The one thing Kieran Culkin loves that other actors hate: “You know what you’re getting”
Kieran Culkin is the only actor who can do what he does. He has a specific kind of unpredictability on-screen, a Puckishness that is both charming and deeply irritating, that no other actor can match. It’s impossible to imagine any other person as Roman Roy, the youngest sibling in HBO’s Succession, who is at turns a victim, a sadistic villain, and a slime puppy.
It is equally impossible to imagine anyone else playing Benji in Jesse Eisenberg’s 2024 comedy A Real Pain, for which the Succession star won an Oscar. The character has no filter, cuts straight to the chase in every conversation, and loves needling people. He is maddening and loveable and turns out to be harbouring a much deeper set of emotions than he lets on.
In short, Culkin is a one-off as an actor, so you probably wouldn’t be surprised to learn that his process as a performer is a little different from his colleagues. He prefers to only know what his character knows in any given scene rather than delve into their backstories, their future, or the things other characters know about them. But that isn’t the end of it. In a recent interview with Simon Mayo on the Kermode and Mayo’s Take podcast, Culkin and Eisenberg talked about how he was cast as Benji and why he would actually have proffered to audition for the part.
Eisenberg hadn’t seen any of Culkin’s work, including Succession, when his sister read a scene that involved Benji and told him, point blank, that Culkin was the only person in the world who could play the part.
“He’s never seen me in anything,” Culkin said. “Didn’t audition. I would have auditioned too, I don’t know why you didn’t do it.”
When Eisenberg expressed disbelief that anyone could wish for an audition, his co-star reasoned, “I like auditioning because then you at least get to see me do the part… If I show up on set and I’m doing something you don’t like, I [could say] like, ‘Well, you should’ve fucking auditioned me then.’ If I audition and you cast me, then you know what you’re getting.”
“There is no actor in the world you’ll find who will say something like this,” Eisenberg responded. “You must be aware that no actor wants to audition.”
Most actors will tell you that one of the best things about becoming a star is that you no longer have to audition for things. The process is notoriously nerve-wracking, and many performers simply are not able to demonstrate their abilities in such a tense environment. Leonardo DiCaprio almost lost the part of Jack in Titanic because he refused to audition. Jennifer Lawrence has compared the process to being a performing monkey. And Hugh Jackman lost a role in Miss Congeniality because he auditioned so poorly.
Still, it’s hard to argue with Culkin’s logic, especially since it seems to come from a similar place of insecurity that causes many actors to hate auditioning. He wants to know for certain that a director chose him because of what he had to offer, which seems like it would probably be a pretty huge vote of confidence once you got to set.
