Original ‘Christmas Vacation’ Director Quit Because ‘I Couldn’t Work With’ Chevy Chase: ‘He’s Not Engaged. He’s Treating Me Like S—. I Don’t Need This’

“Home Alone” director Chris Columbus said during an interview with Vanity Fair that it was ultimately Chevy Chase who opened the door for him to helm the 1990 Christmas comedy classic. That’s because Columbus was originally working with screenwriter John Hughes on 1989’s “Christmas Vacation,” starring Chase. Columbus was hired to direct the comedy and was in the middle of second unit shooting when he met Chase for the first time.

“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 said. “I was one of the many who couldn’t work with him. And I called John and I said, ‘This is really hard for me, but I can’t do this movie with Chevy Chase.’ We were in the midst of shooting second unit. We didn’t start shooting the movie or building sets. But it was December, so I had to go to downtown Chicago and shoot all of the department stores and all of that. I had two meetings with Chevy.”

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“My first meeting with him, I sat down with him. It was just the two of us,” Columbus continued. “He had to know I was directing the movie. I talked about how I saw the movie, how I wanted to make the movie. 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?’ And I said, ‘Yeah…I’m directing the film.’ And he 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.'”

Columbus was baffled by Chase’s comment. He eventually met the comedian again for a dinner, this time with Hughes present. The director said “I was basically nonexistent” at the table as Chevy and Hughes talked to each other about everything but “Christmas Vacation.”

“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 told Vanity Fair. “First of all, he’s not engaged. He’s treating me like shit. I don’t need this. I’d rather not work again. I’d rather write…Who says anything like that to anybody? It makes no sense. So to tell that story almost makes no sense, but it actually happened. I thought, This was how we’re going to work together? I’m going to be on set and he’s not listening.”

Columbus gave Hughes a call to tell him that he could not work with Chase, to which Hughes was understanding. The director added: “I quit ‘Christmas Vacation.’ The next weekend, I got another script from John—and it’s ‘Home Alone.’ ‘Home Alone,’ for me, was even more personal, a better script. And I thought, I can really do something with this, and I don’t have to deal with Chevy Chase.”

Variety has reached out to Chase’s representatives for comment.

After Columbus quit “Christmas Vacation,” director Jeremiah S. Chechik was brought in as a replacement. The movie opened in theaters in 1989 and was the third installment in National Lampoon’s “Vacation” film series. Chase had headlined all three movies opposite Beverly D’Angelo.