“I feel like I owed her a favor — and I don’t like having an outstanding debt.”

Macaulay Culkin says he has ‘unfinished business’ with late Home Alone costar Catherine O’Hara

"I feel like I owed her a favor — and I don't like having an outstanding debt."

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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May 12, 2026 2:49 p.m. ET

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Catherine O'Hara and Macaulay Culkin in Los Angeles in 2023. Credit:

Anna Webber/Getty

- Macaulay Culkin said that Catherine O'Hara's death at 71 "hit me pretty good."

- "It was just too soon," he added.

- Culkin also said he "had unfinished business" with his *Home Alone* mom: "I feel like I owed her a favor."

Macaulay Culkin is remembering his onscreen mother.

The *Richie Rich* star reflected on the death of Catherine O'Hara, the comedy legend who portrayed the mom to his protagonist Kevin McCallister in the first two *Home Alone* movies.

"When Catherine passed away in January, that hit me," Culkin told *Gentleman's Journal* in a new interview. "That hit me pretty good, because, you know, it was just too soon."

O'Hara died on Jan. 30 at 71. Her death certificate listed the cause of death as a pulmonary embolism with rectal cancer as the underlying long-term cause.

Culkin said he still had more to say to O'Hara before she died. "I felt that we had unfinished business," he reflected. "I definitely feel like I had unfinished business with her, you know? I feel like I owed her a favor — and I don't like having an outstanding debt."

O'Hara and Culkin in 'Home Alone'.

The actor previously shared an emotional post after O'Hara's death. "Mama. I thought we had time," he wrote on Instagram. "I wanted more. I wanted to sit in a chair next to you. I heard you. But I had so much more to say."

In the *Gentleman's Journal* interview, Culkin shared thoughts about losing other costars, including *Home Alone* castmates John Heard and John Candy.

"I'm not the tip of the sphere," Culkin said. "I'm the butt of the sphere. I'm the caboose. I'm bringing up some of that old Hollywood guard kind of thing — I'm going to be one of the last people standing when it comes to that kind of stuff."

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Culkin finds himself in a distinct position in the Hollywood landscape. "My life is unique to me," he told the outlet. "I don't really have that many contemporaries when it comes to this stuff. I can't look left and right and think: 'Oh, those people have had a similar experience to me.'"

However, Culkin said that he's attempting to make the most of his unusual circumstances. "I try to cherish that as much as I can," he said. "I feel like I'm living a really uniquely wonderful life."

Culkin in Los Angeles last December.

Alberto Rodriguez/Getty

Elsewhere in the interview, Culkin responded to a question about what he expects for the new crop of child actors who will star in HBO's *Harry Potter* series.

"I always try not to speak for other kids and their experience,"he said, "but I didn't do a lot of collaborative stuff. I wasn't in *The Goonies*, you know? I wasn't in those ensemble movies. I was often alone, like* Castaway* — and even he had a volleyball to talk to!"

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Culkin noted that he didn't work with actors who were his own age until the 2004 high school comedy *Saved*. "And man, that was so much fun. It felt like summer camp — like, 'Oh, this is what I've been missing out on?'" he remembered. "So at least [the *Harry Potter* actors] will be surrounded by people who've had similar experiences and upbringings. I think that'll be beneficial. Because it'll also be like being stuck in a submarine with each other, so I hope they get along."

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