Originally appeared on E! Online
Macaulay Culkin is home and not alone at the 2026 Golden Globes.
The “Home Alone” alum — who was joined by wife Brenda Song — was touched by the warm reception he received during the Jan. 11 award ceremony hosted by Nikki Glaser at the Beverly Hilton where he was presenting the award for Best Screenplay, Motion Picture.
“Wow, thanks guys,” Culkin said to the crowd as he entered to thunderous applause. “It’s been 35 years since I’ve been to the Globes. Thanks for welcoming me back, that’s really nice of you guys.”
“I know it’s weird seeing me outside the holiday season,” the 45-year-old joked, “but shockingly I do exist all year round, I promise you.”
And as the former child actor explained, it made “a lot of sense” for him to be presenting the award for Best Screenplay — which went to Paul Thomas Anderson for “One Battle After Another” — as they are a medium he is intimately familiar with, quipping, “I’ve been reading screenplays basically since I learned to read.” (Click here for all the winners.)
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Culkin has been extremely candid about how he now approaches his acting career — which began when he was just 4 years old — sharing that he now appreciates taking breaks whenever he can.
“Technically, I’m retired right now,” he said on the SmartLess podcast in December. “I retire and then, if I find something I like, I unretire, do that, and I immediately retire afterwards.”
Culkin joked, “Every gig is my last.”
“I quit for nearly a decade,” he shared. “Just went to high school, fell in love, got drunk for the first time, things like that.”
The “Richie Rich” star — who shares sons Dakota, 4, and Carson, 3, with Brenda — explained that after starring in the 1994 film, “I was in a position where I could just put my thumb up my butt and play video games all day long.”
The break also led him to the realization that acting was something he actually wanted to do and was passionate about, and not just a career his parents chose for him when he was a child.
“I was kind of just drifting around, and tried to figure out what I wanted out of life and so forth,” he said. “This was a calling that found me. I didn’t find it. I wanted to explore that in a different way, on my terms.”
Nikki Glaser is ready for Round 2 at the Golden Globes. The comedian spoke with Access Hollywood ahead of her second time hosting the award show, sharing which celebrities she thinks are the hardest to joke about and why her monologue won’t be a full-on roast.
