“I’m in charge of the interaction,” the former child star said.

Macaulay Culkin has to ‘gird’ himself for public outings and has 3 rules for fans

“I'm in charge of the interaction," the former child star said.

By Shania Russell

Shania Russell

Shania Russell is a news writer at *, *with five years of experience. Her work has previously appeared in SlashFilm and Paste Magazine.

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December 30, 2025 6:12 p.m. ET

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Macaulay Culkin attends the 'Zootopia 2' Hollywood premiere Nov. 13. Credit:

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

As the child star of a timeless holiday classic, Macaulay Culkin is no stranger to being approached in public.

But after a few decades of megafame, the *Home Alone* alum, 45, has found a way to make fan interactions a lot less scary. And all it requires are a few very reasonable ground rules.

"I definitely have to gird myself for, you know, outings and so forth," Culkin admitted during a recent visit to the *SmartLess* podcast. "Just set certain ground rules for myself."

So what exactly is Culkin asking of fans? It's pretty simple: "Don't approach me when I'm at the dinner table. I don't like that," he began, before naming rule No. 2. "Don't approach me when I'm with my kids."

Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Song attend the 'Fallout' season 2 after party Dec. 8 in Los Angeles.

Alberto Rodriguez/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty

The actor, who shares two children with his fiancé, former Disney star Brenda Song, then emphasized the final faux-pas: "Definitely don't follow me to the bathroom.

Culkin went on to say that setting such boundaries was a big step, after years of being approached in public: "I just realized that I'm in charge of the social contract," he shared. "I'm in charge of the interaction."

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Elsewhere in the episode, Culkin opened up about the "tricky" nature of becoming famous at such a young age. After beginning his career at just four years old, Culkin became a household name thanks to his role of Kevin McCallister in the *Home Alone* franchise.

"It was a difficult, tricky waters to maneuver through and stuff like that because you don't necessarily have the actual or emotional vocabulary to really kind of, you know, maneuver through those waters," he told hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett.

Culkin added that fame was also quite isolating for him, admitting, "I always kinda thought of myself as a peerless person. Like, I couldn't turn left and right, like, know, like, and go, 'Oh, you're like me.'"

Macaulay Culkin in 'Home Alone'.

Don Smetzer/20th Century Fox

Overall, it presented a "unique" experience that he ultimately opted to walk away from in his early teen years, retiring for nearly a decade after 1994's *Richie Rich.* Recent years have seen Culkin step comfortably back into the spotlight, touring the country with his Nostalgic Night With Macaulay Culkin events and taking on roles in* Zootopia 2* and *Fallout*. Still, there are at least two people in the actor's life who don't get starstruck by his child stardom.

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Culkin has previously revealed that despite his kids — Dakota, 4, and Carson, 3 — being obsessed with *Home Alone*, they have no idea that their own father is the movie's scheming protagonist.

"I try to keep the magic alive," he recently said at an Academy Museum screening of the movie. "I showed my oldest — he wanted to see a picture of me and my siblings, so I pulled up this old photo; it’s all my siblings, and he looks right at me, and he goes, 'Who’s that? That looks like Kevin.' I go, 'Oh, no, nobody, here’s your aunt.'"**

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