Home Alone star Devin Ratray reminisces about being Buzz

MORE than 25 years after Home Alone was released, the actor who played Buzz has opened up about what it was like to star in one of the iconic movie.

“I WOULDN’T let you sleep in my room if you were growing on my ass!”

Ah memories.

That is of course just one of the many charming lines that Buzz, played by Devin Ratray, delivers in Home Alone and Home Alone 2.

Sure, it’s been more than 25 years since the original was released but the movies remain as popular than ever.

So we decided to track down Ratray to find out what it was like to star in two of the most iconic Christmas films ever made:

Q: What’s your favourite memory from the two films:

A: It was behind the scenes that was the most fun. We shot at the New Trier High School in Illinois which John Hughes had bought after the school had closed down and he converted them into movie studios. That’s where The Breakfast Club was shot.

The Vice Principal’s office had been turned into the hair and makeup station. The aeroplane in Home Alone 1 was actually constructed in the gymnasium so to get from the Vice Principal’s office to the gymnasium they gave us these little razor scooters that we would race around on. Of course a bunch of young kids on razor scooters in a school, well, it wasn’t long before they decided that was a really bad idea.

Q: Michael Jackson visited the Home Alone set and you got to meet him. What was he like?

A: He seemed like he wanted to talk to me and open up. He really did feel comfortable around Macaulay (Culkin) and I, more than anyone else. He felt guarded and uncomfortable around adults. I think that’s why he gravitated towards Macaulay because he felt like he could trust a child more than he could trust adults who had a secondary motive.

Macaulay was very similar to him in that sense, very shy, very withdrawn and thrust into the spotlight against his own accord. I think fame affected both of them very similarly.

Michael Jackson and Macaulay Culkin monkey around with Ginny the Orangutan at Universal Studios in 1991.

Q: Donald Trump had a cameo in Home Alone 2. Did you get to meet him?

A: I didn’t get to meet him during Home Alone but I got to meet him another time. In the early 2000s ... I was at a cinema complex on the upper west side ... I go outside and my friend says, ‘Look over my left shoulder,’ and there’s Donald Trump waiting in line to buy popcorn.

I go walking straight up to him and of course he has a bodyguard with him ... I said, ‘Excuse me Mr Trump. You and I were in the same movie.’ And without batting an eye he said, ‘Well I’m sure you were much better in it than I was.’

He had not gone insane at that point in life I suspect and he was rather cordial.

Q: Kevin has a famous line in the movie where he picks up a photo and says, “Buzz, your girlfriend, woof!” Is it true that’s actually a young boy dressed as a girl in the photo?

A: Absolutely true. I can’t actually remember who it was, but they didn’t want some poor girl feeling bad. He was very good spirited about it and is rather proud of it now.

Buzz in Home Alone 2.

Woof indeed.

Q: What’s the strangest interaction you’ve had with a fan?

A: I was walking down the street once and I saw this young, attractive woman wearing a T-shirt that said, ‘My friend slept with Buzz from Home Alone.’ I didn’t stop her to talk to her about it.

A week later somebody sent me a link to a site and apparently there’s a person in New York who makes T-shirts based on clips of conversations she hears other people say. So she heard somebody telling somebody else in New York, ‘My friend slept with Buzz from Home Alone.’

Q: What do you think your character, Buzz, would be up to in 2016?

A: He would be Trump’s campaign manager or he would be a very close adviser. I’m almost positive of that.

Q: You’ve appeared in a number of movies and TV shows since the Home Alone movies. You’re set to star in Steven Soderbergh’s mysterious project called Mosaic. What can you tell me about it?

A: It is a format and a technology that we’ve never seen before. It’s an interactive, fully-immersed film experience, in the sense that the audience will be able to see a story told from beginning to end but they can choose how they want to see it and which character to follow.

It’ll be on HBO Now. Through the website they’ll be able to follow whoever they choose to see and the story changes drastically between whose perspective you wish to see it through. It’s going to be incredible.

Devin Ratray in 2014.

Mosaic is set to be released in 2017.