If you’ve been paying attention to the world of movies and TV the last few months, you’ve been seeing Macaulay Culkin pop up in a few things. He had acting turns in Zootopia 2 and the second season of Fallout.
This is notable because Macaulay doesn’t work all that steadily in Hollywood these days. He’s made the occasional TV appearance every now and then, but his last pre-Zootopia 2 film role was in the 2019 comedy Changeland.
During a recent appearance on the SmartLess podcast, Macaulay described the recent spate of work as something of proof that he’s “techincally retired” — and he explained why that is.
“I retire and then, if I find something I like, I unretire, do that, and I immediately retire afterwards,” he explained. “Every gig is my last.”
Macaulay then went into the reasoning behind his decade-long acting hiatus, which began after the 1994 flick Richie Rich. “I quit for nearly a decade,” he said. “Just went to high school, fell in love, got drunk for the first time, things like that. I was in a position where I could just put my thumb up my butt and play video games all day long. You know? I could do anything I wanted, really.”
“I was doneskies. I was like, ‘I hope you all made your money because there’s no more coming from me,’” he said. “I made my name. I made my mark. I made my fortune. The only reason why I even do it now is because I like to do it. Pay, pleasure, prestige — that’s the only reason to do a gig.”
Sounds like his head’s in the right place, tbh. You can listen to the entire interview here.