Macaulay Culkin Portrays Killer Club Kid
Sept. 5 -- After a nine-year hiatus, Macaulay Culkin is returning to the big screen, but he won't be playing the sort of fresh-faced, lovable character that made him a child star in the Home Alone films. He's starring in a low-budget independent docu-drama about a gay, cross-dressing, sociopathic killer.
Watch the full report on 20/20, this Friday at 10 p.m.Watch Barbara's Nov. 17, 2000 Interview with Macaulay Culkin: Video: Click Here
In Party Monster, Culkin portrays Michael Alig, a twisted sort of Pied Piper, whose escapades eventually lead him from New York's club scene, to a grisly killing, and, ultimately, to prison. It is a true and truly bizarre story.
Culkin, 23, says the role was a challenge, but he was intrigued by Alig's incredible story. "It was just so outrageous, and you wouldn't believe it unless it was true, so I just had to be a part of it."
In the film, Culkin adopts Alig's effeminate characteristics and eccentricities. But he says he isn't concerned how this will be received by his fans. For the record, Culkin is not gay, but he says he wouldn't be bothered if audiences perceive him that way.
Culkin was so fascinated by the bizarre world that Alig created, he visited him at New York's Attica State Prison to learn more about him.
"I had to try to find a way to connect with him, and … try to find similarities between him and I. … It's so easy for other people to make him out to be a demon. I think that was one of the things that they always said was that he was a wicked person. … He was wicked, but you loved him anyway."
The Real ‘Party Monster’
Contributing 20/20 correspondent Bill Ritter also visited Alig, and learned more about the wild world of the "Party Monster."
Alig grew up in South Bend, Ind., where he said he just never seemed to fit in. Alig says kids picked on him, made fun of him, hit him, spit on him, because he was gay.
"I had a lisp. … I didn't know how to play any sports. … It was all very macho, and very manly, and very you know, everybody was into tractor pulling and, you know, things like that. … I just didn't have anything in common with the kids I went to school with."
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