PROFILE
Her scene-stealing turn as Schitt’s Creek’s eccentric, wig-loving matriarch Moira Rose was responsible for some of the most meme-able screen moments ever – and earned Catherine O’Hara icon status in the process. She tells Martha Hayes why it was the role that changed everything
Catherine O’Hara received a message recently that stopped her in her tracks:Macaulay Culkin wants you to call him. ‘I was like, “What?
Oh, really?”’ she laughs. O’Hara, of course, played Culkin’s mother in the hugely successful Home Alone films in the early 1990s. The pair hadn’t really kept in touch, but when Culkin heard he was receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and needed someone to present it to him, O’Hara was the first person he thought of.
‘Isn’t that sweet?’ she beams through a Zoom screen from her Los Angeles home. ‘I thought, “Oh, he’s giving me another chance to show up for him after losing him twice. He’s giving me redemption!”’
Culkin might be the one being honoured by Hollywood, but his on-screen mother is arguably as iconic. From stressed-out Kate McCallister in Home Alone to self-centred Delia Deetz in Tim Burton’s 1988 comedy horror Beetlejuice and dramatic soap star Moira Rose in Schitt’s Creek, O’Hara’s roster of memorable characters and viral catchphrases has cemented her status as a comedy legend. One who, at 69, appears to be more in demand than ever.
Currently stealing scenes from Emily Blunt in Netflix crime drama Pain Hustlers, O’Hara is soon to be seen in Matthew Vaughn’s star-studded spy action comedy Argylle. She’s also completed filming on the highly anticipated Beetlejuice 2, which is due for an autumn release.
‘I was scared to do it. I thought, “A lot of people seemed to like that first one!”’ whispers O’Hara, who is Canadian, but has lived in Los Angeles since she married production designer Bo Welch in 1992, after meeting him on the Beetlejuice set. ‘I hope I do it justice,’ she admits. ‘You get nervous; the expectation. Playing the same character and being physically compared to how you looked 35 years ago.’ She pulls a face of mock horror. ‘Winona Ryder looks the same, by the way,’ she quips. ‘And so does Michael Keaton!’
Argylle, in which O’Hara plays the mother of a spy novelist (played by Bryce Dallas Howard), is the first time – in a career that spans almost five decades – that she’s starred in a ‘big action movie’, so it’s no wonder she didn’t hesitate when Matthew Vaughn reached out to offer her the part. ‘There are so many talented actors out there, so any time anyone thinks of you, it’s like, “Really? Okay!
Thank you!”’
Not that she says yes to everything. O’Hara is too modest to specify, but she’s clearly not short of offers thes
