Kieran Culkin is now a Golden Globe winner – and it's all thanks to his ex-girlfriend, Emma Stone.
The Succession star won on Sunday January 5 for his work in A Real Pain, a loosely autobiographical story from Jesse Eisenberg that takes a moving look at family dynamics as mismatched cousins – Kieran’s Benji and Jesse’s David – visit the childhood home of their recently deceased grandmother, a Holocaust survivor.
© CBS via Getty ImagesDespite being reluctant to leave his own young family to film A Real Pain in Poland, Kieran said in a new interview, published in the latest edition of HELLO! that it was his former girlfriend Emma, a producer of the film, who ultimately persuaded him to take the role.
"She and I had a phone call, which was mostly her convincing me to do the movie – which she did in a very brilliant way," he said.
© WireImageKieran and Emma dated between 2010 and 2011, and he has previously shared that he does not like to call her an "ex" because she remains close friends with Kieran and his wife.
The award-winning actor previously made a promise to himself that he wouldn’t be away from his wife and their two young children for more than eight days, especially after shooting of the final season of hit drama Succession ran over by two months leaving him precious little family time before he was due to fly to Poland.
© Getty Images for The Met Museum/Kieran, 42, has a son and daughter with Jazz Charton, his British-born wife of 11 years.
He tried to pull out of the project, he said, admitting he had to "weigh the personal versus the professional".
"It’s about grief. It’s about pain. Anybody who has grief for someone, which is most people, knows that there isn’t necessarily a right way or a wrong way," he said of the project, adding: "But, creatively, this was the one I really, really wanted to do. So I did it and I’m really glad I did. That said, I’m going to try really hard to stick to my eight-day rule from now on, because it was hard."
The film has become a sleeper hit; it was nominated for four Golden Globes, with Kieran winning Best Supporting Actor in a Movie, and has three nods at the upcoming Critics Choice Association awards.
Born into a family of actors, Kieran and his siblings have often featured in one another’s projects; Kieran portrayed his brother Macaulay’s cousin in Home Alone and its sequel, and worked with brother Rory on Lymelife and Igby Goes Down.
A Real Pain is in UK cinemas from January 10 and on Hulu in the US on January 16.
INTERVIEW: GILL PRINGLE
