Daniel Stern recounts in his new memoir how he nearly lost the role of Marv, the bumbling thief from “Home Alone” and “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York”.
+ Actress from ‘Prison Break’ reveals co-star spat in her face and exposes behind the scenes
Actor Daniel Stern has just released a memoir, and in one of the passages, he tells how it was to be in the films “Home Alone” and “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” as Marv, a bumbling thief, a companion to Harry Lime played by Joe Pesci.
In ‘Home Alone, Stern’, 66, shares how he almost got cut from the 1990 Christmas comedy with Macaulay Culkin. The actor writes in his new book that he was supposed to get $300,000 for six weeks of work on the original film, but a change in the schedule extended filming to 2 months.
“I got a call saying they had reworked the shooting schedule and now they would need me for eight weeks instead of six,” he writes. “They were asking me to increase the filming time by 33%, so I asked if they would increase my salary by the same amount, and they said no.”
That’s when the actor refused to continue on the project and, as he explains: “I made one of the dumbest decisions of my life in showbusiness.” The film’s producers ended up hiring a different actor to start rehearsals with Pesci but, fortunately for Stern, it didn’t work out and a few days later he got a call saying they wanted him back and would “honor the original contract and stick to the schedule in six weeks”.
“Home Alone” grossed almost $500 million worldwide, and a sequel project came right after. As Stern tells in his book, Culkin, the film’s star, already had a $5 million contract plus 5% of the gross box office for a sequel, and he also imagined he would get a good deal to come back as Marv.
The producers took six months to offer “$600,000, double my original salary, but not exactly the pot of gold I expected,” he writes. “I asked if it was the same as what Joe (Pesci) was getting, and they said no.”
Stern found out Pesci was “getting something between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000 plus a percentage of the gross” and he was determined to get at least half of that. “I knew they couldn’t make the movie without me, but I was also unsure because I almost messed everything up the first time,” he writes. “I didn’t want to be too greedy because I loved the movie and the role so much.”
In the end, the actor ended up firing his agent and took over negotiations for his salary; the gamble paid off and Stern got the requested salary plus 1% of the gross value.
This content was created with the assistance of AI.
