The original Home Alone franchise is known for its elaborate ways of doling out pain on its villains. As Goodfellas’ Joe Pesci can attest, taking on the role of Harry in the first two Home Alone films required him to play into the over-the-top physicality of the franchise’s humor.
“It was a nice change of pace to do that particular type of slapstick comedy,” Pesci tells PEOPLE in a new interview. “But the Home Alone movies were a more physical type of comedy, therefore, a little more demanding.”
In one scene in the 1990's Home Alone, Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin McCallister sets Harry’s hat aflame as he tries to break into the McCallister home. Pesci’s character bumbles up and down icy stairs and gets branded by a hot door handle, all before taking a flame gun to the noggin, which forces him to bolt down the stairs and bury his head in the cold, wet snow. Pesci now admits that the torture was not entirely movie magic.
“In addition to the expected bumps, bruises, and general pains that you would associate with that particular type of physical humor, I did sustain serious burns to the top of my head during the scene where Harry’s hat is set on fire,” Pesci recalls.
Once inside the home, Harry and his Marv (Daniel Stern) only sustain more injuries at the hands of the conniving Kevin, getting tarred and feathered and knocked in the head with paint cans. However, Pesci left these stunts to the professionals.
“I was fortunate enough to have professional stuntmen do the real heavy stunts,” Pesci says. Apparently, being set aflame is only amateur stunt work.