It feels weird to say I got along with a 10-year-old... you think, ‘am I immature or a weirdo?’
Aisling Bea is among the stars in must-watch festive film, Home Sweet Home Alone. GEORGIA HUMPHREYS learns more from the Irish actress and her castmates
FEW films make people feel more festive than Home Alone. But if you think you know exactly what to expect from the latest offering in the franchise (this is the sixth), you’re in for a surprise, according to Aisling Bea and Archie Yates.
As the two stars of Home Sweet Home Alone explain, this is not a “reboot”, a “remake” or a “sequel”.
This is an “original story in the same universe”, says British actor Archie, 12, who you’ll recognise from the Oscar-winning film Jojo Rabbit.
“The characters are always written completely differently, they don’t look or sound the same,” adds Irish star Aisling, 37.
“You’re looking at a totally new character to play, but you know there’s all the beats in there that people are going to love.”
Macaulay Culkin as clever, cheeky prankster Kevin Mccallister in the first two Home Alone films – released in the early 1990s – remains iconic, and the leading role made the now-41-year-old a household name.
But Home Sweet Home Alone has more of a focus on the robbers than the kids – and they’re not straightup-baddies. Instead, they’re actually good people who find themselves in a sticky situation.
The pair in question are parents Jeff and Pam Mckenzie (played by Rob Delaney and Ellie Kemper), who are stressed at the thought of Christmas; Jeff has lost his job and is facing the devastating prospect of having to sell the family home.
A possible solution turns up when they discover they actually own a family heirloom – an old doll – that is worth a lot of money.
But, during a house reception, the item goes missing, and Jeff and Pam believe the culprit is an irritating 10-year-old British boy named Max (Archie), who was at the house with his mother, Carol (Aisling).
The Mckenzies find out where Max lives and decide to get their stolen treasure back. But the kid is – you’ve guessed it – home alone, while his family is in Japan, and is determined to make their quest a tricky one.
In fact, total chaos ensues, as the couple face plenty of elaborate, nifty, and seemingly painful booby traps set up by mischievous Max.
It means arguably the most entertaining element of the original films remain; there’s lots of physical comedy, which the cast fully embraced.
“We got to try every stunt ourselves – except ones that were literally falling down a flight of stairs in one swoop, I didn’t do that,” quips Missouri-born Ellie, who’s known for US sitcom Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
“But we were very well trained. A team of pros from New Zealand helped us and we felt very safe, very prepared, and there were no injuries. I felt proud that we got to do as many stunts as we did.”
“I think the worst thing that happened in the whole movie, from an acting perspective, was the amount of baby powder that was doubling as flour and sugar,” recalls Catastrophe star Rob, 44, who hails from Boston. “I never want to smell baby powder again.”
Archie says he loved doing all of his own stunt work.
“Though it’s been very scary, it’s also been incredibly fun. We filmed one of the scenes in one of the montage clips where I ride an ironing board down the stairs. There were a couple of crashes, but I was OK.”
As for his character, the youngster adds: “He is a horrible, bratty, really sarcastic and annoying child. As the film progresses, he turns a bit more kind, clever and funny, and a bit softer, which is nice.”
It sounds like Archie and Aisling had a lovely relationship on set portraying mother and son.
“It feels weird to say that I got along really well with a 10-year-old because you think, ‘am I immature or a weirdo?’ but we really did get on well,” says Aisling, who created and stars in the Channel 4 comedy This Way Up.
“He’s so kind and warm and quite like his character in how intelligent he is, but maybe his character is missing Archie’s natural kindness, which is why I love him.”
Both Ellie and Rob have young families. So, how does it feel to be able to make something that their kids can watch with them?
“I’ve made a lot of stuff that’s more appropriate for adults, and to exercise the muscles that entertain kids as well is great,” enthuses Rob.
“You just feel like you have a sort of bigger toolkit. And also, you can’t really fake it with kids, so it’s really good to exist in that realm.”
“You’re so right – they don’t laugh at something that isn’t funny,” adds
Ellie. “My kids, the older one is five, and I’m like, I don’t know if it’s weird to see your mum on television or whatever. But maybe I’m actually just scared; what if he doesn’t laugh?”
Pleasing their greatest critics aside, the other potential pressure on the cast is how to live up to Home Alone fans’ expectations.
But viewers will be delighted that the new film pays homage to the original in several places.
Devin Ratray, who played Kevin’s mean older brother, Buzz, has a small role as a police officer called to Max’s house; there are samples of the much-loved original score by John Williams; and we even get to hear what Kevin is up to as an adult.
Rob acknowledges it’s “an incredible privilege and an incredible thrill” to be part of a film series that’s so famous – but says he tried not to overthink it during the shoot.
“I would have to forget that sentiment and try to stuff it away in the corner of my mind so that I could try to do my job,” he elaborates.
“On a day-to-day basis, we were just trying to be the best thieves and the best parents that we could be and let that drive us.
“We knew that we were but a piece of the puzzle, and the way that we could contribute to making the film the best that it could be would just be trying to get that doll back from that terrible little boy.”
Home Sweet Home Alone is available to watch now on Disney+
DEXTER star Michael C Hall is known to TV viewers for playing a serial killer with a talent for murder and a mind packed with creative ways of getting rid of the bodies of his many victims.
There was never any tell-tale drop of blood to link him to the bad guys he dispatched... apart from the collection of glass slides that he kept as trophies of his kills.
Dexter is currently back in murdering form on Sky Atlantic in new series Dexter: New Blood after a decade away, but Michael has been keeping busy over the years with a number of projects including performing and recording with the band Princess Goes To The Butterfly Museum.
Michael is a longstanding Broadway performer having played lead roles in Chicago, Cabaret, Hedwig And The Angry Inch and Lazarus – one of the last works completed by David Bowie before his death.
The 50-year-old may be well known for his work as an actor, but he’s been singing his entire life and met his fellow band members, former The Wallflowers and Morningwood drummer Peter Yanowitz and Blondie, Boy George and Cyndi Lauper keyboard player Matt Katz-bohen, when they were all working on Hedwig in 2014.
But Michael says the formation of the band came as a surprise to them all. “We didn’t plan on it,” he says. “Peter and Matt were making instrumental tracks because the guys enjoyed being on tour together and wanted to keep doing stuff. I don’t think we necessarily thought we would become a band, not even when I heard those tracks and offered to sing on them.
“I did not think of it as anything other than just an experiment and to have some fun, but the collaboration between the three of us took on a life of its own and before we knew it a bunch of songs had been written and we felt compelled to book a gig and come up with a name.”
Matt says: “We all come together on certain things definitely. We all love Black Sabbath a lot and desert rock here in the US. We all came together basically via the Hedwig show, which is very 70s glam rock orientated, very Bowie orientated.”
Peter adds: “I think we share this strong desire to perform. We’ve been doing this now for four years. We’ve been playing around New York for almost all of that time except for the pandemic. But we are still a new band and we haven’t done a tour, so there is that excitement to see how the music translates in a live setting.”
The trio brought out their debut album Thanks For Coming earlier this year under the cloud of the pandemic. Nearly half of the album’s songs were written and recorded after New York City went into lockdown, but they are now heading to the UK on tour.
Peter says: “It’s a really exciting place. Excitement and fear they go hand in hand. I always get a little bit nervous.”
Michael points out: “I think if something is not at least a little bit scary then it’s probably not worth doing when it comes to performances and artistic endeavour. Excitement and fear can definitely intersect and intermingle. Ultimately it’s liberating to be putting across your own material rather than being a mouthpiece for someone else’s.
“I think in the shows we’ve played since we’ve come back... there is a collective sense of gratitude amongst both performers and audiences.”
He chuckles: “I do think there’s maybe a sense of just the simple wonder of all being in the room together is something that people are appreciating anew.”
Matt says they have already recorded and mastered a new album which they hope to release next year following the UK dates and the guys point to the influence of Giorgio Moroder’s 70s productions for disco vocalist Donna Summer, new wave dance music of the 80s and contemporary electronic dance acts like Justice.
Michael says: “My first concert was the Bay City Rollers. I was in second grade or something and I think the first album I ever bought was Styx’s Cornerstone right about the same time.”
“That’s crazy,” says Peter, “one of my first concerts was the Bay City Rollers and I also saw Styx in concert but Aerosmith was probably my first one.”
Matt says: “My first concert was when I was 12. It was the Headbangers Ball with Halloween and Anthrax and was a super metal show. I got my mom to take me with some of my friends and I remember my head just hurt afterwards from all the headbanging.”
The tour runs until December 9 and the album Thanks For Coming is out now. Go to bit.ly/3khw2cc for ticket details and for more information follow on Instagram: @princessgoesofficial
Excitement and fear can definitely intersect... Michael C Hall on pre-gig nerves
“I wrote me a 78-page plan for their careers before they were born,” says a grey-flecked Will Smith at the beginning of this Oscar-tipped biopic.
Smith is playing Richard Williams, father and self-taught trainer of tennis stars Venus and Serena.
The film focuses on this very unusual man, not the daughters he raised to be future Wimbledon champions on rundown courts in the impoverished Los Angeles neighbourhood of Compton.
Despite its Shakespearean title, this isn’t a meaty drama about a complicated patriarch but a rousing underdog sports movie.
Made in close consultation with the family (Venus and Serena are credited as executive producers), the film presents Richard as an inspirational figure. His plan may sound unusual but it’s necessary if the good-humoured security guard wants to drag his family out of the ghetto and overcome racism on the tennis circuit.
Beatings from local thugs hanging around the public courts and knockbacks from professional trainers never dent his resolve.
The film charts this success story as Richard lands his curiously uncomplaining daughters (played by Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton) a place in the Florida tennis academy run by Rick Macci (Jon Bernthal) and enters Venus into her first professional tournament at age 14.
Smith’s charismatic turn is compelling. But the film doesn’t know what to do with more troubling aspects of Richard’s personality.
In a rare scene of marital strife, his wife Brandi (Aunjanue Ellis) brings up his previous marriage, the children he abandoned and his failed business ventures. It’s a glimpse of a more interesting story that this authorised biopic is unable to tell.