Chris Columbus has directed some of the most iconic child performances in movie history as the filmmaker behind “Home Alone” and the first two “Harry Potter” films, and his tip for finding the right kids is to make sure they have the right parents.

Before the Harry Potter movies, J.K. Rowling‘s best-selling book series was already a literary phenomenon. If the movies became just as big, the child stars cast as these literary characters would have a life-changing experience.

Chris Columbus learned a lot from directing Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost In New York, and shared how the experience impacted his casting of Harry Potter. Columbus, who helmed both Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,