The Story Behind Joe Pesci Accidentally Biting Macaulay Culkin While Filming Home Alone, Scaring Him

On December 25, 2024By Littum

When Macaulay Culkin was only 10 years old, the child actor starred Alone at homewhich remains his most iconic and remains one of the best Christmas movies of all time. As every household turns on the 1990 classic during the holiday season, Culkin and co-star Daniel Stern reflected on a funny moment on the set of the comedy when Joe Pesci actually bit Culkin’s poor finger. (Seriously, you need to hear the story behind this wild situation.)

It’s hard to believe Alone at home is almost 35 years old. Macaulay Culkin is currently 44 years old himself and even has his own family. (His three-year-old isn’t quite ready to see the movie.) Even now, though, the actor still has memories to share from the movie, including the time Joe Pesci accidentally bit his finger on set. When it came to Pesci’s reason for it, Culkin recalled:

He was trying to scare me, he was like, I want to be threatening to this kid.

While talking to New York Times about the classic film that many have probably seen 100 times over the years, Culkin talked about Pesci’s Harry threatening to bite off Kevin’s fingers during rehearsals while in character before accidentally actually doing it. As the actor continued:

I have a scar. I saw his face – and I’ve never, ever seen Joe Pesci actually scared. Because he’s like, I just asked for a baby!

It was clear that the actor had no intention of going that far on the set, and was immediately afraid that he would injure Alone at home star. It’s a fun tidbit from the set, as Daniel Stern, who played Pesci’s partner in crime, Marv. The Wonder Years the narrator also remembered the situation while talking to Entertainment tonight. In Stern’s words:

I completely forgot about that. Joe is — he’s wonderful, I love him, he’s a dear friend, but he’s a scary guy, and he bore it all. Because he was, in the first movie, in the first movie we actually tried to be scary to start with and then you realize we’re idiots. But there was a fear factor that created the drama in the case.

It must have been pretty surreal for Macaulay Culkin to be bitten by his Oscar-winning actor and co-star at the time. It sounds like it ended up being a humiliating moment for Pesci, who dropped his “menacing” approach for fear of actually scaring the kid in real life. Daniel Stern shared even more memories of what happened, saying this:

Yeah, I think he bit it while he was biting his finger and then he bit it and it was like, “Oh shit, I didn’t really mean that.” Joe said, ‘Ahh, sorry I did.’ But only once you see Pesci break.

Speaking of “fear factor,” it’s also been said that Joe Pesci would curse a lot on set Alone at homeas director Chris Columbus was not happy that a 10-year-old was present. There are plenty of other BTS details about Alone at homeinvolving on-set antics. (For example, Stern recalled having an actual tarantula in his face while filming the Christmas Day classic.) The Marv actor also recalled how it was “fun” to “beat Joe Pesci with a crowbar” amid the many versions of the characters in Hell . ‘ go through during the fun holiday movie.

Still, few BTS moments will top the finger-biting ordeal, as it’s definitely one for the books. You can see Alone at home and one of Hollywood’s great sequels, Home Alone 2: Lost In New York by streaming them with a Disney+ subscription now.