Kieran Culkin bares (a lot) his soul (2023)

Kieran Culkin sounds like he's in the twelfth mile of a marathon, but he's only been running for two minutes. We're running toward a ferry dock on the Manhattan side of the East River. When the boat we're trying to catch comes into view, he pushes even faster. With every step, a thin strand of hair bounces off the crown of her head like a metronome. With fists clenched and arms pumping, she looks like she's about to accelerate as we stop and get in line. He writhes and sucks in oxygen hungrily. His face turns red as if he had been hit. "I feel" - breathe in - "muscles" - breathe in - "I didn't know I could access that," she chokes out. He swallows a few more breaths, stiffens, starts to cough. "Hot Slime!"

We board the ship. I follow him through the main cabin, to the rear deck, up a metal staircase, and to two seats that face port toward Manhattan. Six months ago "I turned forty and everything changed," he says, having already recovered. "Give me a little paper cut on my finger; Why do I still have a silhouette nine days later? Now it's bloody slow."

But he also hasn't exercised regularly, or maybe not at all, for five years, since before the premiere ofsuccession,HBO noir drama about the overly wealthy and comically power-hungry Roy family, owners of a fictional global media giant. Culkin plays Roman, who may be his father Logan's heir as head of the Empire. The show skewers the 1 percent, assuring us that for all their wealth, the Roys are no happier and no less prone to weakness than the mob. It's the gloating of the rich. "Watching people melt is the most satisfying activity on planet Earth," a daughter from a different dynastic family tells one of the Roys in the show's second season.

But on a deeper level, or at least more emotionally resonant, it's a story about family and struggling to live up to one's own legacy. Of course, Culkin knows firsthand what it's like to grow up in a family under public scrutiny.

The ferry starts moving. It's an afternoon in early March and we're wandering around. A few hours ago Culkin texted me: "Would you like to take a very cold walk to I don't know where?" He comes here to process, to seek comfort, to clear his head, a ritual that follows the death of his cat Leo in 2016 began just weeks before filming began on the film.successorPilot. He says it's easier for him to think about his future full of possibilities when he's floating on the river than sitting at home. "Sometimes you can't see it, and then I'm here and I say,Oh yes there are things.is said."There are things I can do.”

Four days have passed since he returned from filming the final scenes ofthe fourth season ofsuccessor,that its creator, Jesse Armstrong, recently announced it will be the last. It marks the end of a period of transformation for Culkin. During his six years on the show, he became a father; bought his first place in Greenpoint, Brooklyn; and moved from the island where he had lived all his life. The show raised his profile and reputation. He has received two Emmy and three Golden Globe nominations; last year it won a Critics Choice Award. "There can't be a better job in the world for an actor," he says. It also gave you a lot of options. But at the moment none of them are as attractive as being at home with a wife and children.

For a man who has always been ambivalent about acting as a career but at the same time revels in the work itself, this is a difficult situation. "I haven't had a damn moment to think about how it makes me feel. All I know is that I'm feeling a little down," says Culkin. "It's hard to accept. What are the stages of grief? I don't know which one I'm on right now. Maybe depression or denial. Maybe a bit of both."

We're going south. Culkin looks out over Manhattan: the towers of soaring skyscrapers carved into the foundations of downtown, the long, low-rise neighborhoods on the island's eastern flank, the rabbit hole of the Financial District at the southern end, all bathed in sunlight. fading sun "Sometimes I hate living here," she says almost wistfully. "But then I'll see this and I'll be gone,Yes that's it. I live here.”

The ferry crosses the troubled waters to Greenpoint, where Culkin and his wife, Jazz Charton, bought an apartment just over a year ago. As they considered where to move, he thought of looking outside of town. But "the idea of ​​having a house and cars and trying to understand the school system and traveling is very easy for most I think, but I can't do it."

Play with her jewelry while she talks. On his left hand he wears a wedding ring (he and Charton eloped in Iowa ten years ago in the middle of a cross-country road trip) and two signet rings, each engraved with an initial, one for his three-year-old daughter. and the other for her almost two-year-old son. There's also a Rolex that he bought when he finished filming the first seasonsuccessor. He got one for Charton too, no small indulgence to remind her of an extraordinary moment. On her right wrist she wears a pair of bracelets (one made of beads spelling her son's name, the other from Roman's wardrobe) and a bandana her daughter wore as a baby to protect herself from the sun. It reminds Culkin of a time not too long ago when she was so little.

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We follow the ribbon of the river around the headland that marks the northern edge of the East Village. Culkin started hanging out there in the early 2000s and visited his older brother for two years.Macaulay, whom he calls Mack. At the time, Culkin was a teenager still living at home on the Upper West Side; he laced up his inline skates, slipped a John Frusciante CD into his Discman, stuffed it into the huge pocket of his jeans, and ran downtown. He himself moved to the East Village a year later, not to be closer to his brother, but because he found a place he could afford that contained the fantasy film he wanted. "I know it's stupid," he says, "but I wanted a sunken living room."

He lived in this apartment for almost twenty years. There he learned to grow up and, once he and Charton were married, to care for and be cared for. But then child after child came, and one day he woke up with the feeling that his family was living in the apartment of a "nineteen-year-old who can't do the dishes yet". So they left. However, Culkin isn't ready to give it up, so he's still paying his rent and using the place as an office. Sentimental? Secure. Practical? Absolutely not.

Before their last name caught on, the Culkins lived eighty blocks north of here in a railroad apartment in Yorkville. Kieran and his six brothers were a unit. He liked to count them one by one as they came through the front door, and he didn't sleep until they were all asleep. They were close enough in a confined space that he could tell: on the floor of a bunk, Kieran and Mack; above them the eldest, Shane; down in a second bunk Quinn and Chris, boys five and six; above them Dakota, passing Cody, the second oldest; and baby Rory in the cradle.

All seven brothers attempted to respond to their father's encouragement, but only Mack, Kieran, and Rory tried in earnest. Of course, Mack broke through first in 1990Home alone.At the age of ten he became the most famous child actor in the world since Shirley Temple. "Poor piece of shit," Culkin says of his brother. "I was little and I had to try to accept that fame as a reality." At home, things remained relatively normal. It was the same at school. But memories of how famous Mack had become — the nosy people at the next table, the cab driver who followed them home, Michael Jackson's hangings at Neverland Ranch — became inevitable. "Even back then, as a child, I thought:That sucks for him.”

It sucked for the whole family. The paparazzi followed them everywhere. The media reveled in all signs of family discord, particularly during her parents' bitter divorce. In 1995, Kieran, then thirteen, wrote a handwritten note to the court asking that the media be banned from reporting his custody battle. "Your Honor," he wrote, "I ask that you spare my family further embarrassment by allowing the press into the courtroom. It was tough for us and I see no point in it." A judge denied the statement and let reporters in. To this day, Culkin refuses to speak to himJoin a Hollywoodbecause, he says, "they did a whole play for my family in 1997." ditto with himNew York Post Office,the outlet that taught him that "the newspaper doesn't always give you the facts." He pauses. "Let me rephrase that. HeNew York Postdoesn't always give you the damn facts. But sometimes on the carpet, the exits still make an impact. "They don't always tell you who you're talking to until you've spoken to them," he says. "'Who is that by the way?' They're like,"Join a Hollywood".'Crap! I just broke my own fucking rule.'” For years he'd clung to a dusty bag of a dozen 8mm home videos from his childhood, reluctant to hire anyone to convert it due to the possibility of a leak.

Despite the confusion, Culkin never thought of giving up acting. She attended Catholic school until third grade: “Mrs. Skipington loved lilies, Mrs Grundy was mean and Sister Joselita died teaching my class,” she says before moving to the hilariously named Vocational Nursery School. "For example, if I had to hire a child, I'd show up with a briefcase: 'Hi ma'am, my name is Kieran. I'm here for the weekend,'" he says. In fact, the school specialized in working with children's busy schedules in the performing arts. And his was particularly busy:father of the brideand its continuation;The Cider House Rules;Freddie Prinze Jr.'s vehicleshe is all of that. Or, in Culkin's words, "blah blah, some crappy movies nobody's seen, never mind." Acting was something that, like Culkin, was easythis. There's nothing strange about that.

That is, until she got her first big role, inIgby cae(2002). The film didn't ignite the box office, but its tongue-in-cheek performance inspired headlines like "Macaulay's Little Brother Finally Grows Up." Suddenly people started talking about hercarrera. "I heard that word and freaked out," says Culkin. He was aware of the damage that unwanted attention could do. "I had this unhealthy relationship with what I did for a living. I really wanted to do it, but I didn't want to make it." He had skipped many crucial stages of adolescence to go to work. Just before her career was about to take off, she stepped back to sew up a few loose stitches. "I identify with that shudder," he saysigbyco-star Claire Danes. “I experienced a version of it myself. It's really disheartening to be on the edge of your adult self and suddenly have a lot of attention and opportunity and not quite sure how to focus it."

Danes was dating Kieran and Mack at the time. "These are such nice guys," she says. "That sounds derogatory, that's not my intention. I'm always touched by people who are really down to earth, especially people who've been through as much as they have." They were, he says, "very protective." The brothers all looked the same. Still do: On a recent one At the photo shoot, the photographer showed Culkin a previous photo as an example of the mood he wanted. She thought she took one of Kieran's. Culkin looked at him. "That's great," he said, "but that's not me." It was his younger brother Rory.

Nonetheless, family unity has expanded. They've aged and drifted apart, not on purpose, but that doesn't make it any easier.

In 2008, Culkin's older sister, Cody, died after being hit by a car. She was thirty. He says that of all his brothers, Cody reminds him most of Roman Roy. Definitely when it comes to humor and the ability to put people down. "The only difference is that she wouldn't do it in a large group," he says. "Not because she was nice, but because she was shy." One word or phrase they associate with Cody is enough to make the Culkins laugh out loud.

Every year on his birthday, Culkin visits his grave north of New York City. This year he was there for the first time with his daughter. They brought a blanket to lie on, snacks and a ball and had a wonderful day with Aunt Cody.

Whilesuccessorcovers a lot of thematic ground on the privileged: rights, power, wealth; The show is not so much about money as it is about family. And as season four begins, which premieres March 26, the Roy family is more divided than ever.

As always, Connor, the older and less likely offspring, isn't needed anywhere or by anyone, so he directs his energies towards projects he believes will ultimately make his father proud, such as running for president. Of the three remaining Roys, each seemed at times the child most likely to succeed their father, only to falter. Season 1 saw Kendall, the second eldest who has so many rights, find his identity so intertwined with his father's succession that he risks psychological death if he doesn't become king. Season 2 was about Shiv, the baby and the one who looks most like his father. But she's a steamroller: she lacks tact, discretion, and a sense of when it's time to shut up. Culkin's novel is mischievous and salacious, but also the classic middle child who is ignored and struggles to stay relevant in family affairs. By Season 3, he seemed to have figured it out and not fall prey to the same self-immolation tendencies as his brothers. Then, whoops, he sent his father a jab.

Just before he was shotsuccessorPilot, when Culkin discovered the therapeutic benefits of the ferry, he had no idea how successful the show would be or how much praise it would receive. There was no sign that it would be picked up. So he tried not to think too much and just picked one trait for his character. He says he decided Roman would "feel like he never had to face any consequences. You can literally walk into any room and throw a drink in a lady's face and it's fun."

His performance had a major impact on the show from the start. Jesse Armstrong,successorCulkin's creator says he was the first person he cast: "In a way, he was so tonal that I felt confident we were in the right realm for the show's tone." when Roman shows up and waves to a room full of suits ("Hey, hey, motherfuckers"), says Armstrong, "there was no rolling paper between my vision of the character and him. I couldn't even remember what I thought this guy would be like before Kieran did it."

Beforesuccessor, Culkin didn't have much experience with improvisation. During filming of the pilot, director Adam McKay yelled off-camera at Alan Ruck, who plays Connor, to say a few lines from his head. "That horrified Kieran," says Ruck. "He said, 'I like it when writers write my lines. I like to say them, and then I like to go home.'” But between then and filming the second episode, something clicked for Culkin, says Ruck. "It became an artesian well of bullshit."

Culkin's newfound comfort with improvisation helped inspire one of the show's most memorable dynamics: the taboo, nonphysical, semi-perverted flirtation between Roman and Gerri Kellman, an internal consultant at his father's company and a few decades his senior. . After seeing a brief, charged glimpse between the two characters in the first season, the show's writers channeled an already developed plot about Roman's sexual dysfunction into this relationship. What makes it even funnier is that Culkin and J. Smith-Cameron, who plays Gerri, have been friends for years. "We were always flirting on set," says Smith-Cameron. "It was never really flirty for a second. It was those things that make you fall in love.”

In lesser hands, Roman could have been played for pure comedy. Arguably the funniest character in the series. But Culkin elevated the role to tragicomedy by not just making the lines laugh. It's never just about the punch line; there's an underlying pain that lurks but never quite breaks the surface of Roman's ego. "He embodies the moral decay of the show," says Alexander Skarsgård, whose character billionaire CTO Lukas Matsson first appeared in season three and continues into season four, "and how screwed everyone is."

Fucked up but still family. Last year, the cast traveled to Los Angeles for the Emmys. In Sunset Tower, Nicholas Braun, who plays cousin Greg, reached out to Sarah Snook, who plays Shiv, and said he doubted they would ever be cast together again because everyone would think they were cousins. At this point, Culkin walked over and asked what they were talking about. What Snook did next, he tells me, "is probably a reference to the same sibling relationship that Kieran and I have off-screen as well." It's something he imagines Culkin would have done to him if the tables would have been turned: he rubbed it in his face. "Hey Kieran, you're going to like this," he recalls. "Once we finish this show, you and I will never work together again."

It was in line with his usual jokes, but the gist of the truth stole his throat. "I said, 'Why the hell are you saying that? I want to fucking cry,'" says Culkin. ("It hit him a lot harder than I thought," Snook admits.) For the first time, they thought about it togethersuccessorit would end, though they didn't know when.

Even when filming for the fourth season began in June 2022, the cast and crew weren't sure it would be the last. The general atmosphere wasThis may be the end unless it is not.The moment Culkin accepted the show was ending was at the table read for the final episode of Season 4 last January. Armstrong put it bluntly, "So that's it." And then... it went on. "Unless it's not like that. There might still be..."

"I laughed," says Culkin. "Fuck, come on, man. Is it the end or not? Stop telling me you don't want to be with me, but you still love me.

But by the time Armstrong had finished his speech, he had essentially settled the matter. Everyone reacted in their own way. Snook lost his temper and couldn't really talk to anyone. Matthew Macfadyen, who plays Shiv's husband Tom, was emotional, but his reaction was similar to Culkin's:At least we have an answer. I can accept that."I think Brian [Cox, who plays patriarch Logan Roy] had mixed feelings about it, too," says Culkin. "It was more like, 'Okay, okay, we did it.' But I bet if you said, 'Do you want a fifth?' I would want to do it." fourth season the Roys leads. Who says they're all still alive?

As with any family, there were sometimes tensions between the cast members. A few years ago, in aNew-YorkerProfile of Jeremy Strong (aka Kendall Roy), in which he detailed the more acerbic aspects of his preparation for the role, Culkin criticized his colleague. I ask Culkin if he and Strong ever discussed the article or if it affected their working relationship. He doesn't really react. “We are professionals. We like going to work and getting things done. I don't think it affected the way he did his job. Mine wouldn't have been affected. I think it was good. His measured response suggests there is more to the story, but Culkin seems to have learned to keep his family criticism to himself.

Also, he says, occasional stress never interfered with work; at times he came close to the cast. You'll miss Cox's initial "outbursts," as Culkin calls them, none of which he can quote because "they're definitely misunderstood. If you were a clerk in the corner of our set..." He settles for, "It's so funny to watch him lose his mind." Culkin learned Cox calmed down with a sugar rush, so he told the production assistant to do it do a sandwich or a banana nearby. If they didn't follow his advice on the first day, they did on the second. Reluctantly, Cox accepted the offer of handyman services, ate it, and settled down.

Culkin will miss these people. Will of course stay in touch with Smith-Cameron. But everyone else? "Just for logistical reasons, I'm not going to have a real relationship with anyone," he says with a touch of fear. He says Macfadyen lives in London. Brown is bicostal, but mostly in Los Angeles. Ruck is also in Los Angeles. Strong splits his time between Copenhagen and New York, but calls Denmark home. Snook is in Australia. Cox lives everywhere. "It's a big, big loss."

During a break in filming for the final episode, Culkin in the role of Roman Ruck, who is still in the role of Connor, approached and started talking about getting a boner, then asked if he could have another one . "With a little help, yes," Ruck replied. Culkin laughed and then hugged him. "Kieran said, 'I'm really going to miss you,'" Ruck tells me. “The feeling is mutual. I never had a little brother and if I could have a little brother I would love to have him just like Kieran."

The goodbyes came in waves. On the day of Ruck's goodbye and Justine Lupe, who plays Connor's wife Willa, they were all crying, so Ruck started talking. "I'll teach you the Roy family toast," he said. "On you and on me / The best friends we'll ever be / But if we ever disagree / Fuck off."

The ferry docks at the Wall Street terminus. We get out, go to one of the oldest bars in New York and settle down to discuss Culkin's future over a glass of beer.

Some actors can't help but sacrifice themselves on the altar of art. Culkin is not one of those actors. Well, not exactly. "It's a bloody job," he says, but "it's not just a job, either." There's a feeling (he doesn't say fire or passion because it would make him feel like a pretentious jerk, so he calls it "that thing in the old tum-tums"), which kicks in as he works, driving him to give it all. it's all. But he also says: "Don't you have a job? Nice."

So far he has only signed up for one new post.successorProjekt, the second directorial effort by Jesse Eisenberg,a real paina contemporary Holocaust film partly set in Poland. Culkin is looking forward to being away from his family on set for an extended period of time again. "There's no reason for me to do it other than to feel like I want to do it creatively," he says. "And that sucks, because now I feel like I have to."

Aftera real painand some voiceover work he's been doing for months, he's not sure what's next. You don't care about the scripts you read. They've thought about working on a project of their own, but it's too early to share even the smallest of details. He takes a sip of his beer. "I wish there was nothing for a while," he says.

What Culkin really cares about is family. Not the Hollywood version of family, but the royal family. Almost every story he tells harks back to his wife and children in some way, revealing the details of their lives, almost like little prayers of thanks. "I feel like I'm supposed to be a stay-at-home dad," he says at one point. "I feel like it's more me. And anything that leads me away from that is wrong."

As soon as we've finished our beer, he asks if we can meet up with Charton. They've hired a babysitter for the night and she's traveling with a friend. As we walk back to the ferry, he grimaces. "I'll be sore tomorrow," he says. We meet them at a restaurant in Greenpoint, where they are in court while the waiters close for the night. Over drinks we talk about the kids (her friend has a son in the same school as her daughter) but this time Culkin is quiet. He seems ready for bed. He just looks at his wife lovingly and a little relieved.

A small group of cast and crew took a final week-long trip to film the final scenes of the final episode ofsuccessor. It was like a luxurious dormitory. They all ate together; They spun around between shots and shot the shit. It was mostly work days and Culkin was getting a bit vampiric. At the end of the evening when they were done, he and Snook would go to the screening room to watch cartoons. They all did their best to hide their sadness and focus on the work, which wasn't always easy. On his second day, Armstrong publicly announced that the show was finally over.

Mark Mylod, who directed the series finale and at least a third of allsuccessorEpisodes, more than any other director, used to give a short speech to the cast after filming an episode was finished. But after they finished the last scene, everyone gathered around Culkin, Snook and Strong and spontaneously broke out in applause. They applauded for ten minutes.

When he finally calmed down, Culkin made his own speech. Without any romantic mischief or casual jokes, leaving appearances, he turned to the family he lost. He mostly talked about Sarah Snook, thanking her for their years together as co-stars; share that she is one of his favorite people on the planet and one of his favorite scene partners. That she's the perfect person to play around with, that they can walk into a scene not knowing what they're going to say and know that they'll find out together along the way. what is alonesimply. And he spoke of his fear that they would never see them together again.

Snook was right: when Culkin had the chance to break the news, he immediately jumped at it. He just did it in a way that broke everyone's heart.

The closing party featured karaoke and Snook and Culkin sang an inspired rendition of the B-52's "Love Shack." Mylod says it sounded like a deranged version of frontman Fred Schneider. It was both parody and homage, haunting and almost terrifying and damn funny.

On the flight home, after everyone had drinks in hand, Mylod approached Culkin out of the blue and asked if he would ever consider making an action film. The director had been thinking about what his next project might be and envisioned how he could revolutionize the action genre. "I thought,Who would be a truly amazing person to throw themselves in the shit and try to see them survive?Mylod tell me. "And I'd really like to see Kieran do it."

Culkin, whose lean frame hardly screams superhero, replied that as long as I could kick the shit out of him, it would be a game: the action hero who can't fight. The idea makes you smile, doesn't it?

"A few years ago I would have said, 'No, I'm not doing this because I can't do it. Who the hell would think a 140-pound, 5-foot-2 guy could start kicking ass?'” Then again, you never know. "But now there's a reality where maybe..." he says, trailing off. The idea must be good enough to snatch him away from his family. But there is a way. that's whatsuccessorThat's what he's done for Culkin: Where he previously saw obstacles and missed opportunities, he now sees opportunities. He can do things.

History: Eric Sullivan

Photos: Billy Kidd

Styling: Andrew Mukamal

Aseo: Benjamin Thigpen

Creative direction: Nick Sullivan

Designrichtung: Rockwell Harwood

Visual Director: James Morris

Executive Director, Entertainment: Randi Peck