Interview with Macaulay Culkin has fans worried he was ‘overworked’ as a child

A resurfaced interview with Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin has left fans concerned the child star was overworked in his younger years.

Culkin was just 10 years old when the world was first introduced to Kevin McCallister and the events that took place after his entire family literally forgot about him, and more than 30 years on it's hard to imagine the actor ever having grown up.

As well as Home Alone and its sequel, Lost In New York, Culkin also appeared when he was a child in Uncle Buck, My Girl, The Good Son and Richie Rich, among other titles.

He appeared to be working non-stop in the late 80s through to the mid-90s, racking up 20 acting credits on IMDb between 1998 and 1995.

It's a lot for someone at an age usually focused on school, friends and playing games, and Culkin alluded to his packed schedule during an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 1990 where he revealed his 'five favourite phrases'.

Chatting with an interviewer, Culkin described his favourite phrases as being: 'hour lunch', 'that's a wrap', 'see you next Monday', 'see you next week' and 'it's been nice working with you'.

20th Century Fox

All of the phrases are kinds which would come before some sort of break, indicating that having time off was Culkin's favourite part of the job.

A TikTok user shared the clip in a duet which argued Culkin was 'overworked', prompting many other TikTokers to agree.

"This feels like a cry for help that people took as a joke," one person responded, while another wrote: "Yes and it's sad that he didn't get a chance to have a childhood."

Child labour laws in the film industry today limit the amount of time children under the age of 18 can work, with the number varying by state, age and whether or not it is a school day.

According to Set Hero, all children need at least 12 hours of turnover time from one workday to the next.

Jaguar / Alamy Stock Photo

In California, the maximum amount of time children can work is 10 hours, which relates only to 16- and 17-year-olds. Kids between nine and 16 can work for a maximum of six hours, with the number decreasing the younger the child is.

In a 2020 interview with Esquire, Culkin said he enjoyed the fame at first, describing himself as a 'bit of an attention wh*re', but eventually it 'started feeling like a chore'.

"I started vocalizing that and not being heard: I was saying, ‘I wanna go to school—I haven’t done a full year of school since first grade'," he recalled.

Looking back, Culkin acknowledged things are 'not so bad' as he 'want[s] for nothing and need[s] for even less'.

"I’m good, man," he added.