Catherine O'Hara on 'Home Alone 2' and her sketch comedy beginnings (1992 interview) | Fresh Air

What this episode is about

Catherine O'Hara discusses her role as Kevin's mother in "Home Alone 2" and reflects on her early career in sketch comedy with SCTV, sharing insights about the challenges of parenting in the film and the changes in Macaulay Culkin as a child star amidst his fame. She also recounts her own beginnings in performance, influenced by her humorous family background.

Key takeaways

• Home Alone 2: capturing chaos and comedy with a family that can't remember their own kid!
• Katherine O'Hara: proof that the funniest family memories often come with a side of forgetfulness.
• From understudy to iconic: O'Hara fills Gilda Radner's shoes while learning to dance in her own spotlight.
• Big families breed big laughs, but they also lose small children—just ask Kevin McCallister!
• Home Alone's legacy: the franchise that turned holiday mayhem into a box office goldmine and a cultural staple.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Terry Gross (Host) · 6 min speaking
• Catherine O'Hara (Guest) · 9 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Katherine O'Hara, Gilda Radner, Macaulay Culkin, Second City
2. 3:00 – 6:00: Gilda Radner, Second City
3. 6:00 – 9:00: Heartburn, Rick Moranis
4. 9:00 – 12:00: Beetlejuice, Tim Burton, Katherine O'Hara, Heartburn
5. 12:00 – 15:00: Beetlejuice, David Letterman
6. 15:00 – 15:36: Katherine O'Hara

Notable quotes from "Catherine O'Hara on 'Home Alone 2' and her sketch comedy beginnings (1992 interview) | Fresh Air"

• Opens next week. The new film Home Alone 2 features the now famous child actor McCauley Kulkin. And my guest Katherine O'Hara returns in the role of the mother. Many of us know…

  about Katherine O'Hara · at 0:04

• And a bunch of other people. We got in the touring company, and then Joe Flity was directing the main company, and the two women in the main company were Rosemary Radcliffe and Gilda Radner.

  about Gilda Radner · at 2:32

• Now, you used to do Merryill Streep and this was the period when Streep was famous for developing her characters through accents in a way.

  about Heartburn · at 6:49

• Yeah. Hi. I that's the same sort of thing where I think the first time I did it, Dave Thomas and Rick Morannis had written a scene for her and I mean for her to be in and so…

  about Rick Moranis · at 8:01

• Was very lucky to have my family in Toronto but anyway I went through this you know self-centered depression and the next morning after this peak of depression or Eb whatever…

  about Beetlejuice · at 11:37

• It. Well, they have they did it for two or three years and this was the first year they had a Thanksgiving film festival on the David Letterman show and they would invite…

  about David Letterman · at 13:04

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Katherine O'Hara — Person · Main guest · 3 mentions · first at 0:09
  Primary interview subject discussing her career (Second City/SCTV) and her role as Kevin’s mother in Home Alone 2, plus anecdotes about early comedy work and film opportunities like Beetlejuice.
• Gilda Radner — Person · Referenced performer / career touchpoint · 2 mentions · first at 2:38
  Central to O’Hara’s early career story: O’Hara understudied Radner at Second City and initially imitated her characters; Radner’s departure created O’Hara’s opportunity to take over.
• Macaulay Culkin — Person · Referenced co-star · 1 mention · first at 1:17
  Discussed as the child star of Home Alone 2; O’Hara comments on how fame changed the set environment around him rather than changing him personally.
  This is fresh air. The sequel to the third highest grossing film of all time opens next week. The new film Home Alone 2 features the now famous child actor McCauley Kulkin. And…
• Tim Burton — Person · Referenced director · 2 mentions · first at 11:24
  Appears in O’Hara’s career narrative as the director of Beetlejuice, the film offer that helped pull her out of a depressed period and led to meeting her future husband (per the interview).
  The next morning after this peak of depression or Eb whatever you call it my agent called and she said remember that guy Tim Burton in that movie Beetlejuice now they want to…
• Martin Short — Person · Referenced collaborator / peer · 1 mention · first at 0:32
  Mentioned as an SCTV co-star who, like O’Hara, went on to a major film career—used to contextualize the SCTV talent pipeline.
  Several of O'Hara's SCTV co-stars have also gone on to film careers like John Candy, Martin Short, and Rick Morannis.
• Rick Moranis — Person · Referenced collaborator / peer · 1 mention · first at 8:06
  Mentioned as an SCTV co-star who transitioned to film; also referenced in connection with an SCTV sketch written by Dave Thomas and Moranis.
• David Letterman — Person · Referenced host / platform · 1 mention · first at 12:59
  Mentioned as the TV host whose show aired a short film O’Hara made about PMS as part of a Thanksgiving film festival segment, which she says brought significant recognition.

Books & papers

• Heartburn — Book · Referenced work · 2 mentions · first at 6:58
  Book mentioned in the context of Katherine O'Hara's acting career.

Companies & orgs

• SCTV — Company · Business focus · 4 mentions
  TV sketch comedy show that spoofed television, where Katherine O'Hara was a cast member.
  McCauley Kulkin. And my guest Katherine O'Hara returns in the role of the mother. Many of us know O'Hara best from her years with SCTV, the TV sketch comedy show that spoofed…
• Second City — Company · Business focus · 2 mentions · first at 2:10
  Comedy theater and school where Katherine O'Hara started her career.
  Now, you grew up in Toronto or just outside of Toronto, but you, I believe, got started in Second City Chicago.

Media & podcasts

• Beetlejuice — Media · Case study · 3 mentions · first at 11:21
  Movie that marked a turning point in Katherine O'Hara's career and personal life.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 This is fresh air. The sequel to the third highest grossing film of all time opens next week. The new film Home Alone 2 features the now famous child actor McCauley Kulkin. And my guest Katherine O'Hara returns in the role of the mother. Many of us know O'Hara best from her years with SCTV, the TV sketch comedy show that spoofed television. Her most memorable original character on the show was Lola Heatherton, a temperamental and talentless singer. Several of O'Hara's SCTV co-stars have also gone on to film careers like John Candy, Martin Short, and Rick Morannis.

0:35 In Home Alone, O'Hara took her big, noisy family on a Christmas trip to Paris. She knew she forgot something. Turns out she forgot her son Kevin. The family sets off on another trip in the sequel and of course manages to lose Kevin again. Um, we get him to the airport this time, but uh he's tagging along uh behind the whole family running and we're running again. Of course, we're late. And he's following his father who's wearing a camel coat and has, you know, the hair of John Herd, which is on his head. And another man who looks just like John Herd from behind with the same coat crosses paths with John Herd and he follows that man instead onto a plane to New York.

1:17 How how has Maui Kulkin changed? Has he become this uh big spoiled child star now?

1:22 He's the demon child now. No, he's sweet. He's the same kid. The people around him, not his, you know, immediate family and the people who are supposed to be around him, but you know, fans and visitors to the sets have um they're different. You know, he's got this giant aura of success and and uh people want to touch them. I'm interested in hearing how you became a performer. Were you were you a performing kind of kid? the kind of kid who always wanted to do show biz.

1:48 I guess I think actually, you know, coming from a big family and my and uh coming from parents who are really funny, I think on their own, it was really kind of a natural way of thinking and talking in our home, you know, just are trying to make each other laugh and it was the best way to get attention at the dinner table.

2:05 Now, you grew up in Toronto or just outside of Toronto, but you, I believe, got started in Second City Chicago.

2:12 Um, no, actually I was in Second City Toronto. They first Oh, okay. Yeah, they they opened it about 10 10 or 15 years after the other one opened, I guess, in 1973. And um John Candy was putting the first Toronto touring company together, and he hired myself and my brother Marcus and Peter Akroy, Dan Akro's younger brother, and a bunch of other people. We got in the touring company, and then Joe Flity was directing the main company, and the two women in the main company were Rosemary Radcliffe um and Gilda Radner. And so he asked me to understudy them.

2:44 And then maybe three four months later, Gilda decided to leave and go to National Lampoon Touring Company outside out of New York. And uh so I went with the cast to understudy for the first two weeks and then in the third week I took over for Gilda and she went to do National Ampoon.

3:00 So you got hired as an understudy for Gilda Rner. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. When you're understudying Gilda Rner, were you expected to do her characters if she got sick or would the sketches change and you would do your own characters?

3:11 Oh, no. to fit into the show and you you know I started basically imitating her.

3:16 I even got a perm to look like her. Really? Yeah. What what characters was she doing that you had to do?

3:21 Um actually I would say maybe in that show it was an early version of her Emily Latella. I think that's that's the woman that would say never mind. You know she on the news on Saturday Night Live. um because she was doing a an interview, this is one scene I remember, an interview scene with John Candy interviewing and she was talking about her shoes, being able to talk to her and and she was just sort of this sweet old lady and you had to believe what she said because she was so convincing and I would, you know, dare to take her place and and when I did take her place, actually replace her in um Chicago, the uh producer and director at the time, Bernie Solins, just I think I look back on it now and I realize he must have really missed her. And it was like a, you know, a man who'd lost his wife and had a new girlfriend and wanted the new girlfriend to be like the wife cuz he just said, "No, no, Gilda did it like

4:06 this. No, Gilda looked at him like this. No, say it like Gilda. Do it like Gilda." And I was like weeping by the end of the day thinking, "I'm not Gilda. What does he want from me? Let me be myself." But but uh but I had to That's the way it is at Second City because you do fit into a show. You have to start by imitating the person you're you know as not to disrupt the show and throw the other people off. You have to fit in as easily as you can, you know, and then you find your way.

4:31 Let me ask you about uh some of the characters you created for SETV. Can we start with Lola Heatherton?

4:36 Yeah. Uh she was a real like show biz singer somewhere's between a has been and a never was.

4:42 Oh, I love playing kind of cocky, untalented people. Yeah. Yeah. So, did the Heatherton come from Joey Heatherton? Um they had done Sammy Modellin show a few times on the show and I'd only gone on a couple of times as a character that didn't fit in like this. I did a Trish Nutley thing which is supposed to be like a starlet and I went on and I didn't understand you know the game and they were all real you know insincere and show busy and I didn't fit in so I didn't have a character that was sort of one of them you know and then we did uh we were asked to do uh the Junos or something no not the Juno the Canadian the Nelly's the Canadian television awards were asked to do it live and uh Joe Flare and and the others wanted to do a Sammy model show and I had to get a character for the show that was like them right a sleazy kind of has been Vegas character.

5:27 And I think the night before we started writing it, I saw Lola Fana on the Tonight Show and she was singing Sometimes When We Touch and she was making her bottom lip quiver and she was really [snorts] crinkling up her eyes trying to get some tears going. So by the end she was crying. But I thought, well, there's a thing to use. I'll use that. And I'd also just always been fascinated with Joey Heatherton from those be a perfect sleeper buy a perfectly sa ads. It's the only thing I'd ever seen her in,

5:52 but I liked her look and and so I went with her blonde hair and her look and the Lola Fenna kind of tear thing whenever I could. And otherwise it wasn't based on anyone.

6:04 Were you? And I took their two names, you know, Lola Heather. Yeah. Yeah. You had male dancers sometimes, too, didn't you?

6:09 Yeah. Um Juel Hallmire Hallmire was our costume designer on the show and and uh I was doing a Lola special once and we needed dancers and they I think they had already done maybe one other you know fictitious special on the show where they had danced but but uh for my show we called them the Jewel Hallmire dancers and they became the Jewel Hallmire and then there were it was great like Jules said he got you know phone calls to do like shows on his own with the dancers and it was him you know he's a wardrobe designer and then there was a a grip and then there were a few of the writers Bob Dolman and and Doug Steckler and a few other writers on the show. It was so funny because they would really rehearse and try to get it right and that just only made it better, you know, because they could never get it quite right.

6:49 Now, you used to do Merryill Streep and this was the period when Streep was famous for developing her characters through accents in a way.

6:56 Yeah. Uh you had acted in a movie with her in Heartburn in 1986, but that was much later. Yeah.

7:01 Yeah. So, you were doing her before you were with her. Well, but I only did her once and that was um Big Jim and Billy Saw Hero or whatever they were called. Joe and John had these kind of country bumpkin characters who would who had a um showbiz talk show and then they would bring on guests just to blow them up. And usually it was people they didn't like, you know, they would sort of get people in showbiz by having them on this show and blowing them up. But I think at the time um Mel Street had done a lot of movies where she was crying a lot and they just wanted me to go on and start crying and then blow me up.

7:32 This is so stupid. I can't explain it. They wrote it. Don't blame me. But that was always the case with any impersonation. I would, you know, I'd write something or somebody else would write something and then you would just have to get that impersonation. You try to get together as well as you could just for that scene and then it would be gone. And when I did um try to do Mel Street in that scene, I had about five lines and maybe two of them sounded like her and the other three didn't, you know. So it was it was not she was not somebody I did regularly.

7:58 Now what about Katherine Heppern? Your your version of her. Yeah. Hi. I um that's the same sort of thing where I think the first time I did it, Dave Thomas and Rick Morannis had written a scene for her and I mean for her to be in and so then I just went and watched a couple of tapes and she was supposed to be as herself, you know. So you were really lucky if if whoever you were supposed to impersonate had recently done something, you know, for television or you get a tape of it, you know, and I got a tape of her and Dick Cavitt, which was her being herself. And I just sort of watched that a few times and then I sat in a room by myself and tried to get my tried to wreck my voice basically and I just would go until I basically wrecked my voice and then I would do her but I only did her a couple of times on the show and each time I had to, you know, really work on it for, you know, a half hour or

8:47 whatever beforehand. You you you left SCTV in um 1983 after around seven years. Um, I think I actually left earlier.

8:56 Oh, okay. I left in Yeah, maybe 81 or 82. I left it. Oh, big deal, huh? Like I can remember.

9:02 What What What was it like when you left? Were what kind of offers were you hoping for? What happened to your career in in in the next couple of years?

9:10 I'll tell you what I was really hoping for when I left was just dating. I was hoping to get offers of dates cuz I I I uh had no personal life. It finally dawned on me when I was doing SCTV and it was though it was just so exciting and great and you know I have nothing but fond memories of those days. I um you know I got to be like 25 I guess or something around there, mid20s and and you know my oldest sister got married at 23 and my next oldest sister got married at 21 and uh then my next oldest sister got engaged at 21 but didn't get married but I you know I saw myself you know when I was younger as being married and having kids by the time I was 25 and here I was on this show and I was really having fun with these people but most of them went home to families and you know I went home to myself and and it just uh it finally dawned on me that I had, you know, sort of neglected my personal life

10:00 because I' i'd fallen into the the career and and and it was great and I took advantage of it. But then then I thought, no, I also have to take care of that other side of life. So I quit mainly to get a personal life together and then eventually to, you know, try to get into film. But, you know, when when you quit to get a personal life, you can't very well have your agent put out, you know, put out the word. Katherine O'Hara is now available for dating and marriage. No, you just sort of have more free hours, you know.

10:27 So, did you meet people? Yeah, I did eventually. But it's funny. Then I, you know, I dated for a few years and I and I would go audition, you know, I I was living in Toronto and I would fly to New York or LA to audition for things and uh, you know, I did odd jobs but nothing really great. And um, although I got after hours and then I got heartburn, that was pretty nice, but you know, they were sort of over a span of a few years. And um and then I was going through this really kind of bad I guess it's the closest I've ever been to any kind of breakdown. Although it wasn't that extreme, but I was very depressed and I was alone and I'd bought a house in Toronto, which I never thought I'd have to do on my own. I'd figure that's the kind of thing you do with a husband. And uh but I bought it with my mom. I mean, I bought it money-wise, but my mom helped me buy it. And um uh so then I was just sort of alone in

11:14 this house and and got real depressed and I was hanging around my best friend Robin. And months before I'd been called uh about auditioning for Beetlejuice, this movie that this guy Tim Burton was going to do. And um uh so then I was going through this depression like months later in Toronto think what am I doing with my life and oh I'm alone and oh although I did have my family and I was very lucky to have my family in Toronto but anyway I went through this you know self-centered depression and the next morning after this peak of depression or Eb whatever you call it um uh my agent called and she said remember that guy Tim Burton in that movie Beetlejuice now they want to offer it to you and I thought oh maybe this is a sign from God to get out of the house, meet people, do something, be productive. So, I went and did it. And I also, you know, this started with the dating idea. I actually met the guy that

12:05 I married this year. Oh, doing Beetlejuice. Yeah. Oh, that's great. Isn't that a cute story?

12:13 I'm sorry. I do go on. Oh, it's a nice story. Um, so is your husband in show business, too?

12:20 Uh, yeah. He's I met him on the movie. He's a production designer. Same as Bo Welch. He he uh designed Beetlejuice. He designed Lost Boys was his first movie. He did Batman Returns, Accidental Tourist, uh Grand Canyon, and now he's doing a movie with Mike Nichols that Jack Nicholson's going to star in.

12:37 He's very talented. What would you most like to be doing though in the movies? In the movies?

12:42 Yeah. Or on television? Um eventually I would love to uh write screenplays and direct them

12:49 with my friends as the stars. That that reminds me uh one of our producers was telling me earlier today about um uh a video that you did that was shown on David Letterman a few years ago about PMS. Yeah. I missed it, but uh maybe you could tell me something about it. Well, they have uh they did it for two or three years and this was the first year they had a Thanksgiving film festival on the David Letterman show and they would invite people to um make their own film and they gave us a budget of I think 10 or 15,000 and and uh and they had on the first show they had Michael Keaton, he did one and and B Midler did one and Paul Schaefer did one and they asked Andrea and I and at first we're like hey why don't they let's each do one but but we got into the idea of doing it together And and the idea was that you take this money, you do whatever you want, you spend it, you know, whatever way you want and uh or

13:40 pocket it in whatever way you want and then present it on the show. We had to go on the show and talk about the making of it and then show the film. And uh so we were coming up, Andre and I were getting together every day and trying to come up with ideas and we came up with a lot of silly ideas and then I was in such a bad mood. I was going through PMS at the time and it finally hit me that that's what I was going through and I said, "Why don't we write about something important like something like what I'm going through right now?" and she'd been through it too most months.

14:05 So, so we we uh developed this silly little film about two women who make a film about PMS, but they are going through PMS while they're making the film. So, everything is sort of twisted about this little film and and they have little segments where they interview people and where they have, you know, dramatic, you know, uh simulations of women, you know, in relationships with with PMS. And then it would cut back to them doing little introductions to these segments and every time you saw them they were either you know having a fist fight or crying or you know and the whole show by the end didn't make any sense because you know because of what they were going through and and both Andre and I uh have talked about this so many times. We uh both of us have had more recognition from that film than anything else either of us have done really. Yeah. both of us have have had so many especially men come up to us

14:58 in the last like still like last week I had a somebody come up to me and say this that they didn't believe that their wife or girlfriend you know who claimed to be you know experiencing PMS they didn't believe them until they saw this we'd actually convince men that PMS existed

15:13 see this is why I would never vote for a woman president oh get out of here oh you mean that's what they would say thanks

15:19 oh all the more reason to I'd say men are you know when I'm going through PMS that's what men are like all the time That's a constant sort of that's normal for guys.

15:28 Actress Katherine O'Hara, she co-stars in Home Alone 2, which opens next week.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Catherine O'Hara on 'Home Alone 2' and her sketch comedy beginnings (1992 interview) | Fresh Air"?

Terry Gross (Host), Catherine O'Hara (Guest).

What is "Catherine O'Hara on 'Home Alone 2' and her sketch comedy beginnings (1992 interview) | Fresh Air" about?

Catherine O'Hara discusses her role as Kevin's mother in "Home Alone 2" and reflects on her early career in sketch comedy with SCTV, sharing insights about the challenges of parenting in the film and the changes in Macaulay Culkin as a child star amidst his fame. She also recounts her own beginnings in performance, influenced by her humorous family background.

What is mentioned in this Fresh Air episode?

11 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Katherine O'Hara, SCTV, Gilda Radner, Second City, Macaulay Culkin, Beetlejuice. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Catherine O'Hara on 'Home Alone 2' and her sketch comedy beginnings (1992 interview) | Fresh Air"?

The episode runs 16 min; the transcript is about 3,527 words in 44 timestamped sections.

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