Chevy Chase reportedly treated ‘Christmas Vacation’ director ‘like s–t’ — so he quit

He didn’t feel holiday cheer.

Director Chris Columbus, best known for the films “Home Alone”, Mrs. Doubtfire” and “Harry Potter” said he was also going to direct 1989’s “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” — but opted out because of the film’s star, Chevy Chase.

“I signed up … and then I met Chevy Chase. Even given my situation at the time, when I desperately needed to make a movie, I realized I couldn’t work with the guy,” Columbus shared Vanity Fair in a recent interview.

The film was ultimately directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik.

The comedy follows Clark Griswold (Chase), a Chicago man with a wife and children who wants to have a nice family Christmas, but events quickly turn into chaos. Johnny Galecki, Juliette Lewis and Beverly D’Angelo co-starred.

Columbus explained that he had two meetings with the former “SNL” actor before telling the film’s writer and co-producer, John Hughes, “This is really hard for me, but I can’t do this movie with Chevy Chase.”

Columbus said that during their first meeting, he sat down with Chase, “just the two of us.”

“He had to know that I directed the film. I talked about how I saw the movie, how I wanted to make the movie,” Columbus added.

“He didn’t say anything. I talked for about half an hour. He didn’t say a word. And then he stops and he says—and it makes no sense to any human being on the planet, but I’m telling you. I probably never told this story. Forty minutes into the meeting, he says, ‘Wait a minute, are you the director?’ “

After Columbus explained that he directed the film, he recalled that Chase, “said the most surreal, bizarre thing to me. I still haven’t been able to make any sense of it. He said, ‘Oh, I thought you was a drummer.’ I said, ‘Uh, okay. Let’s start talking about the movie again.’ After about 30 seconds he said, ‘I have to go.’ “

During his second meeting with the comedian, he said he met him for dinner with Hughes, who wrote and co-produced the film.

During that dinner, “I was basically nonexistent,” Columbus said, as Chase and Hughes talked to each other about anything but the movie.

“We spent two hours together and I left the dinner and I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m going to make a movie with this guy,'” Columbus shared.

The “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” director added: “First of all, he’s not engaged. He treats me like s–t. I don’t need this. I’d rather not work again.”

Columbus said, “I was like, ‘This is how we’re going to work together? I’m going to be on set and he’s not listening.'”

Chase, 81, was also reportedly difficult to work with on the NBC sitcom “Community,” which ran from 2009 to 2014.

Chase starred in four seasons of “Community” before being fired from the show in 2013 after allegedly using a racial slur against Donald Glover during filming. This also followed a heated confrontation with the show’s creator, Dan Harmon.

During an interview with Washington Post later that year, Chase denied using the snooze.

“I could have said that,” Chase told the magazine, before noting that it would have been misinterpreted. He then added that he had been a fan of the Glovers throughout the time they worked together on “Community” and denied that he was a bigot.

A “Community” movie is in the works, and in April co-star Joel McHale told The Post, “I don’t think (Chase is) allowed to (be in).”