When Macaulay Culkin became one of the world’s most famous children after Home Alone in 1990, somebody unexpectedly understood what was happening to him.
Michael Jackson.
Michael reached out after seeing the movie. Culkin later explained that his fame had exploded so quickly that children at his school simply could not understand his life. Michael could because he had experienced worldwide fame as a child himself. “At the end of the day, we were friends,” Culkin later said. Despite their 22-year age difference, Culkin remembered much of their time together as surprisingly ordinary.
At Neverland, they played video games, watched movies and had huge water-balloon fights. Michael even had an area known as the “M&M Water Fort,” referring to Macaulay and Michael, where they could have elaborate water battles.
They played so intensely that Culkin remembered sometimes falling asleep wherever he became exhausted, including inside the arcade. Michael apparently was not even the best gamer. Culkin later joked that Michael enjoyed arcade games but usually wasn’t as good as the kids. Another favorite activity was much simpler: prank calling strangers.
Culkin remembered Michael putting on ridiculous voices and calling businesses with questions such as how many refrigerators or mattresses they had. Years later, Culkin described Michael as hilarious, sweet and unusually silly in private.
For two people recognized almost everywhere, even going to the movies required creativity. Culkin recalled Michael sometimes picking him and his brothers up so they could sneak into a movie theater after the film had already started, allowing Michael to experience something as basic as seeing a movie without immediately attracting a crowd.
Then their friendship entered Michael’s professional world. In 1991, Culkin appeared in Michael’s short film for “Black or White.” He stars in the famous opening sequence as a kid whose furious father demands that he turn his music down. Culkin responds by wheeling enormous speakers into the living room and blasting his father through the roof. The film premiered internationally before an estimated audience of hundreds of millions.
Michael Jackson – “Black or White”
Their connection lasted well beyond Culkin’s childhood.
Michael later chose Macaulay as godfather to his children, and Culkin has remained particularly close to Paris Jackson.
Looking back, Culkin said one reason the friendship worked was that he did not treat Michael like the biggest celebrity alive. Michael, in turn, understood what it felt like when extraordinary fame took away an ordinary childhood.
Behind the headlines, much of their friendship was surprisingly simple: arcade games, water fights, prank calls, movies and two famous people finding someone else who understood how strange fame could be.