On the Shelf
Home and Alone
By Daniel Stern
Viva Editions: 314 pages, $24
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Daniel Stern is best known as one-half of the Wet, and later Sticky, Bandits who plague Macaulay Culkinâs Kevin McCallister in â90s Christmas staples âHome Aloneâ and âHome Alone 2: Lost in New York.â But he almost wasnât cast in the role of Marv, the gangly, bumbling sidekick to Joe Pesciâs Harry. After a change in schedule meant the six-week shoot that Stern had signed on for was upped to two months but the pay remained the same, he âmade one of the stupidest decisions in my showbusiness lifeâ and backed out of the deal. Someone else got the role but, after a couple of days of rehearsals, producers wanted him back and deferred to the original contract.
Itâs a recurring theme throughout Sternâs career and his memoir, the aptly titled âHome and Alone,â which publishes Tuesday. âI almost blew it a couple [more] times,â he tells The Times via Zoom from his farm in Ventura. They are: 1991âs âCity Slickers,â in which Stern replaced Rick Moranis, who then returned to the movie before leaving again, and âThe Wonder Years,â the pilot of which premiered without Sternâs voice-over after he was unceremoniously fired and â you guessed it â brought back to narrate the rest of its six-season run.
Stern also held out for a bigger payday on âHome Alone 2â when he found out he wasnât getting as much as his co-leads, but ultimately signed on to the sequel. âThereâs lots of things I get out of the movies besides money,â Stern says.
âHome and Aloneâ by Daniel Stern
âHome and Aloneâ is a refreshing glimpse into the life of a fairly well-known character actor whoâs hit it big in the aforementioned parts but who seems to get the most fulfillment out of his roles off-camera, including as a director, sculptor, father and philanthropist. The latter earned him the Presidentâs Call to Service Award from Barack Obama for his charity work with young people, particularly the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, which proceeds from the sale of âHome and Aloneâ will benefit.
âWhat surprised me about writing the book was that a theme came to me which I didnât expect, and that was empowering young people,â Stern says.
Itâs no surprise that most of his work centers on this. âIn showbusiness, itâs almost a lose-lose for child actors. If theyâre going to be in showbiz, they should be in a movie with me! Itâs my fatherly instinct to help the kids through it,â says Stern, who had children in his early 20s while he navigated Hollywood.
Itâs a journey in which heâs worked alongside many of the industryâs biggest players, from Glenn Close in one of his first plays to director Robert Redford, who gave Stern the best advice of his career â knowing which lens the director is filming with in order to cater the performance to it â which no doubt informed Sternâs performance in, as he calls it, the âlive action cartoonâ âHome Alone.â
Itâs also one in which Stern has encountered some of the industryâs biggest abusers too, including on the 1999 sitcom âPartnersâ with CBS president Leslie Moonves, director Brett Ratner and star Jeremy Piven, all of whom Stern calls out in the book for harassing women, who confided in Stern, on the set.
But what about those he doesnât? One of Sternâs best friends was Mel Gibson, and heâs working on a musical adaptation of his 1984 movie âC.H.U.D.â with CeeLo Green, who was accused of sexual battery in 2012. (The Los Angeles County District Attorneyâs Office declined to press charges.)
âItâs how the people and the stories hit me,â Stern offers, adding that heâs wary of speaking for others. âJust tell your story. I want other people to tell their stories. Everybody can.â
Thatâs what he primarily sees himself as: a storyteller.
âAs an actor, I love playing my part, but in a movie, the director tells the story. As Iâve grown, I like to tell the story,â whether that be directing, screen- and playwriting or sculpting â his creations litter the background of his workshop where he takes the video call. He still accepts the odd acting job here and there, as with Season 4 of âFor All Mankind,â which is likely the last weâll see of Stern on the show, which has a penchant for turning over its cast amid time jumps between seasons. âIt was a great job. I love the show, but I had to leave my house much too much,â Stern chuckles.
When he does, heâs usually met with regalement about what Marv means to a generation of people â this writer included. âHow many people in the world are stopped by perfect strangers who tell them, âI love you. My family loves you. You bring us joy. You are a part of our family holiday tradition,â and all of the other wonderful things people say to me all the time?â Stern ponders with fondness in the book.
Macaulay Culkin and Joe Pesci in âHome Alone.â
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We end our conversation with the age-old question: âHome Aloneâ or âHome Alone 2â? âWhich of my children do I love more?!â he laughs. Heâs seen each only once; he doesnât like to watch his own work. Stern acknowledges that although the original is âembedded in peopleâs heartsâ and it might be âsacrilegiousâ to say âHome Alone 2,â âthe filming of that one is the winner.â
The crew, who knew each other from the first movie, delighted in taking turns throwing foam bricks off the roof of a dilapidated New York City brownstone in the middle of the night. In another iconic scene in said brownstone, Sternâs Marv is electrocuted. Stern gave his all in the first take, which seemed to go on forever. âI had nothing more I could do, and I still didnât hear âCut!,ââ he writes, because director Chris Columbus and the rest of the crew were laughing so hard they couldnât find their words.
âIâve never felt so free to make an idiot of myself on purpose [than in âHome Alone 2â],â Stern says. âI was so funny in that moment that I made the director fall on the floor laughing. Itâs hard to top that as the stellar moment of my artistic journey.â