Macaulay Culkin Regrets Missing ‘Rushmore’ Audition

More than 25 years later, Macaulay Culkin revealed he was almost an early muse for Wes Anderson in the director’s sophomore feature.

The Golden Globe nominee recently shared his regrets about missing the audition for Anderson’s 1998 comedy Rushmore as he took a post-Richie Rich (1994) hiatus from acting following a busy career as a child star.

“I was actually pretty good at reading, I was voraciously reading through the scripts, but there was a couple that slipped through,” he said on Hot Ones.

“I remember about two years later, clearing out the house and throwing out the old scripts and I saw the one that I didn’t read was Rushmore,” added Culkin. “I was like, ‘Oh dang.’ I probably could have done that one.”

Although he admitted he “couldn’t imagine anyone but [Jason] Schwartzman doing that part,” Culkin added, “But at the same time I’m like, ‘Oh man, that would have been a ball and a biscuit, that one.’”

In Rushmore, Schwartzman gave his breakout performance as ambitious teenager Max, who seeks advice from his friend’s father Herman (Bill Murray) on how to woo his beautiful new teacher Rosemary (Olivia Williams), until his new mentor sparks his own romance with the educator.

Schwartzman and Anderson have since also worked together on The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Isle of Dogs (2018), The French Dispatch (2021) and Asteroid City (2023).