While the Home Alone franchise has racked up a fair number of sequels, and a recent Disney+ reboot, the original two movies remain the best of the lot. This year, Home Alone 2: Lost In New York celebrates its 30th anniversary, and Joe Pesci recently reminisced about playing Harry in the movie. While speaking to Variety, the Goodfellas star recalled that while filming the iconic scene where Harry’s hat is set on fire ended with him sustaining burns to the head. He said:
“In addition to the expected bumps, bruises and general pains that you would associate with that particular type of physical humor, I did sustain serious burns to the top of my head during the scene where Harry’s hat is set on fire. I was fortunate enough to have professional stuntmen do the real heavy stunts.”
Pesci went on to talk about working with Macaulay Culkin, who he noted was a true professional even at such a young age. He also noted that he purposely avoided being around Culkin when not filming to he could keep a kind of menace alive between them. He continued:
“I remember Macaulay as being a really sweet kid and, even at his age, very professional. I intentionally limited my interactions with him to preserve the dynamic between his character, Kevin, and my character Harry. [I did not] want it to come across on the screen that we were in any way friendly. I wanted to maintain the integrity of the adversarial relationship.”
Joe Pesci Made A Surprise Appearance in a Google Assistant Ad Where He Reacted To His Home Alone Role
One of Joe Pesci’s last big roles was back in 1998’s Lethal Weapon 4, and following that the actor seemed to fall into semi-retirement. He appeared in only a handful of movies over the next two decades, but did return in a big way in 2019 as part of the ensemble cast of Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman. That movie saw him reunite with Goodfellas star Robert De Niro as well as another cinematic icon, Al Pacino.
In the same year, Pesci made a surprise appearance in a Google ad that saw him sitting down to watch Home Alone with friends. In the short video, which also included clips from Culkin’s previous Google Assistant commercial, Pesci is seen celebrating “nailing it” as one of the Wet Bandits in the movie.
As far as Pesci’s role in the Home Alone franchise goes, that advert will most likely be the only time we see him anywhere near the character of Harry. As he concluded, it would be hard to replicate the success of the original movies and times have moved on. He said:
“While you never say never, I think that it would be difficult to replicate not only the success but also the overall innocence of the originals. It’s a different time now; attitudes and priorities have changed in 30 years.”