Catherine O’Hara.Photo:Robin L Marshall/WireImage
Robin L Marshall/WireImage
Catherine O’Harais weighing in on the apparent wealth ofHome Alone’s Peter and Kate McCallister.
Last month,The New York Timespublished a report estimating that the family from the 1990 Christmas classic was in the top 1% of earnersin Chicago, the metropolitan area where the film is set.
Thenews outlet worked with economistsat the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, who estimated that the McCallisters would have had to earn an income of about $305,000 (or $665,000 in 2022) in order to afford the home featured in the movie.
The real Winnetka, Illinois, home used in the film has a current off-market value of around $2.34 million, according to Zillow.
“I thought the house was pretty amazing,” O’Hara, who played McCallister matriarch Kate, tells PEOPLE. “Oh Lord, yeah.”
Catherine O’Hara.Caitlin Cronenberg/Trunk Archive
Caitlin Cronenberg/Trunk Archive
But theArgylleactress admits she never gave much thought to their income. “I was aware of how beautiful it was, but no, I never thought of their money. That’s not where my head was when I was doing [the movie]. Of course, they all went to Paris, didn’t they?” she says.
House from “Home Alone”.Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu Agency via Getty
Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu Agency via Getty
“People have these theories,” she says. “Where’d they get their money? Maybe he inherited it… they inherited it.”
In the movie, the McCallisters are hurrying to leave their gorgeous and stately home for a Christmas getaway to Paris when they inadvertently forget Kevin (Macaulay Culkin), one of their children.
20th Century Fox/Kobal/Shutterstock
O’Hara says she didn’t foresee the film becoming a cultural phenomenon, but she had a wonderful time making the movie.
“I need to care about the whole thing. I don’t care to do a great role in a bad project. You want to be part of something good, and that’s how you go. Then the people that you’re going to get to work with and the experience, the day-to-day experience. And in that case, it was lovely. All those kids that played our children were just lovely,” she continues.
“[Director] Chris Columbus, lovely man," she remembers. “He’s a family guy himself. I think he had like five kids already at the time. And [screenwriter]John Hughes. John Hughes wasn’t there a lot, but wrote such a beautiful script, obviously. It’s a perfect movie, isn’t it?”
For more on Catherine O’Hara, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands now.
source: people.com
