MOVIE NEWS – On the 30th anniversary of the release of Home Alone 2, Joe Pesci has recalled the painful experience of filming some stunt sequences.

While the Home Alone franchise has seen a fair number of sequels and a recent Disney+ reboot, the original two films remain the best of the bunch. This year marks the 30th anniversary of Home Alone 2, and Joe Pesci recently recalled playing Harry in the film. Speaking to Variety, the Goodfellas star recalled that during filming, the iconic scene in which Harry’s hat is set on fire ended with Harry suffering burns to his head. He said:

“Aside from the expected bumps, bruises and general aches and pains that one associates with this kind of physical humour, I suffered severe burns to the top of my head during the scene where Harry’s hat is set on fire. I was lucky to have professional stuntmen to do the really difficult stunts.”

Pesci also talked about working with Macaulay Culkin, who he noted was a real pro even at such a young age. He also noted that he deliberately avoided Culkin’s proximity when he wasn’t filming so that he could maintain a sense of menace between them. He continued:

“I remember Macaulay as a really nice kid who was very professional even at his age. I deliberately limited my interactions with him to maintain the dynamic between his character Kevin and my character Harry. [I didn’t want] it to appear on screen that we were in any way friends. I wanted to maintain the integrity of the adversarial relationship.”

One of Joe Pesci’s last major roles was in 1998’s Lethal Weapon 4, after which the actor seemed to semi-retire. He appeared in only a handful of films over the next two decades, but returned to great success in 2019 as the ensemble cast member of Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman. In this film, he reunited with Goodfellas star Robert De Niro and another film icon, Al Pacino.

That same year, Pesci made a surprise appearance in a Google ad, where he sat down to watch the movie “Bust a Burglar!” with his friends. In the short video, which also included clips from Culkin’s earlier Google Assistant commercial, Pesci celebrates as one of the film’s wet bandits.

As far as Pesci’s role in the Home Alone franchise, this commercial will likely be the only time we’ll see him anywhere near his character Harry. As he concluded, it would be difficult to repeat the success of the original films, and times have moved on. He said:

“While you should never say never, I think it would be difficult to replicate not only the success of the original films but also the overall innocence of the films. Times are different now, attitudes and priorities have changed in 30 years.”

Source MovieWeb