Kieran Culkin is officially an Academy Award winner after earning Best Actor in a Supporting Role at the 2025 Oscars for his performance in A Real Pain. He played the role of Benjamin “Benji” Kaplan in the film directed by “genius” Jesse Eisenberg.
Robert Downey Jr., who won the award last year for his role in Oppenheimer, handed out the the accolade to Culkin, 42, during the Sunday, March 2, awards show at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
“I have no idea how I got here, I’ve just been acting my whole life. It’s just been part of what I do. I felt like this was never my trajectory, but however I got here, I know that Emily Gerson Saines, my manager of 30 years, it’s because of you, thank you for being there, I lean on you for everything, so, please don’t go anywhere. I’d be completely lost without you, I love you,” he said. “I should thank my mom and Steve for trying to raise me. You’re really good people. You gave it your best shot. I love you, mom.”
In typical Culkin fashion, he couldn’t help but crack a joke at wife Jazz Charton‘s expense — and it looks like there might be more kids on the way for the couple.
“Please don’t play the music, because I want to tell a really quick story about Jazz. A year ago, I said that I want a third kid — because she said if I won the [Emmy] award [for Succession], she would give me the kid. Turns out she said that because she didn’t think I was going to win,” Culkin recalled during his acceptance speech on Sunday. “People came up to me and were like, you know, really annoying her, it got to her. But anyway — after the show we’re walking through a parking lot, she’s holding the Emmy, she goes, ‘Oh, god, I did say that. I guess I owe you a third kid.’ I turned to her, I said, ‘Really, I want four. And she turned to me, I swear to god this happened, she said, ‘I will give you four when you win an Oscar.’ I held my hand out, she shook it and I have not brought it up once until just now.”
Culkin concluded, “You remember that, honey? Then I just have to say to you, Jazz, love of my life, ye of little faith, No pressure. I love you. I’m really sorry I did this again. And let’s get cracking on those kids, what do you say? I love you.”
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Anora’s Yura Borisov, A Complete Unknown’s Edward Norton, The Brutalist’s Guy Pearce and The Apprentice’s Jeremy Strong completed the list of nominees in the Best Actor in a Supporting Role category.
Culkin also called out his former Succession costar Strong’s performance in The Apprentice.
“Jeremy, you are amazing in The Apprentice. I love your work. It’s f—ing … f—, I cursed. I didn’t mean to. There we go, I cursed. I didn’t mean to,” Culkin said. “I’m not supposed to single anyone out, it’s favoritism. Anyway, but you were great.”
For Borisov, 32, Culkin, 42, Pearce, 57, and Strong, 46, this year marked their first-ever Academy Award nods. As for Norton, 55, he was previously nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Primal Fear in 1997 and Birdman in 2015 as well as for Best Actor in a Leading Role for American History X in 1999.
Leading up to the Oscars, Culkin swept the 2025 awards season, winning Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture at the Golden Globe Awards in January and Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Best Supporting Actor at the Critics Choice Awards and Supporting Actor at the British Academy Film Awards in February.
Culkin missed the Critics Choice Awards and the British Academy Film Awards, with presenter Lupita Nyong’o explaining at the former that the actor was rehearsing for his upcoming role in the Broadway revival of Glengarry Glen Ross. A Real Pain director Jesse Eisenberg, meanwhile, revealed at the latter that Culkin was dealing with a family illness.
At the awards shows he was able to attend, Culkin kept his acceptance speeches lighthearted yet heartfelt, acknowledging that the shot of tequila he took with Mario Lopez ahead of the Golden Globes caused him to forget his prepared remarks and joking about the heaviness of the SAG Awards statue.
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When the Oscar nominations were announced in January, Succession fans pointed out that Culkin and Strong — who played brothers Roman and Kendall Roy on the HBO series from 2018 to 2023 — would once again be competing against one another as their characters did on the show. While the former costars refrained from weighing in on the discussion, their respective reactions to their Academy Award nods made headlines.
Strong, for his part, released a lengthy statement, noting that the nomination was “without overstatement, a realization of a lifelong dream.”
“I have devoted my life to the attempt to do genuine work that would be worthy of this honor,” he added. “I am filled with amazement and flooded with emotion and with deep gratitude to my peers in the Academy.”
Meanwhile, Culkin’s wife shared an Instagram Story photo of the actor celebrating his nod with a bottle of champagne in Paris, writing, “Let’s f—ing gooooooo.”
