The Home Alone director recalls Chevy Chase’s “bizarre” remark that caused him to abandon the film Christmas Vacation

Home alone Director Chris Columbus recalled the “most surreal and bizarre” encounter with Chevy Chase, which led to him no longer being able to work with the actor.

The filmmaker, who also directed the first two Harry Potter films, almost added the 1989 film National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation to his credits list — but resigned after Chase made a left-field comment.

Breakfast Club Director John Hughes hired Columbus to direct the film, after which he met with the controversial Chase, who starred as Clark Griswold.

He told Vanity Fair: “I was registered… and Then I met Chevy Chase. Even given my situation at the time, where I absolutely had to make a film, I realized that I couldn’t work with the guy.

Columbus added: “I was one of many who couldn’t work with him. And I called John and said, ‘This is really hard for me, but I can’t do this movie with Chevy Chase.'”

The reason for Columbus’s opinion was a rather strange interaction with Chase in which the two were supposed to discuss the film. However, instead of responding to Columbus’ vision, Chase simply said nothing for 40 minutes.

“I talked about how I saw the film and how I wanted to make it. He didn’t say anything. I talked for about half an hour. He didn’t say A Word. And then he pauses and says – and this doesn’t make any sense to anyone on the planet, but I’m telling you. I’ve probably never told this story before.

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“Forty minutes into the meeting, he says, ‘Wait a minute.’ Are you the director?’ And I said, “Yeah… I’m directing the movie.” And he said something unreal and bizarre to me. I still couldn’t make sense of it. He said, ‘Oh, I thought you were a drummer.’ I said, ‘Uhh, okay.’ Let’s start talking about the movie again.’ After about 30 seconds he said, ‘I have to go.'”

After a similar experience during their second meeting, Columbus called Hughes and told him that he “wouldn’t make a good movie with this guy,” which he understood.

The film was ultimately directed by Jeremiah S. Chechnik and Columbus Home alone instead,

Chase’s appearance on the hit sitcom Community was mired in controversy after creator Dan Harmon claimed the actor was trying to disrupt co-star Donald Glover’s scenes and “cause racial altercations between takes” because he was “jealous” of his co-star’s talent be.

“I remember after a particularly rough night of Chevy’s non-PC talk, I apologized to Donald and Donald said, ‘I’m not even worried about that,'” Harmon said at the time.

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

In 2012, a source shared The Hollywood Reporter that Chase “immediately apologized” after using the N-word on set. The insult was not directed at Glover or his black co-star Yvette Nicole Brown, but was used when Chase questioned the dialogue in a scene with their characters, the source said.