Kieran Culkin Wins Oscar for Supporting Actor for ‘A Real Pain’
While his “Succession” character Roman Roy may not have ended up on top by the end of the HBO series, Kieran Culkin has proven a winner tonight after receiving the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor at the 97th Academy Awards.
Culkin’s first nomination and win come for his performance in Jesse Eisenberg’s “A Real Pain,” which features the two actors as cousins retracing their roots and rediscovering personal grievances while on a group trip to Poland. The actor takes home the prize over fellow nominee and former “Succession” co-star Jeremy Strong (“The Apprentice”), as well as Yura Borisov (“Anora”), Edward Norton (“A Complete Unknown”), and Guy Pearce (“The Brutalist”).
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In his speech, on receiving the highest accolade of his industry Culkin said, “I’ve just been acting my whole life. It’s just been a part of what I do, so this is…I felt like this was never my trajectory.”
This came after Culkin praised his former “Succession” co-star Strong for his performance as Roy Cohn in “The Apprentice,” though at one point his audio did cut out, a result of the actor dropping an f-bomb in excitement. Later in his speech, after offering his appreciation to Jesse Eisenberg for giving him this role, Culkin thanked his wife Jazz and reminded her of a promise she made to give him two more kids, bringing their litter up to four, should he ever win an Oscar.
“She said, ‘I will give you four when you win an Oscar.’ She shook on it, and I have not brought it up once until just now,” said Culkin. “You remember that, honey? You do? OK. Then I just have this to say to you, Jazz, love of my life, ye of little faith. No pressure. I love you. I’m really sorry I did this again. And let’s get cranking on those kids. What do you say?”
Following its world premiere at Sundance 2024, “A Real Pain” was hailed as the best film of the fest that year, with IndieWire’s review describing Culkin’s performance as “the movie’s heart and soul.” The film screened at multiple festivals throughout the year, including AFI, BFI, NYFF, and Telluride, building momentum for Culkin’s ultimate Oscars campaign, as well as Eisenberg’s campaign for Best Original Screenplay. In describing how he conceived of Culkin’s character, Benji — a mentally ill but enthusiastic personality who’s unable to hold himself back or move himself forward — Eisenberg told IndieWire during an interview back in October 2024 that as personable as he may be, there’s a lot underneath that energy for people to find pity and sorrow in.
“He’s connected to his own pain, and even though his pain is worse than mine, he’s at least grounded in it. He lives in the soil, and it’s like there’s something so envious about it, especially if you’re a character like David, who just spends 24 hours a day trying to just show up and look normal,” Eisenberg said. “And then to see somebody who not only looks normal but can command a group in 10 minutes, who can befriend somebody in 30 seconds, get people to fall in love with him, to not care if somebody hates him. It’s an enviable thing, but the conflict in the movie is that Benji is worse off in so many objective ways. And so David’s envy is misplaced.”
Eisenberg also admitted in previous IndieWire chats that he had not really seen much of Culkin’s work — really only Culkin’s small part in Kenneth Lonergan’s “Margaret” — but that his sister, former child actress Hallie Eisenberg, believed the “Succession” star was the only one for the job. As fond as Culkin was of Eisenberg and his work, after coming off four seasons of a hit show that required his attendance at multiple premieres and awards events, the actor was ready for a little downtime. Culkin admitted that he tried to get out of “A Real Pain” many times.
“I thought, I’m gonna read the script for the third time, and maybe I’ll find some flaw in it,” Culkin told IndieWire at Sundance 2024, “something that makes me go, ‘Oh this isn’t worth my time.’ And I read the whole thing, and the third time in a row, I’m laughing out loud at the script and going, ‘Dammit, I feel like I need to do this.’ I told my wife, and she goes, ‘Are we going to Poland or not?’ And I’m like, ‘I think we are honey, I’m sorry.’”
Culkin also received a push from the film’s producer, former girlfriend and longtime friend Emma Stone, who made him realize that without him, the entire production would not be able to go forward. Thankfully, Culkin stayed with the project and should be glad he did, as it’s now made him an official Oscar winner.
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