He wasn’t feeling vacation cheer.
Director Chris Columbus, finest identified for the “Home Alone,” Mrs. Doubtfire” and the “Harry Potter” motion pictures, revealed that he was additionally speculated to direct 1989’s “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” — however opted out due to the film’s star, Chevy Chase.
“I was signed on…and then I met Chevy Chase. Even given my situation at the time, where I desperately needed to make a film, I realized I couldn’t work with the guy,” Columbus instructed Vainness Honest in a current interview.
The film was in the end directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik.
The comedy follows Clark Griswold (Chase), a Chicago man with a spouse and youngsters who needs to have a pleasant household Christmas, however occasions quickly spiral into chaos. Johnny Galecki, Juliette Lewis, and Beverly D’Angelo co-starred.
Columbus defined that he had two conferences with the previous “SNL” actor earlier than telling the movie’s author and co-producer, John Hughes, “‘This is really hard for me, but I can’t do that film with Chevy Chase.’’’
Columbus defined that in their first assembly, he sat down with Chase, “just the two of us.”
“He had to know I was directing the movie. I talked about how I saw the movie, how I wanted to make the movie,” Columbus added.
“He didn’t say anything. I went through about a half hour of talking. He didn’t say a word. And then he stops and he says — and this makes no sense to any human being on the planet, but I’m telling you. I probably have never told this story. Forty minutes into the meeting, he says, ‘Wait a second. You’re the director?’’”
After Columbus defined that he was directing the movie, he recalled that Chase, “said to me the most surreal, bizarre thing. I still haven’t been able to make any sense out of it. He said, ‘Oh, I thought you were a drummer.’ I said, ‘Uhh, okay. Let’s start talking about the film again.’ After about 30 seconds, he said, ‘I got to go.’”
Throughout his second assembly with the comic, he mentioned he met him for dinner with Hughes, who wrote and co-produced it.
Throughout that dinner, “I was basically nonexistent,” Columbus mentioned, as Chevy and Hughes talked to one another about all the pieces however the film.
“We spent two hours together, and I left the dinner and I thought, ‘There’s no way I can make a movie with this guy,’” Columbus instructed the outlet.
The “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” director added, “First of all, he’s not engaged. He’s treating me like sh-t. I don’t need this. I’d rather not work again.”
Columbus mentioned, “ I thought, ‘This was how we’re going to work together? I’m going to be on set and he’s not listening.’”
Chase, now 81, was additionally reportedly tough to work with on the NBC sitcom “Community,” which ran from 2009-2014.
Chase starred in 4 seasons of “Community,” earlier than being fired from the present in 2013 after allegedly utilizing a racist slur towards Donald Glover throughout filming. This additionally adopted a heated confrontation with the present’s creator, Dan Harmon.
Throughout an interview with the Washington Submit later that very same 12 months, Chase didn’t deny utilizing the slur.
“I could have said it,” Chase instructed the outlet, earlier than noting it might have been misinterpreted. He then added that he had been a fan of Glover’s all the time they labored collectively on “Community” and denied that he was a bigot.
A “Community” film is within the works, and in April, co-star Joel McHale Instructed The Submit, “I don’t think [Chase is] allowed to [be in it].”
