Chris Columbus recalls ‘bizarre’ Chevy Chase remark that made him quit National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

Home Alone director Chris Columbus has recalled “the most surreal, bizarre” encounter with Chevy Chase that left him unable to work with the actor.

The filmmaker, who also directed the first two Harry Potter films, almost added 1989 film National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation to his list of credits – but stepped away after a leftfield comment made by Chase.

Breakfast Club director John Hughes enlisted Columbus to direct the film, following which he met with the controversial Chase, who starred in the lead role as Clark Griswold.

He told Vanity Fair: “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 realised I couldn’t work with the guy.

Columbus added: “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.’”

The reason for Columbus’s view was a rather odd interaction with Chase, in which the pair were meant to discuss the film. However, instead of responding to Columbus’s vision, Chase simply said nothing for 40 minutes.

“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.

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“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, OK. Let’s start talking about the film again.’ After about 30 seconds, he said, ‘I got to go.’”

After a similar experience the second time they met, Columbus called Hughes to tell him he would “not make a good movie with this guy”, which the latter understood.

The film was eventually directed by Jeremiah S Chechnik and Columbus directed Home Alone instead,

Chase’s time on hit sitcom Community was mired in controversy after creator Dan Harmon claimed the actor would try to disrupt co-star Donald Glover’s scenes and “make racial cracks between takes” because he was “jealous” of his co-star’s talent.

“I remember apologising to Donald after a particularly rough night of Chevy’s non-PC verbiage, and Donald said, ‘I don’t even worry about it,’” Harmon said at the time.

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Glover added that he saw Chase as “fighting time”. Chase responded to the claim, saying he was “saddened to hear that Donald perceived me in that light”.

In 2012, a source told The Hollywood Reporter that Chase had “apologised immediately” after he used the N-word on set. The slur was not aimed at Glover or his Black co-star Yvette Nicole Brown, but used when Chase questioned dialogue in a scene with their characters, said the source.