The On-Set Accident That Almost Killed Home Alone Star, Daniel Stern

Highlights

Daniel Stern nearly died consuming cocaine on set, a harrowing story from his upcoming memoir.
Stern didn't realize the substitution and ended up doing a significant amount of the drug.
Thankfully, he survived, securing his role in Home Alone and continuing his successful Hollywood career.

The Home Alone franchise is an iconic piece of '90s movie history, thanks to the work of Macaulay Culkin and the rest of the brilliant cast. The first two films are all-time classics, and Daniel Stern, who played Marv in the films, was a major piece of the puzzle.

Stern, who has lived quite the life since those films came along, is releasing a memoir, revealing intimate details about his life on and off camera.

Years before his time as Marv, Stern was a little-known actor looking for his big break. On the set of a forgotten film, Stern's life nearly ended when an impatient director was all too happy to provide him with a popular party drug.

Daniel Stern Accidentally Consumed Real Narcotics While Filming Honky Tonk Freeway

While working on Honky Tonk Freeway, Daniel Stern unexpectedly found himself in death's crosshairs, as director, John Schlesinger, was totally fine with rampant drug use on set.

"This was 1980, and cocaine was rampant. I had never tried it because I could never afford it, but on this movie, everyone was doing it – the director (John Schlesinger), producers, actors, prop guys, drivers – carrying around little vials with tiny spoons attached, filled with white powder, and whiffing it up all day long," the actor wrote.

With drugs everywhere and readily available, things took a turn for the worst, as Stern inadvertently found himself while filming a scene.

In short, the set used B12 as a substitute, but when the director could not get some of it quickly, he passed along his own stash for Stern to use.

"At first, I thought, ‘Cool.' But I almost didn’t make it home,” because the filming of the scene just wasn't right. “We did take after take, each time John getting more pissed, and each time me taking a big whiff of cocaine,” Stern wrote.

Unfortunately, because filming took so long, Stern did a ton of drugs.

“I finished his first vial, so he gave me his backup. I must have done fifteen hits, one after another, and my heart started racing like it never had before. I didn’t want to die, but I also didn’t want John to yell at me.”

Sadly, things got worse as Stern "smoked a pack of cigarettes and didn’t sleep for two days."

This is a legitimately insane story from Stern, who is lucky to have made it out of the woods alive.

One fan on Redditfound some humor in the story.

"That's hilarious. Imagine dying just because you had to redo a scene... In a movie... And using real cocaine... 15 times," they wrote.

After another user called out the director for the situation, another user offered a sarcastic response.

"What do you mean? Not only did he give Stern his personal stash for the scene, he then gave him his backup stash because he was furious the shot wasn’t coming out! It must have been a thousand dollars worth! Generous man the director /s," they replied.

To add insult to injury, the film was hardly a blip on the radar, and will likely only be known by modern movie fans thanks to Stern spilling the beans on this story.

As for Stern's life story, well, his book is filled with anecdotes from his time in Hollywood.

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Stern Revealed Other Stories In His Upcoming Memoir: Home And Alone

Another insane story that Stern shared involved running up a $7,000 tab for Donald Trump.

"Donald spotted us and proclaimed so everyone could hear that he would be picking up the tab at our table. We all raised a glass to him in thanks and he left the bar, feeling like the host-with-the-most. We drank until there was no more booze left in that bar. We stayed until four in the morning, closing time in New York, and bought round after round of drinks for the entire bar. To this day, Leon and I dispute how much the final tab was, but it was at least seven thousand dollars. We still feel really good about that," he wrote.

Stern also dished on his time in the Home Alone franchise, and in one story, he talked about almost losing the gig.

"I got a call saying they had redone the shooting schedule and they would now need me for eight weeks instead of six," he wrote.

"They were asking me to add on 33% more shooting time, so I asked if they were going to raise my salary the same amount, and they said they would not."

After another actor temporarily landed the gig, Stern conceded, and the rest is history.

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Thanks to Daniel Stern surviving his time on Honky Tonk Freeway, Home Alone was able to cast him as Marv, and he's since had a wonderful career.