Joe Pesci revealed he suffered ‘serious burns’ for the fire hat prank on Home Alone 2

30 years after the beloved sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York hit theaters, star Joe Pesci is opening up about one of the comedy’s more painful stunts.

The sequel opened on November 20, 1992, following Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) as he finds himself alone in New York City… where he runs into the Wet Bandits (Pesci and Daniel Stern) once again.

The 79-year-old Pesci opened up about the sequel with People, revealing that one of Kevin’s pranks in the film left him with ‘serious burns’ on his head.

Opening up: 30 years after the beloved sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York hit theaters, star Joe Pesci is opening up about one of the comedy’s more painful stunts

Burns: The 79-year-old Pesci opened up about the sequel with People , revealing that one of Kevin’s pranks in the film left him with ‘serious burns’ on his head

The sequel follows Kevin, whose family is heading to Miami for the Christmas holiday… though Kevin gets lost at the airport and ends up in New York City instead.

He discovers that the Wet Bandits have escaped from prison and made their way to the Big Apple too, where they clash once again.

One scene shows Pesci’s Harry chasing Kevin to a house, where he checks the door handle to see if it’s hot – after getting his hand burned on a scalding hot doorknob in the original movie.

Sequel: The sequel follows Kevin, whose family is heading to Miami for the Christmas holiday… though Kevin gets lost at the airport and ends up in New York City instead

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While he thinks he’s outsmarted the kid, he goes inside… where the door triggers a makeshift flamethrower, that burns the top of his head as he screams and runs outside and dunks his head in the snow.

Another scene featured Harry walking into a room of this booby-trapped house, and when he turns a light bulb on, his head is set ablaze again, causing him to dunk his head into the toilet to put it out. 

Pesci revealed that he did the stunt himself for the scene, adding, ‘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.’

Outsmarted: While he thinks he’s outsmarted the kid, he goes inside… where the door triggers a makeshift flamethrower, that burns the top of his head as he screams and runs outside and dunks his head in the snow

‘I was fortunate enough to have professional stuntmen do the real heavy stunts,’ Pesci added in his interview.

Despite the injuries, he said the sequel with the same cast and creative team (director Chris Columbus and screenwriter John Hughes) brought, ‘the same, if not more, energy and enthusiasm as the original.’

He added there was, ‘more spontaneity and creativity on the set,’ adding, ‘It was a nice change of pace to do that particular type of slapstick comedy.’

Comedy: He added there was, ‘more spontaneity and creativity on the set,’ adding, ‘It was a nice change of pace to do that particular type of slapstick comedy’

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‘But the Home Alone movies were a more physical type of comedy, therefore, a little more demanding,’ he added.

Pesci said that Culkin was, ‘a really sweet kid’ and ‘very professional’ for his young age, though he added he limited his interactions with him on set.

‘I intentionally limited my interactions with him to preserve the dynamic between his character, Kevin, and my character Harry,’ he said, adding, ‘I wanted to maintain the integrity of the adversarial relationship.’ 

Sweet kid: Pesci said that Culkin was, ‘a really sweet kid’ and ‘very professional’ for his young age, though he added he limited his interactions with him on set