Eric Andre’s decision to turn Kieran Culkin’s Oscar-winning movie role has been a real pain.
Indeed, the Eric Andre Show comedian said that, before Jesse Eisenberg cast the Succession alum as Benji Kaplan in A Real Pain, which Kieran ultimately took home the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for, he had passed on the opportunity to play the role.
“I read the script,” Eric explained on the April 7 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!. “It was, like, 120 pages about two Jews babbling about the Holocaust and that seemed a bit depressing to me upon first read. I was like, “I’m a comedian, I wanna stay in my lane as a comedian.”
Along with having doubts that the script—which sees cousins Benji and David (played by writer/director Jesse) visiting Poland to honor their late grandmother—was a good fit for him or his brand, the 42-year-old also shared that was also working on a different project at the time.
But now, seeing that Kieran’s role earned him an Oscar, the Bad Trip star admitted, “I made the biggest mistake of my entire career.”
And perhaps he was too quick in judging a book by its cover, because he also confessed that he only read the first 10 pages or so before turning it down.
“Do you know how boring it is reading a script,” he joked to host Jimmy Kimmel. “It’s excruciating. It feels like school in summertime. All the Adderall in the world couldn’t get me to read a single script.”
So, when it comes to his process on deciding what roles to take, “I agree to movies,” he quipped. “I don’t even know what happens after the second act.”
E! News has reached out to reps for Jesse as well as Fruit Tree productions for comment but has not heard back.
Kieran, on the other hand, had an immediate connection to the character, Benji—as well as the script itself.
In fact, after winning his Academy Award in March, he told reporters in the press room that it was “the first time I ever read something and went, ‘I fully understand this guy.’”
“It felt like I knew who this guy was, but I couldn’t identify it,” he continued. “I didn’t want to analyze it because right away upon reading it, I went, ‘I know who this guy is.’ I’m just gonna leave it and just do it.”
But even so, the 42-year-old—who shares kids Kinsey, 5, and Wilder, 3, with wife Jazz Charton—nearly left the project behind ahead of production.
“It wasn’t for any creative reason,” Kieran explained. “It was just the way the schedule changed right before we started, it was taking me away from my kids for almost a month.”
“I was like, ‘Well, I don’t want to do that,’” he recalled. “Then I got talked into it, which, obviously, I’m very glad that I was.”
To see more of Kieran’s iconic roles throughout the years, keep reading.
Home Alone
Kieran Culkin made his movie debut at 7 playing Fuller, the rubber sheet-requiring little cousin of Macaulay Culkin‘s Kevin McCallister in the 1990 blockbuster that made the elder Culkin brother a full-fledged star and put Kieran on the map.
“I didn’t even know what the movie was about when we were doing it,” Kieran said on the Late Late Show With James Corden in 2020. “There’s a part in the movie where there’s a kid who gets his head counted incorrectly and he goes, ‘Bye, bring me back something French!’ I thought the movie was about that kid.”
Only the Lonely
Kieran teamed up again with Macaulay in this 1991 John Candy comedy, this time the two playing brothers in director Chris Columbus‘ follow-up to Home Alone.
Father of the Bride
Brother-of-the-bride Matty Banks helpfully pointed out that no one wants to see the word “pit” on a wedding invitation in the 1991 classic. Kieran returned for the 1995 sequel and the mid-pandemic 2020 virtual reunion.
Nowhere to Run
In 1993, a single mother of two in distress couldn’t do much better than having Jean-Claude Van Damme as her savior, as he was in one of the countless solitary-beefcake-saves-woman-from-human-or-machine-villain movies that were so popular at the time. Rosanna Arquette played a widow whose farm was under threat from ruthless contractors, Kieran was her son and the Muscles From Brussels was the escaped convict who makes everything right.
My Summer Story
So…there was a sequel to A Christmas Story and this 1994 family comedy was it, also directed by Bob Clark and based on Jean Shepherd‘s stories but starring Kieran as Ralphie Parker and Charles Grodin and Mary Steenburgen as his parents. Once again, there’s a bully to be vanquished, but without the snow.
Youngest Culkin sibling Christian also joined the family as Ralphie’s little brother Randy, and it’s his sole acting credit.
The Mighty
Sharon Stone played Kieran’s mom in this heartwarming tearjerker about two misfit kids whose friendship gives them the inner superpowers they need to get by in their small town.
She’s All That
Kieran played younger brother Simon to Rachael Leigh Cook‘s social outcast-turned-potential-prom-queen Laney Boggs in the 1999 teen classic.
The Cider House Rules
Also in 1999, Kieran joined Tobey Maguire as resident “Princes of Maine” and “Kings of New England” in the orphanage-set drama that resulted in Oscar wins for John Irving‘s screenplay and supporting actor Michael Caine.
Igby Goes Down
In 2002 Kieran earned his first Golden Globe nomination for acting in a comedy for his turn as the titular New York rich kid dealing with an institutionalized father (Bill Pullman), an alcoholic mother (Susan Sarandon), an Alex P. Keaton-type brother (Ryan Phillippe), a mad crush on a girl (Claire Danes) and an affair with a woman (Amanda Peet) who’s already the trophy mistress of his real estate tycoon godfather (Jeff Goldblum).
It’s a hoot, albeit a dark one.
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys
The Catholic school travails of four friends growing up in Savannah, Ga., in the 1970s drive the coming-of-age action of this 2002 dramedy based on Chris Fuhrman‘s inspired-by-his-real-life novel of the same name.
Lymelife
Martin Scorsese executive-produced this 2008 drama-with-humor starring Rory Culkin as Scott, a sweet 15-year-old in 1979-era Long Island who’s in love with his neighbor Adrianna, played by Emma Roberts. Life gets complicated when Adrianna’s dad (Timothy Hutton) is diagnosed with Lyme disease and her mother (Cynthia Nixon) starts having an affair with Scott’s father (Alec Baldwin). Meanwhile, his older brother Jimmy (Kieran), already no fan of their dad, is over all the parental hypocrisy.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Kieran plays one of the few people Michael Cera doesn’t have to battle in the 2010 cult-classic based on a graphic novel series. But upon closer inspection, Scott’s roommate Wallace Wells is giving strong doesn’t-give-AF-but-still-endearing Roman Roy vibes, only with much less profanity.
Margaret
Kieran plays Paul, a slacker schoolmate of the interminably self-centered Margaret (Anna Paquin) who decides Paul’s the guy she should lose her virginity to while also obsessively trying to atone for a bus accident she helped cause.
The real news, however, is that J. Smith-Cameron—Gerri, the object of Roman’s twisted affection on Succession—played Margaret’s mom in the very long film directed by Cameron’s husband, Kenneth Lonergan.
Fargo
He isn’t around for long, but Kieran had a memorable turn on the second season of Fargo as Rye Gerhardt, a junior member of a murderous crime family, whose hit-and-run death in the season premiere triggers much of the ensuing action. (Though, more accurately, Rye is hit and Kirsten Dunst‘s Peggy Blumquist calmly drives home with him still embedded in her windshield.)
No Sudden Move
Kieran’s gangsters don’t have much luck. It’s kill or be killed on the job in this Steven Soderbergh-directed all-star crime saga from 2021, and his character is, well…
Succession
Kieran has won two Critics’ Choice Awards and been nominated for two Emmys and three Golden Globes for his pitch-perfect turn as the remarkably crass and calculating but obviously-in-need-of-a-hug Roman Roy, the youngest of Logan Roy’s 3D-chess-playing heirs.
