A woman who grew up in the house Home Alone was filmed in has revealed how she and her family stayed in the home for four months while the movie was shot.
Laura Abendshien, 36, grew up in the house in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka and was six-years-old when the famous Christmas film was made in 1990, meeting several cast members including Macaulay and Kieran Culkin and Joe Pesci.
Appearing on This Morning she told how she and her family would have to crawl around to avoid bing spotted, and how Macaulay would use her room to study in when he wasn’t filming.
She explained how the house became an instant tourist attraction, and recalled watching stunt men perform famous scenes including Pesci’s robber repeatedly falling off the booby-trapped steps outside the home.
A woman who grew up in the house Home Alone was filmed in has revealed how she and her family stayed in the home for four-months as the movie was shot. Pictured, Macaulay Culkin as Kevin in Home Alone
The house in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka (pictured) has become a popular tourist attraction since the Christmas film was made in 1990
The movie follows eight-year-old Kevin (Culkin) who is accidentally left behind when his family leaves for France and must defend his house when thieves try to break into his home.
‘I remember many scenes they filmed,’ said Laura. ‘I remember the scene where the robbers are trying to go from the third floor to the tree house along the rope and Kevin cuts it and they all go flying.
‘I watched them film that, which was very treacherous, but they had stunt doubles who know what they’re doing.
‘And the scene where Joe Pesci’s character goes up the front steps of the house and falling backwards into his back multiple times, because Kevin has iced the steps over and again the poor stunt double was going backwards multiple times.’
Laura Abendshien, 36, was six-years-old when the famous Christmas film was made and appeared on This Morning to speak about what it was like living there while filming
She met several cast members including Joe Pesci (right) , who plays one half of the robber duo trying to break into Kevin’s home
Laura and her parents John and Cynthia would have to avoid being spotted on camera and would have to ‘army crawl’ through the house.
‘We stayed in the house pretty much the entire period which was about four or five months,’ said Laura.
‘In order to avoid appearing on screen, we would have to crawl around the window line from room to room.’
Laura met plenty of the film’s stars, and told that while Buzz McCallister (Devin Ratray) may be one of the least friendly characters in the film, he was the ‘sweetest young man’.
Speaking of the cast she said: ‘They would spend time in the house when they weren’t filming their scenes.
Laura told how she and her family would ahve to crawl around to avoid bing spotted, and how Macaulay would use her room to study in when he wasn’t filming
Laura’s parents sold the home in 2012, and she struggles to pass her old house: ‘It was such a special house, I grew up there but the movie as well
‘Mucally Culkin used my room to study with his tutor and his brother [Keiran], wasn’t filming as much, so he would just hang out in my room.’
John and Cynthia purchased the home in the 1980s, and writer and producer John Hughes was interested in using the Abendshiens’ home for another of his films, Uncle Buck.
She explained: ‘How they came to choose our home, they have location scouts who drive round the are looking for areas to film.
‘At the time my parents lived in a different house that John Hughes was interested in using for a previous film Uncle Buck, but my parents had just sold that house and moved to the Home Alone house.
‘The scout liked it so much that they came back for Home Alone to film that movie there.’
The movie follows Eight-year-old Kevin (Culkin) who is accidentally left behind when his family leaves for France
While the eight-year-old has a great time alone, he soon has to find a way to defend his house when thieves try to break into his home
Soon after the film, the house became a Christmas tourist attraction, with ‘endless rows of cars’ trying to see their house.
She told: ‘I think it was a bit of a surprise, we saw something special was happening, but we didn’t anticipate how much of a hit it would be.
‘It was very surreal when the movie came out and all of a sudden it’s holiday season in 1990 and it was an endless row of cars and people wanted to see the house and take photographs and that was very new to us, but we grew to love it and we shared the magic of the movie.’
Laura’s parents sold the home in 2012, and she struggles to pass her old house: ‘It was such a special house, I grew up there but the movie as well.
‘I hold those memories very close to my heart and it is a little difficult to go back even though I live in the area.’