Chris Columbus has said he has a Donald Trump-shaped albatros around his neck.
The American director admitted that his decision to include the U.S. president in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is akin to a curse on the much-loved franchise.
In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Columbus said he would like to cut the seven-second cameo from the 1992 movie, but worries he will be deported by the Trump administration.
“It’s become this curse. It’s become this thing that I wish it was not there,” he said, later adding: “It’s become an albatross for me. I just wish it was gone.”
“I can’t cut it,” said Columbus, who has Italian ancestry. “If I cut it, I’ll probably be sent out of the country. I’ll be considered sort of not fit to live in the United States, so I’ll have to go back to Italy or something.”
It is not the first time Columbus has lamented Trump’s cameo. He told Business Insider in 2023 that Trump allowed him to film in The Plaza Hotel in exchange for an appearance in the movie.
The scene made the final cut, with Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin McCallister asking Trump for directions to the lobby. “Down the hall and to the left,” Trump responds.
“When we screened it for the first time, the oddest thing happened: People cheered when Trump showed up on-screen. So I said to my editor, ‘Leave him in the movie. It’s a moment for the audience.’”
He added that Trump “did bully his way into the movie,” a suggestion that the president bristled at in 2023. Trump said he was begged to appear in the film: “That cameo helped make the movie a success. But if they felt bullied, or didn’t want me, why did they put me in, and keep me there for over 30 years?”
Columbus told the San Francisco Chronicle: “He said I begged him to be in the movie, but there’s no world I would ever beg a non-actor to be in a movie. But we were desperate to get the Plaza Hotel.”
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York was released two years after the original. The sequel follows McCallister as he finds himself lost in the Big Apple while his family travels to Florida. McCallister is sought once again by the Wet Bandits after their escape from prison.
