'Home Alone' director quit 'Christmas Vacation' after bizarre meeting with Chevy Chase

Columbus, who went on to direct 1990's "Home Alone," revealed Chase's behavior before filming began turned him off from working on the 1989 holiday classic, "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation."

Columbus recalled his first meeting with Chase and the "bizarre" thing the actor said to him.

"It was just the two of us," Columbus explained. "He had to know I was directing the movie. I talked about how I saw the movie, how I wanted to make the movie. He didn't say anything. I went through about a half hour of talking. He didn't say a word. And then he stops and he says - and this makes no sense to any human being on the planet, but I'm telling you. I probably have never told this story.

Chase later went to "Christmas Vacation" writer John Hughes and requested the trio meet, according to Columbus.

"Then we had a dinner where John Hughes was present, and I was basically nonexistent," Columbus admitted. "It was Chevy and Hughes, and they talked about everything except 'Christmas Vacation.' We spent two hours together, and I left the dinner and I thought, 'There's no way I can make a movie with this guy. First of all, he's not engaged. He's treating me like s---. I don't need this. I'd rather not work again. I'd rather write.'"

Columbus noted he didn't know why Chase acted that way.

Columbus exited "Christmas Vacation," but another opportunity with Hughes was just around the corner.

"I quit 'Christmas Vacation.' The next weekend, I got another script from John - and it's 'Home Alone,'" he recalled. "'Home Alone,' for me, was even more personal, a better script. And I thought, I can really do something with this, and I don't have to deal with Chevy Chase. That was it. John and I started to work together, and we had the same sensibility."

Fox News Digital reached out to a representative for Chase.

Chase and Beverly D'Angelo starred as Clark and Ellen Griswold in the classic family film series that began with an innocent, cross-country drive to Walley World theme park in "National Lampoon's Vacation."

Fox News Digital's Tracy Wright contributed to this report.