Catherine O’Hara recently shared a hilarious story about missing John Candy’s wedding, explaining that it wasn’t due to any romantic feelings for him, as she had previously joked, but because she simply slept through it.
This confession came during an appearance on Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s Wiser Than Me podcast. When Louis-Dreyfus asked if there was anything in her life she wished she had spent less time on, O’Hara, 70, humorously replied, “Oh, maybe sleeping?”
Louis-Dreyfus, surprised by the answer, asked, “You sleep too much? Seriously?” O’Hara clarified that she was talking about her younger years, particularly during her time with Toronto’s Second City troupe in the ’70s, when she met and worked closely with Candy.
O’Hara humorously noted that, in her younger years, she might have spent too much time sleeping
She recalled the all-nighters spent coming up with ideas for their comedy shows, which were thrilling and filled with energy, but left her exhausted the following day. “It was so fun and exciting,” she said. “But then I would sleep most of the day.” Laughing, she added, “Maybe I missed some things. I think I missed John Candy’s wedding. I was asleep.”
Earlier this year, O’Hara fondly remembered her friend Candy, who passed away in 1994, and admitted to having had a crush on him. “He was just as wonderful as you’d imagine,” she said.
The two worked together on SCTV from 1976 to 1984 and also starred together in Home Alone in 1990. O’Hara played a character trying to get back home to her son Kevin (Macaulay Culkin), while Candy portrayed a kind fellow traveler.
O’Hara was quick to clarify, however, that despite her feelings, she didn’t think Candy was interested in her in the same way. “I wouldn’t claim he was interested in me that way,” she explained, emphasizing how “lovely” he was to her throughout their time together on SCTV.
During the same conversation, O’Hara also revealed the pay disparities on SCTV, noting that she, along with fellow female cast member Andrea Martin and John Candy, received lower salaries than the male actors.
“The two women and John Candy got paid less than everyone,” O’Hara recalled. However, she expressed admiration for how Candy eventually fought for fair compensation. “John, God bless him, turned it around big time,” she said. “As the years went on, he got a lawyer and ended up getting more than anyone, and good for him.”
