Kieran Culkin's turn as stoner Benji in Jesse Eisenberg's travel movie A Real Pain is starting to stack up awards.
On Jan. 5, Culkin won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Pictute. This follows victories for Best Supporting Performance (L.A. Film Critics Association) and Best Supporting Actor (NY Film Critics Circle); and nominations for Best Supporting Performance (Film Independent Spirit Awards); Outstanding Supporting Performance (The Gotham Awards); and Best Supporting Actor (Critics Choice Awards). The latter awards will be handed out on Jan. 12.
Variety writes: "Culkin has emerged as a steamrolling candidate in the supporting actor race." He might sweep all of the major award shows.
A Real Pain
In the movie, first cousins Benji and David (Eisenberg) decide to visit Poland and pay tribute to their Grandma Dory, a Holocaust survivor who recently died. It’s a heritage tour with a guide and several other passengers.
We learn Benji marches to the beat of his own drum in the first scene when they meet at the airport. “I’ve got some good stuff for when we land,” he says.
“You’re not taking marijuana into Poland?” David nervously asks.
At the hotel, a package is awaiting Benji at the front desk. After checking into their room, they smoke a joint on the roof. During the session, Benji calls David a “lightweight,” then apologizes.
That’s Benji’s style - he pick fights and then apologize.
The next day the cousins smoke another joint on another roof and argue. “You light up a room and then shit on everything inside of it,” David tells him.
Benji clearly needs to medicate. He’s a well-intentioned provocateur.
Igby Goes Down
The younger brother of Mccauley, Kieran was born in New York City on Sept. 30, 1982. He made his film debut in 1990 in Home Alone, which starred Mccauley. Twelve years later, he played the rebellious Igby in Igby Goes Down opposite Clare Danes. It was his first stoner role. In one scene Igby asks Sookie (Danes) if she's a vegetarian.
Sookie: "Why would you ask that?"
Igby: "I've just never seen anyone roll a joint like that."
Sookie: "What does that have to do with being a vegetarian?"
Igby: "They're just so precious."
Sookie: "I roll perfect joints."
Igby: I'm not putting them down. They're incredible."
Sookie: "Well, thank you."
Igby: "It's incredible as a human being that you can make such neat little joints."
Sookie: "You make it sound like I'm anal or something because I know how to roll a perfect joint."
Igby: "No, not anal. Vegetarian."
Sookie: "Well, what does that mean?"
Igby: "Well, you don't roll like big Rasta spliffs joints, do you? Your joints are like salad joints, not like a big-sloppy-bleeding-cheeseburger-that-you-rip-into-kind-of-a-joint."
Culkin received his first Golden Globes nomination for Igby.
His next big break came in 2018 when he was hired to play Roman Roy in Succession at Showtime, which culiminating in his first Golden Globes victory as Best Actor in a Television Series - Drama in 2024, Culkin also won an Emmy for Succession in 2023.
With his latest prize, now Culkin has two Golden Globes. An Oscar seems likely.
When He Got Mark Ruffalo Stoned
Except for marjuana, Culkin says, “I’ve never done drugs, never done coke, I never did pills, never interested.”
One night in 2000, while performing in the James Lapine play The Moment When, he switiched fake joints used for props with real ones. Among the actors to hit the actual weed was Mark Ruffalo. “I was 17 and stupid," Culkin tells The Guardian:
"‘I thought this was a good prank. I’m stupid. Oh my God, I’m so sorry.’ But actually, they loved it. Mark said, ‘I haven’t smoked pot in 10 years; the second half’s going to be so much fun.’ There was this other actor who had never smoked pot in her life. She said, ‘Is this what being high is? This is lovely.’ And then Phyllis Newman came in and went, ‘I haven’t smoked pot since the 1960s. Thank you, darling.’ Then the stage manager came stomping in and said, ‘I don’t care whose it is, or what happened, but Kieran, give me the joint.' I sheepishly handed her the roach and she said, ‘Ruin your life on your own time.’”
Culkin, 42, says he hasn't smoked pot "for like, 20-plus years."
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