Why Kieran Culkin Almost Quit A Real Pain Before Oscars Win

For Kieran Culkin, timing was a real pain.

After winning Best Supporting Actor at the 2025 Oscars March 2, he shared insight into his initial decision to quit A Real Pain ahead of production.

“It wasn’t for any creative reason,” Kieran—who shares kids Kinsey, 5, and Wilder, 3, with wife Jazz Charton—explained to reporters in the press room after leaving the stage at the Dolby Theater. “It was just the way the schedule changed right before we started, it was taking me away from my kids for almost a month.” 

He continued, “I was like, ‘Well, I don’t want to do that.’ Then I got talked into it, which, obviously, I’m very glad that I was.” 

The 42-year-old revealed that playing the charismatically brash Benji Kaplan in the film—which was shot in Warsaw, Poland—was “the first time I ever read something and went, ‘I fully understand this guy.'”

“It felt like I knew who this guy was, but I couldn’t identify it,” he reflected. “I didn’t want to analyze it because right away upon reading it, I went, ‘I know who this guy is.’ I’m just gonna leave it and just do it.”