Catherine O'Hara Says She Missed a "Home Alone" Co-Star's Wedding Because She Fell Asleep

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to attend every wedding you’re invited to. You may have another event already scheduled on the same day, need to RSVP “no” because the travel costs are out of your price range, or just simply can’t commit to another obligation that month. However, when considering all of the reasons why you may miss someone’s nuptials, falling asleep is likely not one of them. Yet that’s exactly why Catherine O’Hara missed John Candy, her former Home Alone co-star, saying “I do” to Rosemary Margaret Hobor in 1979.

In a conversation with Julia Louis-Dreyfus on her podcast, Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the Veep star asks O'Hara what she wishes she had spent less time on in her life. “Oh, maybe sleeping,” O’Hara says. “I have never in my entire life heard somebody say they’d wish they’d spent less time sleeping,” Louis-Dreyfus responds. “You sleep too much, seriously?” “I didn’t say recently,” O’Hara says. “I said in my life.” The Schitt’s Creek star then recounts how, as a teenager, she used to head straight to bed after coming home from school. And her urge to get shut-eye continued into adulthood. 

“When I worked at Second City Theater, we did the show and then we would go to one of our houses and stay up all night coming up with ideas,” she told Louis-Dreyfus. “It was so fun… and exciting. I didn’t want anything else in my life. It was so great. But then I would sleep most of the day.” However, even though her job at the time necessitated a nocturnal schedule, O’Hara notes that it also had some drawbacks. “That’s why I think maybe I missed some things,” she says. “I think I missed John Candy’s wedding.” Louis-Dreyfus questions her assertion: “For real?” “I was asleep,” O’Hara responds, as the two suddenly burst into laughter. 

O’Hara and Candy overlapped during their time at Second City Toronto. The Beetlejuice Beetlejuice star joined the comedy troupe in 1974, just a year after Candy had secured his ensemble spot. He took a hiatus from the Canadian comedy outpost in 1979—the year of his wedding—to relaunch his film career. However, O’Hara remained part of the organization, eventually becoming a cast member of SCTV, the institution’s television program. The two comedians later appeared together in Home Alone, with O’Hara starring as Kate McCallister and Candy making a brief cameo as the leader of a polka band. While they reportedly remained close over the years, Candy died due to a heart attack in 1994. “He was just as lovely as you want him to be,” O’Hara told People in an interview earlier this year, adding that she even had a crush on him at one point. However, those feelings appeared to be one-sided. “I wouldn’t claim he was interested in me that way,” she told the outlet. “But he was always really lovely to me in Second City Theater.” O’Hara met her own husband, Bo Wench, a production designer, on the set of Beetlejuice in 1988—and eventually moved to Los Angeles to be with him. She and Wench share two sons.