Macaulay Culkin: an actor at 4, a multimillionaire at 12, a has-been at 15, and a surprise comeback at 23. Now that's a career!

Interview, Feb, 2004 by Michael Stipe

MS: You brought a real maturity to that character.

MC: Thank you. I'm really proud of the movie.

MS: And you got a little reputation on set for being the--

MC: --Ringleader? [laughs]

MS: Yeah. The guy who would gather all the kids together and introduce them to all kinds of new things.

MC: Boy, did I. We just had a really great cast. It was fun coming to work every day.

MS: Mm-hmm. And I felt like everyone was pitching in to help Brian [Dannelly, the film's director], because it was his directorial debut and you guys certainly weren't freshmen.

MC: Yeah, exactly. It was a collaborative set, and personally, I try to be as hands-on as possible. I don't inject myself where I'm not needed or wanted, but at the same time, I've been doing this for 19 years, so sometimes I can bring something to the table.

Michael Stipe and his band, R.E.M., recently released In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 (Warner Bros. Records).

R.E.M. front man Michael Stipe, who here interviews Macaulay Culkin, remembers when he first hatched his dream of becoming a musician. "I was 15 and bought Patti Smith's Horses the day it came out," Stipe recalls. "It was revelatory for me, and in a naive way, I decided then that music was what I was going to do with my life."