The former child star, best known for Home Alone, opened up about his unconventional relationship with Hollywood during a recent appearance on the SmartLess podcast.
“Technically, I’m retired right now,” Culkin, 45, told hosts Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes. “I retire and then, if I find something I like, I unretire, do that, and I immediately retire afterwards. Every gig is my last.”
Culkin’s stop-and-start approach to acting dates back decades. After the release of Richie Rich, when he was just 14, he stepped away from the spotlight entirely.
“I quit for nearly a decade,” he said. Instead of working, Culkin focused on being a normal teenager — going to high school, falling in love, and experiencing everyday milestones most child stars miss.
Unlike many young actors, Culkin said he kept the majority of his earnings, which gave him rare freedom. “I was in a position where I could just put my thumb up my butt and play video games all day long,” he joked. “I could do anything I wanted.”
That freedom came from starting early. Culkin began acting at four years old and landed his first on-screen credit on The Equalizer not long after. But working almost exclusively with adults made him crave something different.
“When I was younger, I never worked with people my own age,” he explained. “I had a yearning to go to school, to have contemporaries.”
At the time, he was convinced he was done with Hollywood for good. “I was doneskies,” Culkin said. “I made my name. I made my mark. I made my fortune.” Now, he says the only reasons he takes a role are simple: “Pay, pleasure, prestige.”
Still, acting has a way of pulling him back in.
In recent years, Culkin has quietly enjoyed a career resurgence on his own terms. Earlier this year, he voiced Cattrick Lynxley in Zootopia 2, and he’s currently appearing in a mysterious new role in season two of Fallout on Prime Video.
As for whether he ever considered a completely different career, Culkin says not really. “This was a calling that found me,” he said. “I didn’t find it. I just wanted to explore it in a different way — on my terms.”
And if that means being permanently semi-retired, he seems perfectly happy with that.
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