The woman who famously starred as the ‘pigeon lady’ in Home Alone 2 has made a heartbreaking admission about her acting career.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been 32 years since Kevin McCallister’s parents lost their child for the second time in quick succession.
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York sees Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) accidentally board a plane to New York City while his family head to Florida for Christmas.
After checking in to Donald Trump’s The Plaza hotel with his dad’s credit card, the 10-year-old must yet again deal with the Wet Bandits, Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern) who have escaped from prison.
Along the way Kevin comes across a kind-hearted pigeon enthusiast (played by Brenda Fricker and not Piers Morgan), who helps him to defeat the criminals once and for all.
Fricker reached the pinnacle of Hollywood in 1990 after becoming the first Irish actress to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, starring alongside Daniel Day-Lewis in biopic My Left Foot.
After featuring in Home Alone 2 in 1992, she went on to star in So I Married an Axe Murderer, Angels in the Outfield and A Time to Kill.
However the now 79-year-old has suggested in a recent interview with The Times that her career has taken an unfortunate turn since turning 70.
“They don’t write for old women,” she said. “Shakespeare wrote for old women, but none of the young writers do. None.
“There are so many wonderful people around … interesting women with history and stories. Remember these words when you turn 70: you become invisible.
“Richard Harris said that to me while sitting on the rocks looking out over the Atlantic Ocean and it stuck in my head. On my 70th birthday I thought, ‘He’s wrong, I feel great.’
“A week later I knew exactly what he meant. It’s weird. You have to shout to be heard. So it’s not that I’m out of work for any other reason — there are no parts to do.”
That being said, Fricker joked that she is happy to not be involved in the new ‘sober’ Hollywood.
On how the industry has changed, the actor said: “I was thinking back to the days when we were all pissed in the BBC bar, but the work was ten times more creative because we were all losing our inhibitions and picking up the courage to say things.
“That’s all gone. It’s all sober people, just sitting around tables.
“I sound like an alcoholic, I’m not. There’s just a looseness about it.
“Do you know what wasn’t around as much, actually? Ambition. I never heard anyone using that word.
“There was no greed about work, or competitiveness. There was just joy and fun.”
