One of the most bizarre scenes in Home Alone 2 is when Macaulay Culkin walks into The Plaza Hotel and meets none other than Donald Trump , then a business magnate. Culkin walks stunned inside the hotel. “Excuse me, where’s the lobby?” he asks a random man. “Down the hall and to the left,” responds the guy, Trump, before turning to leave and giving the hapless 10-year-old a second glance, himself rambling through the hotel a second look at the curious employees, who include a bellhop played by the actor Rob Schneider, per The Mirror .
The former US President is used to making cameos on TV and in movies. He had a scene with Kim Cattrall in Sex and the City , with Hugh Grant in Two Weeks Notice , Liz Hurley in The Job , and Will Smith in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air . Trump had several opportunities to spend time on the set of Home Alone 2 during the more than two months that the Home Alone cast and crew were filming at the Plaza Hotel. He introduced himself to the team and even walked through shoots with his entire entourage, according to earlier reports.
Director Chris Columbus explained how Trump was cast in the popular Home Alone franchise, telling Business Insider , “Like most locations in New York City, you just pay a fee and you are allowed to shoot in that location. We approached The Plaza Hotel , which Trump owned at the time because we wanted to shoot in the lobby. We couldn’t rebuild The Plaza on a soundstage.”
Columbus further explained, “Trump said OK. We paid the fee, but he also said, ‘The only way you can use the Plaza is if I’m in the movie.’ When we screened it for the first time the oddest thing happened: People cheered when Trump showed up on-screen. So I said to my editor, ‘Leave him in the movie. It’s a moment for the audience.’ But he did bully his way into the movie .”
Trump explained that his favorite Christmas film is Home Alone 2 because he is in it, per Deadline , “Well I’m in Home Alone 2 . A lot of people mention it every year, especially around Christmas. They say – especially young kids- they say, ‘I just saw you in the movie.’ They don’t see me on television as they do in the movie. But it’s been a good movie and I was a little younger, to put it mildly. And it was an honor to do it.”
Cinematographer Julio Macat once revealed how the billionaire went to great efforts to capture his entire face in the frame and how he “photobombed” his way into the film, per Metro . “We filmed in their lobby and he was around, and he had to be in the movie, he had to photobomb the shoot one day, and came walking in with his entourage, and wanted to walk through the shot,” explained Macat. “Of course, we said yes because we’re filming in his hotel. As he does the shot, he turns the looks to the camera, so you could really see his face.”
