Director of Home Alone 2 Chris Columbus
American director Chris Columbus, known for the films Home Alone and Harry Potter, has admitted that he considers Donald Trump’s appearance in Home Al one 2: Lost in New York as a “curse” and a “stone around his neck” that he would like to get rid of. He spoke about this in a new interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, on the eve of the 68th San Francisco Film Festival.
“It became a curse. I really wish that scene didn’t exist,” Columbus admitted. According to him, he is even afraid that “he will be deported to Italy” if he does cut this episode.
Columbus recalled that Trump’s participation in the film was a condition for filming at the Plaza Hotel, which at the time belonged to the businessman:
“The only way to film in the Plaza is to include me in the film,” the director recalls Trump saying.
The scene with Trump lasts only 7 seconds, but it has caused controversy, especially after his presidency. In 2020, Columbus confirmed that Trump had “imposed himself on the film” and that it was part of the hotel’s filming fee.
In December 2023, Trump accused the director of lying on his Truth Social platform, claiming that he had been “begged” to appear in the film and called his appearance “great for the film”.
“I never asked for anyone who wasn’t an actor to be in the film. But we were desperate to get Plaza,” Columbus said.
The director also noted that he had originally planned to cut the scene, but left it in after the audience at the Chicago screening “laughed and applauded”. And yet today he still considers it a mistake.
Earlier, in 2019, Canadian TV had already removed the scene with Trump, and in 2021, actor Macaulay Culkin publicly supported its digital removal.
