Daniel Stern Is More Interested in Returning to Another Franchise Than Home Alone

For All Mankind is currently in the midst of its fourth season on Apple TV+, and it features the addition of Daniel Stern as NASA administrator Eli Hobson. Stern is known for an array of roles, including Marv in Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Stern about For All Mankind, and we asked if he’d be interested in returning to the role of Marv. Turns out, the actor would be more interested in playing Phil Berquist again, his character from City Slickers (1991) and City Slickers: The Legend of Curly’s Gold (1994). In 2017, he reprised the character in a comedy short titled City Slickers in Westworld, which saw Stern’s Phil and Billy Crystal’s Mitch Robbins heading to the diabolical theme park from the now-canceled HBO series.

“Oh, damn. Well, City Slickers would be more open to it realistically because there’s a whole other new story to tell of Billy and I and [Jon] Lovitz maybe, or whoever coming back and having a late-life crisis, as opposed to a midlife crisis. Or I could see stories,” Stern shared.

“Marv, I don’t know if I could take a beating like that,” he added. “I mean, although I watched a really funny movie the other night to sidetrack, but this thing that Johnny Knoxville did called Bad Grandpa. It made me laugh out loud. So I sort of got inspired like, ‘Oh, physical comedy as an old guy could be really… It’s really funny.’ So whichever one comes along first, I’ll do. So you let me know, Chris [Killian of ComicBook.com], when the deals are ready, and I’ll be at either the Home Alone or the City Slickers if we got Pesci and we got Billy.”

Daniel Stern Is Tired of Answering One Home Alone Question: 

During the interview, Stern also revealed that the question he’s most tired of hearing was how hurt he really got making Home Alone.

“I do get asked a lot, ‘Was that a real tarantula on your face? What’s Joe Pesci like? Did it hurt when you got hit in the face with the iron?’ That one, I guess getting hit in the face, ‘Did it hurt when you got hit in the face with the bricks?’ I think maybe that one. When people started asking me that, I went, ‘You know it’s fake, right? There’s a prop department. I didn’t get hit in the face with bricks.’ They’re like, ‘Oh,’” Stern explained.

“The believability of it is wonderful, but it did concern me to a point when that movie first came out actually, that I started teaching a course in media literacy,” he added. “Because I was like, are people really believe… I mean, here’s how movies are made, here’s how we make the show, and I’m glad you’re entertained and fun. But I didn’t really get hit in the face, you know that. To teach kids to separate a little bit became a mission of mine. But I think it enhances movie watching. So I guess that’s the long answer to: Don’t ask me if it hurt when I got hit in the face with the bricks.”

Stay tuned for more from our interview with Daniel Stern.