Aisling Bea jokes she’s ‘absolutely’ too young to play a mum in Home Sweet Home Alone at 37: ‘I was half honoured, half insulted’

Yeah, so I’m sorry/you’re welcome! Delete as appropriate. When I got this job at the end of 2019, it was for Disney+, which has now exploded into this huge platform so it suddenly feels like a big ol’ deal.

Did you think you’re too young to play the mum?

Absolutely. I was half honoured, half absolutely insulted. I auditioned to be [the new Macaulay Culkin part]. I sent a million tapes in but it just didn’t work out.

You asked that question the same way my mother does. She’s like, ‘When would you do a Star Wars movie, Aisling?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, Mummy, because that’s how it works.’ I keep on emailing Marvel, saying, ‘Lads, call me,’ but they’ve yet to put me in the universe.

As a child, what did you watch on telly at Christmas?

In Ireland there’s a show called The Late Late Toy Show that’s precious to Irish people.

It’s based on The Late Late Show, which is one of our biggest chat shows, and every Christmas they do the Toy Show, where children come on and test the toys, and every year you send in your letter, hoping that you might be one of those kids chosen.

And I do love The Muppet Christmas Carol. The Muppets are some of my favourite comedians. I basically got into comedy because of The Muppets. I would love to be in a Muppets movie!

What sort of child were you?

I was kind of like this personality now but just with a small child’s head. So probably bordering between being actually entertaining and extraordinarily annoying.

What would you like to unwrap on Christmas morning?

The cheesy answer is that I’ve got family flying in from India and my mother flying in from Ireland. Last year, there was a Covid outbreak at the job I was in so I spent Christmas alone while my mother was up the road and I didn’t get to see her.

So the idea that this year everyone’s coming in vaccinated and we’ll get to be around the kids, that’s a novelty rather than the traditional chore and something I’d pay huge amounts of money for.

Will there be another series of This Way Up?

Series two was a really tough thing to make during the pandemic because we shot that just after the cancelled Christmas of last year so I’m honestly really proud of it.

I think, with the first series, I had a bit of a sense of, ‘Hurry up and watch it! I spent so long making it!’ and with the second series, if you’ll forgive me another handful of parmesan, I know the people I wrote it for, and if and when they find it, they find it.

What TV show would you like to appear on?

I’d love to be in the French show, Call My Agent. I’m fairly obsessed with that. This Way Up did really well in France — they love a bit of feminism over there.

Or I would love to come into Succession playing a real piece of s*** — because what other characters are there?

Are you a workaholic?

Yes, yes, yes. It panics me to stop so I don’t. That’s one thing I would like to work out for my New Year’s resolution — that it’s OK to stop.

Because when you’re a workaholic you do work that isn’t actually work or important just to feel like you’re working, which is actually a really bad way to work.

MORE : Aisling Bea responds to fans freaking out about her English accent in new Home Alone film in the most Aisling Bea way possible

MORE : Aisling Bea fans freaked out by her English accent in new Home Alone remake trailer