Chris Columbus is no stranger to working with child stars, having directed some of the most iconic performances in film history. This unique experience has shaped the way in which he searches for child actors, with his work on the Home Alone franchise informing how he cast the stars of Harry Potter. He sat down with Demi Lovato for the Hulu documentary Child Star (2024), in which he explained the important factors of casting child actors.
Chris Columbus’ two major film franchises
Chris Columbus’s career skyrocketed with the 1990 holiday classic Home Alone, which introduced Macaulay Culkin as a child star sensation. The movie’s success cemented Columbus’ reputation for working with child actors, and it wasn’t long before he headed another iconic franchise: Harry Potter.
Columbus directed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), two of the highest-grossing films in history, introducing Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint to international fame.
His experience with Culkin’s unexpected stardom following the release of Home Alone played a significant role when it came to his approach in casting for Harry Potter. As he explained, “We went from shooting Home Alone where nobody cared, but in the course of a year, Macaulay Culkin became a huge star, and that was unexpected.”
Columbus knew Harry Potter was going to be a far different kind of project, compared to Home Alone, with attention already focused on who would be cast as the book series’ young trio. He told Demi Lovato, “It’s not like Harry Potter, where you know that it may be extraordinarily successful.”
Macaulay Culkin quickly became his family’s breadwinner
Macaulay Culkin’s journey from a working-class background to international stardom was a whirlwind. He grew up in a family of modest means, and after landing the lead role in Home Alone quickly became the primary breadwinner. Chris Columbus was also from a working-class family and recognized the impact such sudden success can have on a child and their home life.
“I’ve seen it a couple of times with kids when you see someone who comes from a working-class family, and suddenly they’re thrown into – the kid becomes the breadwinner for the family,” the director said.
Culkin’s fame soared, but his family life behind the scenes was anything but easy. The actor has since been open about the abuse he experienced at the hands of his father, stating, “He was a bad man. He was abusive, physically and mentally – I can show you all my scars if I wanted to.”
Columbus admitted that, during the production of Home Alone, he had no idea of the difficulties Culkin was facing. It wasn’t until later that he recognized the difficulties the young star had to contend with and began to understand how important a stable home environment is for child actors.
High-stakes casting of Harry Potter
The casting process for Harry Potter was surely unlike anything Chris Columbus had experienced before. The entire world was watching as the production team searched for the perfect actors to portray Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.
Columbus described the pressure, saying, “I had to put blinders on because that’s all I was hearing everywhere. You go on the street, you go into a pub, you go anywhere, and people are saying, ‘Who are you gonna cast? Who’s gonna be Harry Potter?’”
Columbus knew the gravity of these casting decisions; whoever was chosen would likely be tied to the roles for life. The children he offered the parts to – Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint – were required to sign multiple films at once. “That’s the rest of your life as a child star,” Columbus said. “That’s gonna be your legacy, and you have to learn how to live with that.”
Ensuring these child actors were prepared for the intense spotlight was a responsibility Columbus didn’t take lightly.
Importance of ‘casting’ parents, not just the child stars
One of the most critical lessons Chris Columbus learned from working on Home Alone was the importance of casting not just the child, but also considering the parents. After witnessing how Macaulay Culkin’s troubled family life impacted his experience as a child star, the director took a more holistic approach to casting for Harry Potter. He realized that, in order to protect the actors, the stability of their home life was just as important as their acting talent.
“Suddenly, I realized that parents had to be a big part of it,” Columbus explained. “I can’t have [an actor] go home to a really sort of shaky environment for the sake of a film. It’s not worth it. It was as important to cast the parents as it was to cast the kids.”
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His goal was to ensure that the young stars had a strong support system in place, both on set and at home, to allow them to handle the immense pressure that came with being the faces of one of the biggest movie franchises in history – and he did a decent job, if you ask us.