Kieran Culkin already has reservations about his first post-‘Succession’ role.
Culkin will star in Jesse Eisenberg’s second directorial effort “A Real Pain,” which follows two cousins, played by Culkin and Eisenberg, who travel to Poland after their grandmother’s death and end up joining a Holocaust tour.
During a Interview magazine discussion with Taika Waititi, Culkin admitted he tried to “exit” the indie project due to the filming location. Culkin cited the issue of traveling with his young family as a reason not to make the film, but credited Eisenberg’s moving semi-autobiographical screenplay as a film he couldn’t turn down.
“It’s going to sound awful, but I’ve been trying to get out of it because it’s going to make my life miserable. But I don’t want to not because it’s such a beautiful script,” Culkin said. “I was finding every reason not to. I was like, ‘I’m going to watch his first movie (“When you finish saving the world”), maybe it will be terrible.’ I looked at it and was like, ‘Shit. Is very good.'”
Culkin continued, “Well, let me read the script again, I’m going to find some holes. Maybe I was in a good mood when I said yes. I reread it and it was wonderful. When I finished it, I went to my wife and I was like, ‘I’m sorry, honey. Shit, I have to go make this movie.’ It’s just too good.
The “Succession” actor added of the premise of Eisenberg’s film, “It’s based, I guess, on what happened in his life. He and I are playing cousins and our great aunt is dead. Our great aunt who dies is a Holocaust survivor in the film and she, in her will, offered us a trip to see the city where she was born and the house where she grew up.
She revealed: “The reason I wanted out is that I have a 1⁄2 year old and a 3 1/2 year old, and we’re going to be bouncing around Poland. I don’t like being away from them for more than two days at a time, and it’s not practical for me to have them there all the time. I’m trying to get my wife to go out for two weeks and take the kids. It’s just a lot about her. We have a nanny here, but she can’t travel with us. So she’s doing it all by herself, and she’s really making half what I make for a living. Except sometimes it can be like, ‘Look, there’s a big paycheck here, so let’s work hard.’ And sometimes, like that, I’m like, ‘This is for me, I want to do this, and you don’t get anything from it except hard work.’ It’s a tough sell.
Culkin also spoke about his sustained hopes for a fifth season of “Succession,” despite creator Jesse Armstrong announcing the current fourth season as the final installment.
“I always thought about five seasons. It was just a number that I had in my head,” Culkin said. “This season is very, very different, which is exciting, but it makes me think, ‘Couldn’t there be five now that the show is a little different?’ I want to see what else happens. And there might very well be. Jesse knows that.
