Kieran Culkin is SO GOOD as Roman Roy, the youngest brother of the Roy clan on HBO’s Succession. Roman is twitchy, weird, dysfunctional and formerly obsessed with J. Cameron Smith’s Gerri, a surrogate mommy and Roman’s would-be work-wife. I always thought Kieran got the role because he was secretly a lot like Roman, but no – I’ve seen interviews with him and while he does have that twitchy Roman-esque energy, he’s actually happily married with two young children at home. He’s just a very good actor doing very good work on Succession. Kieran covers the latest issue of Esquire and he talks about the Culkin family, his brother Macaulay and some Succession gossip too. Some highlights:
He turned 40 years old last year: “I turned forty and everything changed.Get a little paper cut on my finger; nine days later, why do I still have a paper cut? It’s just f–king slow now.”
Saying goodbye to Succession: “I haven’t had a f–king moment to think about how I feel about it. All I know is I feel kind of down. It’s hard to sort of accept. What are the stages of grief? I don’t know which one I’m in right now. Maybe depression or denial. Maybe a little bit of both.”
He bought an apartment in Greenpoint. He and his wife considered leaving the city but “the idea of having a house and cars and trying to figure out the school system and how to commute—that is very easy for most, I’m assuming, but I can’t do that.”
On his brother Macaulay’s child stardom: “Poor f–king guy. He was little and having to try to accept that level of fame as reality. Even at that time, as a kid, I remember thinking, That sucks for him.”
Everything changed for him with 2002’s Igby Goes Down. People were starting to talk about his career. “I heard that word and flipped out… I had this unhealthy relationship with what I did for a living. I really wanted to do it, but I didn’t want to be successful at it.” He’d skipped a lot of crucial stages of adolescence to work. So just as his career was about to take off, he stepped back to sew up some loose stitches.
How everyone reacted when they were told the fourth season is the last: Sarah Snook lost it and couldn’t really talk to anyone. Matthew Macfadyen, who plays Shiv’s husband, Tom, got choked up, but his response 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,” Culkin says. “He was more like, ‘Well, good, we’ve done it.’ But I bet if you said, ‘Would you like a fifth?’ he’d want to.”
Whether he’ll stay in touch with his castmates: He’ll stay in touch with Smith-Cameron, for sure. But everyone else? “I’m not really going to keep up a proper relationship with anybody just because of logistics,” he says with a hint of anguish. He says that Macfadyen lives in London. Braun is bicoastal, yet mostly in Los Angeles. Ruck is in L.A., too. Strong splits his time between Copenhagen and New York but calls Denmark home. Snook is in Australia. Cox, he lives all over the place. “It’s a big, big loss.”
How he feels about his ‘career’ now: “It’s a f–king job,” he says, but “it isn’t just a job, either.” There’s a feeling—he doesn’t say fire or passion because he’d feel like a pretentious a–hole, so he calls it “that thing in the ol’ tum-tums”—that kicks in while he’s working, driving him to give it his all. But also, he says, “Not having a job? Lovely… I would like there to be nothing for a little while… I feel like what I’m supposed to do is be a stay-at-home dad. That’s where I feel like I’m the most me. And anything that takes me away from that is wrong.”
It’s interesting, to me, that Kieran might end up like his brother Macaulay – married to someone he adores, raising a tight-knit family and prioritizing being a husband and father over work. Kieran became a father for the first time during Succession’s run – as did Jeremy Strong – and after reading Strong’s interviews and now Culkin’s, I get the sense that Succession took a big chunk out of them for years and they’re both ready to prioritize their families. Anyway, Kieran is a lot sweeter than I expected. He’s not an a–hole like Roman but he shares Roman’s vulnerability.
Cover & IG courtesy of Esquire.
Brilliant actor
He’s fantastic on the show. I like his honesty about the reality of spending time with his co-stars after the show is over, and how difficult it is to maintain relationships with people who you’re now physically so far apart from.
I also didn’t know that Jeremy Strong lived in Denmark?
Yes-his wife is Danish.
That struck me too. He’d like to but realistically it’ll never be the same. My husband was military and I’ve left jobs and bases where it’s a real grieving thing for sure.
He’s always been a sweetie. Even way back in his The Mighty days.
Listen, I LOVE THIS MAN. He can go from tragic to hilarious in a second. And I always see photos and videos of him being so sweet and affectionate with his costars.
Talented actor.
Most people would enjoy being SAH parents.
He can afford to spend time with his family, do it.
I still have a soft spot for Mac C. too. He has 2 young kids now too.
He was interviewed by the media Goddess Terri Gross on Fresh Air a while back. If you haven’t heard that interview, it’s worth a listen. He sounds like a really good guy. I’m very happy for his success and especially that he is having it on his own terms after such a difficult childhood.
“the idea of having a house and cars and trying to figure out the school system and how to commute—that is very easy for most, I’m assuming, but I can’t do that.”
OMG, this made me laugh out loud! I so feel this. After a decade living in Europe with no car and having let my US license expire, when I moved back it took me more than a year to get a new license. So many people were so annoyed with me, but it was such a bureaucratic headache that I didn’t want to deal with. Only because of the US’ crap public transport and no safe bike lanes where I live did I finally do it, but yeah as a 40+ “adult” I was totally stressed and overwhelmed by dealing with the BMV and having to take the stupid “what does this shape of sign mean” test lol
I loved his stint on SNL and then he was on again a few weeks ago for a “Father of the Bride” skit cameo. He seems easy going despite the family in which he was raised and the roles he plays. Maybe that’s why his family comes first; he knows what it is like not to have a strong connection with family.
I’m one of those people who always wants the actors to be as close as the characters they play, but it is a job. How many former co-workers do I keep in contact with? Not many and we’re only 20 minutes apart!
I think it’s human nature to form close bonds with the people you see every day, and when you no longer see them every day, sometimes it’s hard to keep up contact. I can only imagine it’s harder when you’re in a profession like acting where you might be on 2-3 or more sets a year in far-flung locations all over the world.
I loved him in “Igby Goes Down” and I’m happy to see him happy and doing what he loves. I’m about the same age as MacCauley and only a few years older than Keiran, and I’m glad that both of them made it out the other side of their tumultuous and rough childhood in a good place.
He is the scene stealer in Scott Pilgrim. His character is like if Roman was a more decent person and secure in his sexuality.