Macaulay Culkin told filmmakers that John Candy was among the first people to notice and question the abuse Culkin suffered from his father, the actor says in the new documentary John Candy: I Like Me, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Culkin, who first worked with Candy on John Hughes’ 1989 comedy Uncle Buck, said Candy "saw" what others did not and checked in on him when people around the child actor often looked the other way. "Listen, even before the wave crested and the Home Alone stuff was happening, it was not hard to see how difficult my father was," Culkin says in the film. "It was no secret. He was already a monster. All of a sudden, the fame and the money came, and he became an infamous monster. He was already not a good guy. I think John was looking a little side-eyed, like, 'Is everything all right over there? You doing good? Good day? Everything’s all right? Everything good at home? All right.'"
In the documentary, Culkin describes a "paternal" energy from Candy and said he felt genuinely looked after by the late comedian. "It doesn't happen that often," Culkin says. "It actually happened less as time went on. I wish I got more of that in my life. It's important that I remember that. I remember John caring when not a lot of people did."
John Candy: I Like Me was directed by Colin Hanks and lists Hanks and Ryan Reynolds among its executive producers. The film features interviews with colleagues and family members, including Steve Martin and Candy's daughter, Jennifer Candy-Sullivan. Candy-Sullivan said her father's kindness toward Culkin matched the family's memories. "When we hear about Macaulay Culkin, that doesn't surprise me because that's who our dad was," she says in the documentary. "He wasn't going to just kind of ignore a kid because he was a kid actor and he was moving on to something else. It's like he genuinely wanted to know."
Hanks, appearing in the film and in promotional interviews, said Candy had a habit of making people feel heard and important. "The fact that John took that time to check in with Mac and make sure that he was doing OK, I related to that, having experienced it myself," Hanks says in the documentary. "John was like that with everybody. He was like that with the people that he worked with. He was like that with the people that he met on the street. John made you feel important. He made you feel heard, and that was really a unique quality."
The documentary examines both Candy's professional success and his personal warmth, drawing on archival footage and testimony from friends, fellow performers and family members. It joins a number of recent films and series that revisit the lives of celebrated comedians, balancing accounts of their careers with closer looks at their private lives.
John Candy: I Like Me launches worldwide on Prime Video on Oct. 10. The film's Toronto premiere and the interviews it contains add to a growing public conversation about the supports, or lack thereof, surrounding young actors who rise to fame and the adults in their lives who notice or intervene.
The documentary's release will make its interviews and assessments widely available, including Culkin's candid recollections of Candy's attention and the abuse he says he suffered from his father, providing viewers a fuller account of the relationships that shaped both Candy's life and Culkin's early career.