevin McCallister finds himself lost in the billionaire’s Plaza Hotel. Then unknowingly, he asks a stranger for directions to the lobby, and it just so happens to be Trump himself.
In a recent interview with Business Insider, Columbus revealed that this scene was never planned upon. “Like most locations in New York City, you just pay a fee and you are allowed to shoot in that location,” he explained. “We approached The Plaza Hotel, which Trump owned at the time, because we wanted to shoot in the lobby.”
The production couldn’t afford to build the Plaza’s lobby on a soundstage, so they were at the mercy of the billionaire. “Trump said OK. We paid the fee, but he also said, ‘The only way you can use the Plaza is if I’m in the movie’,” Columbus recalled.
Nevertheless, the director felt uneasy about the inclusion and considered cutting him from the movie after they had already used the Plaza for the filming they needed. However, he says, “when we screened it for the first time the oddest thing happened: People cheered when Trump showed up on-screen.”
This left the filmmakers with a peculiar decision to make. “So I said to my editor, ‘Leave him in the movie. It’s a moment for the audience.’ But he did bully his way into the movie,” he concluded.
Since then, Trump has frequently become embroiled in movie star shenanigans. Most recently he has been caught up in a feud with the “total loser”. “Robert De Niro, whose acting talents have greatly diminished, with his reputation now shot, must even use a teleprompter for his foul and disgusting language,” he said on his Truth Social platform.
Concluding: “De Niro should focus on his life, which is a mess, rather than the lives of others. He has become a total loser, as the World watches, waits, and laughs!”
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