"I think that's why that's one of my favorite performances, because I think he put a lot of himself into it," Culkin says in the documentary. He adds that a lot of actors "don't know how or don't like to work with kids" because they're "tricky to work with," but that "John was always really kind, and really good with" him and his on-screen sister, Gaby Hoffman.
"He showed a lot of respect. When you're eight years old, you don't really get respect, whether it's in a workplace or just from adults and grown-ups in general. You felt invited in," Culkin says of Candy's demeanor.
Culkin later adds that he felt "paternal" vibes from Candy, particularly as he says he dealt with a difficult relationship with his father, Kit Culkin, at the time of his early success in Hollywood.
"I think he always had that really great instinct. I think he saw. Listen, even before the wave crested and the Home Alone stuff was happening, it was not hard to see how difficult my father was. It was no secret. He was already a monster," Culkin remembers.
"All of a sudden, the fame and the money came, and he became an infamous monster. He was already not a good guy. I think John was looking a little side-eyed, like, 'Is everything alright over there? You doing good? Good day? Everything's alright? Everything good at home? Alright.'"
Culkin calls that attitude "a testament to the kind of man he was," and that he "was just looking out for" him on set.
"It doesn't happen that often. It actually happened less as time went on," Culkin says. "I wish I got more of that in my life. It's important that I remember that. I remember John caring when not a lot of people did."
Culkin and his brother, Succession star Kieran Culkin, have long spoken about their allegedly difficult relationship with their father.
“We didn’t want to go with my father,” Macaulay told Esquire in 2020, years after his mother, Patricia Brentrup, filed for custody in 1995 of her six minor kids with Kit, whom she earlier separated from. “It’s always misconstrued, that I ‘emancipated’ myself from my parents.
I legally took my parents’ names off of my trust fund and found an executor, someone who would look over my finances, just in case anyone wanted to stick their f---ing pinkie in the pie. But the next thing you know, the story was that I divorced my parents. I just thought I was doing it cleanly—taking my father’s name off, taking my mom’s name off, so my opinion is unbiased. And when I did that, the whole thing kinda ended a lot faster."
