Johnny Galecki Regrets Getting A Scene With Chevy Chase Cut From National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

Decades before Eugene Levy and Jason Biggs perfected cringeworthy coming-of-age interactions in “American Pie,” Chevy Chase provided audiences with plenty of memorable father-son moments. In the first film, Clark and Rusty (Anthony Michael Hall) discuss skinny-dipping with a beautiful woman, rag on elderly family members, and down a roadside beer. In the sequel, Rusty (Jason Lively) and his dad have a lighthearted shoving match on a train to Rome and debate the fashionability of berets. Unlike its predecessors, “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” doesn’t feature any similar moments between Chase and Galecki, even though Hughes had written one for an early draft of the screenplay.

The final shooting script for “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” didn’t include any father-son moments. Galecki told Rolling Stone that Chase pointed this out to Hughes, saying, “There’s always been kind of a man-to-man scene between Clark and Russ in the previous films … But there isn’t in this one.” He asked Hughes to “consider putting that back in.” Galecki was asked if he wanted to shoot the scene, and he told the filmmakers that it would be a waste of time. “Somebody thought it was worth taking out at some point,” He recalled thinking at the time. “So even if we shoot it, it’ll probably get taken out again.” They never filmed the scene.

Although Galecki was dead set against the bonding moment during filming, he’s since changed his mind. “I literally talked myself out of what could have been a classic scene with Chevy Chase,” the actor mused. “Now that I’m a jaded Hollywood f***, I realize the error of my ways. I still kick myself in the ass for this every day.”