“He was a complete jerk.” Because of Chevy Chase, the director of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation has quit and filmed another Christmas hit
After meeting Chevy Chase, the director of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation dropped the film. Later, the script for another Christmas hit fell into his hands.
Chris Columbus before he filmed Harry Potter was set to step behind the camera of another blockbuster. A Christmas movie starring Chevy Chase. We are talking about the cult National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, which is a must-see item every Christmas.
The director left the project after shooting the initial establishing second-unit shots for the movie. Where did such a surprising decision come from? It turns out that it had quite a connection precisely with the star of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Columbus confessed that after meeting Chase, despite desperately needing a job, he walked away from the project, mentioning that the actor was “a complete jerk.”
Columbus shared his story about National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation during a recent interview with Empire Magazine (via Screenrant).
John Hughes had the same agent as me, and sent me the script for Christmas Vacation. I thought it was very funny. I even shot some initial establishing second-unit shots for the movie – shots that are in the film now. And then I met with Chevy Chase. It's no surprise – you've heard this story a million times - but he was a complete jerk. And even though I was in a situation where I desperately needed a job, I decided that I had to bow out. Two weeks later, I got two scripts from John Hughes again. One was a script called Reach The Rock, which I didn't respond to. And the other was Home Alone.
Although giving up on a film like National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation was a risky move on Chris Columbus' part, he didn't come out of it badly, because right after that the Home Alone script fell into his hands, which, as we already know well, was a huge success.
And Columbus' place in the film with Chevy Chase was taken by Jeremiah S. Chechik.
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