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‘Harry Potter’ Director Says Kids Casting Search Was Shaped by Macaulay Culkin’s ‘Home Alone’ Stardom and Troubled Family Life: The Parents Are Just as ‘Important’

"Home Alone" and "Harry Potter" director Chris Columbus says finding great parents is instrumental when casting child actors in a movie.

Chris Columbus has directed some of the most iconic child performances in movie history as the filmmaker behind “ Home Alone ” and the first two “ Harry Potter ” films, and his tip for finding the right kids is to make sure they have the right parents. Columbus sat down with Demi Lovato for her Hulu documentary “Child Star” (via Entertainment Weekly) and said that his experience with Macaulay Culkin ‘s stardom in the wake of “Home Alone” informed his casting search on “Harry Potter.” The filmmaker “felt a tremendous responsibility” to make sure whichever child actors he was casting in the “Harry Potter” franchise “knew what they were getting into” as stars like Daniel Radcliffe were required to sign on for multiple films at once.

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