Baftas 2025: Kieran Culkin wins ‘Best Supporting Actor’
Kieran Culkin has won the Bafta for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for his role in Jesse Eisenberg’s comedy-drama, A Real Pain. It looks like it may be a seismic award season for Culkin.
Written, directed, and co-starring Eisenberg, the film follows cousins David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Culkin) as they embark on a Jewish heritage tour through Poland to honour their late grandmother.
Culkin plays his character as a gregarious loose cannon who antagonises his uptight cousin and provides the film with levity and pathos.
Accepting the award on Culkin’s behalf shortly after picking up the award for ‘Best Original Screenplay,’ Eisenberg said, “Hi, thanks again. This is also the fifth award I’ve accepted on Kieran’s behalf. It confirms what I’ve thought, which is that we share the same life, but his is 27% better than mine.”
Culkin was previously most well known for playing Roman Roy in the hit HBO series Succession. Though there are similarities between Benji and Roman, however Culkin imbues his character in A Real Pain with greater depth and pain than he ever had the opportunity to do in Succession.
A Real Pain is Eisenberg’s second directorial effort following 2022’s When You Finish Saving the World.
The film was also nominated for ‘Best Original Screenplay,’ though it lost out when it came to the ‘Best Film’ and ‘Best Director’ categories.
Culkin has already won the Golden Globe for his performance and is a frontrunner at next month’s Oscars.
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