The Story Behind Joe Pesci Accidentally Biting Macaulay Culkin While Filming Home Alone And Scaring Him
When Macaulay Culkin was just 10 years old, the child actor starred in Home Alone, which continues to be his most iconic and remains one of the best Christmas movies of all time. As households all over turn on the 1990 classic over the holiday season, Culkin and co-star Daniel Stern reflected on one funny moment on the set of the comedy where Joe Pesci actually bit Culkin’s poor finger. (Seriously, you need to hear the story behind this wild situation.)
It’s hard to believe Home Alone is nearly 35 years old. Macaulay Culkin is currently 44 years old himself and even has a family of his own. (His three-year-old isn’t quite ready to view the movie.) Even now, though, the actor still has memories to share from the movie, including that time Joe Pesci accidentally really bit his finger on set. When it came to Pesci’s reason for that, the Culkin recalled:
He was trying to scare me, he was like, I want to be menacing to this kid.
While speaking to The New York Times about the classic movie that many have probably seen 100 times over the years, Culkin recounted Pesci’s Harry threatening to bite Kevin’s fingers off during rehearsal while in character before unintentionally actually doing so. As the actor continued:
I have a scar. I saw his face — and I’ve never, ever seen Joe Pesci actually scared. Because he’s like, I just bit a kid!
Clearly, the actor didn’t mean to go that far on set, and immediately was fearful he’d hurt the Home Alone star. It’s a funny tidbit from set that Daniel Stern, who played Pesci’s partner in crime, Marv. The Wonder Years narrator also recalled the situation while talking to Entertainment Tonight. In Stern’s words:
I totally forgot about that. Joe is — he’s wonderful, I love him, he’s a dear friend, but he’s a scary dude, and he was carrying it all. Because he was, in the first film, we were trying in the first movie to actually be scary to start with, and then you realize we’re idiots. But there was a fear factor that set up the drama of the thing.
It must have been rather surreal for Macaulay Culkin to be bitten by his Academy Award-winning actor and co-star at the time. It sounds like it ended up being a humbling moment for Pesci, who let down his “menacing” approach out of fear of really frightening the kid in real life. Daniel Stern shared even more remembrances of what went down, saying this:
Yeah, I think he did bite it as he was biting his finger, and then he did bite it, and it was like, ‘Oh crap, I didn’t really mean to.’ Joe was like, ‘Ahh, sorry I did that.’ But only time you might see Pesci break.
Speaking of “fear factor,” it’s also been said that Joe Pesci would swear a lot on the set of Home Alone, which director Chris Columbus was not happy about considering there was a 10-year-old present. There are plenty of other BTS details on Home Alone, that involve on-set antics. (For instance, Stern recalled having an actual tarantula on his face during the filming of the yuletide classic.) The Marv actor also remembered how it was “fun” to “hit Joe Pesci with a crowbar” amidst the many versions of hell the characters’ go through during the hilarious holiday movie.
Still, few BTS moments will top that finger-biting ordeal, as it’s definitely one for the books.You can watch Home Alone and one of Hollywood’s great sequels, Home Alone 2: Lost In New York by streaming them with a Disney+ subscription now.
