Entertainment
Kieran Culkin's take on Logan Roy's parenting? 'He could have raised them better'
Most child actors don’t make the transition to adulthood on the big screen. Sure, there are exceptions, but for every Jodie Foster there are a dozen Shirley Temples. At age 10, Macaulay Culkin was one of the biggest stars of the 1990s. His brother Kieran, younger by two years, wasn’t. He appeared with him in both “Home Alone” movies and established his own career in supporting parts as the years passed.
In 2017, he was handed a script called “Succession.” The part was for Roman Roy, youngest in the Roy clan led by media mogul Logan Roy (Brian Cox). Loosely based on the real-life Murdoch family of Fox News, the show quickly became a breakout hit, catapulting Culkin to center stage playing not a kid, not a ‘tween, but a man, albeit one with no spine. At first glance, he knew the writing was strong but didn’t see an audience for it, including himself.
“As we were shooting, I was like, ‘I might not watch it, this isn’t for me.’ And then something clicked,” Culkin tells The Envelope. “The first few episodes, they’re good, there’s quality there, but I just don’t care about the characters. And somehow after a few episodes, I started to care.”
If older brother Kendall (Jeremy Strong) is the Roy Family’s Fredo, Roman is Kendall’s Fredo. Overwhelmed with insecurity and a profound lack of impulse control, he is the show’s cringe king, initiating an affair with much older in-house legal advisor Gerri Kellman (J. Smith-Cameron), sending her crotch shots — accidentally sending one to his father.
Kieran Culkin often played the cringe king as Roman Roy in “Succession,” especially in his scenes with J. Smith-Cameron as Gerri.
(Peter Kramer / HBO)
As the series winds down, Roman, along with Kendall and sister Shiv (Sarah Snook), vies for control of the family company, Waystar Royco, even though in his heart he knows that he, like his siblings, is unfit to lead. The point is amplified by Logan, who tells them, “You aren’t serious people.”
“He could have raised them better, he could have taught them a bit better,” Culkin says of the fractious family dynamic. “In various ways, he taught them that emotions were weak, and they all handled them in very different ways. And I think that Roman was always just told to bury it. You can acknowledge that you love someone, just don’t show them love or give them love.”
Emotional impediments take center stage halfway through the fourth and final season when Logan dies unexpectedly. (No cries of “spoiler!” here, the show is called “Succession” after all). “Roman convinced himself that he had pre-grieved,” Culkin says. “He hasn’t been given a moment to actually accept what happened and how he feels and who he is. I don’t feel like he really knows himself, outside of being his father’s son.”
Although he worked steadily as a child actor, Culkin credits “Igby Goes Down” director Burr Steers for teaching him about process when he was just 20. “The next big one for me was doing ‘This Is Our Youth,’ with Kenny Lonergan,” he says of the 2014 Broadway production co-starring Michael Cera. “I had more of an understanding of language and how to play with it. On stage, you’re not playing with the dialogue. Without changing a single syllable there’s room to play.”
Up until “Succession,” Culkin would prepare by getting off book and absorbing the full arc of his character. But with the hit series, they got scripts and changes so late that he was seldom sure of his lines. “The nature of the writing was very alive but very last-minute. So, I had to completely change my process,” he notes.
Much has been made of Strong’s Method acting, but Culkin found himself adjusting to all of his co-stars, including Matthew Macfadyen and Nicholas Braun. “Brian worked differently than anyone else. If we did a group scene, we knew the lines but were encouraged to talk over each other and try it a different way, or stay loose with blocking. That would throw Brian. So, we’d often have to stay pretty tight to the script. Then, if I have a scene where it’s just me and Sarah or me, Sarah, Matthew and Nick, we can play a lot more. With Jeremy, there were times to play, too. It wasn’t like we had to stick to a certain way, but we did have to adjust to personal preference. And now I have to go into my next job knowing that they’re probably not going to let me do what I did on ‘Succession.’”
Kieran Culkin stars with Jesse Eisenberg in the Sundance hit “A Real Pain.”
(Sundance Institute)
The next job was “A Real Pain,” starring and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, which recently premiered at Sundance to stellar reviews. In it, Culkin and Eisenberg play cousins who travel to Poland to honor their grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, following her death. Early press had noted on-set differences between Culkin and Eisenberg.
“He had a very set way that he wanted to direct this film, and I was like, ‘I don’t even get to pick my own blocking.’ That feels weird. It’s his film, not mine. I don’t want to step on his toes. But if I’m hired to do a job, I feel like, to a reasonable degree, I should be able to do it how I want. So, I think for a day or two he was a little bit sensitive about this process. And after a few days, we started to adapt a little.”
His recent though long-delayed Emmy for lead actor in a drama series (besting co-stars Strong and Cox) joins his Golden Globe and Critics Choice Awards, well-deserved accolades, though some question whether Roman is a lead role.
“I wanted to switch categories [to lead], and I got a lot of pushback on that,” Culkin says, noting HBO was supportive but others told him he’d be hurting his odds that way. “If switching to the other category meant accepting that I would not be receiving any awards, I was fine with that. Snook and I said that we should switch two seasons earlier. She and I switched this year.”
During his acceptance speech, Culkin gave a shout-out to his wife, holding her to a promise that if he won, they would start planning for more children. Toward the end of our interview, he receives a photo of his kids playing in the snow in Central Park and is reminded of his own childhood with his six brothers and sisters, raised in a single room in Manhattan’s Yorktown neighborhood by their mom (whom he thanked in his acceptance speech). “I really wish I was there for it,” he says, looking at the photo. “Those moments really matter.”
The sixth outing in the director’s chair for filmmaker Kirk Jones, I Swear dramatizes the real-life story of touretter John Davidson (played by Robert Aramayo). Tourette’s Syndrome, for those unfamiliar with the condition, is a nervous system disorder that causes various tics, the most prolific being erratic and explicit language. However, as I Swear expertly showcases, the syndrome is far more than ill-timed outbursts of curse words. Davidson’s story is one of societal frustration, finding your people (both with and without the condition), and using your voice to help others rise. The subject and subject matter are handled with absolute care and understanding under Kirk’s measured vision and Robert Aramayo’s BAFTA-winning performance.
The film kicks off with the greatest exclamation to democracy ever uttered (*%#! the Queen!), as a nervous John Davidson prepares himself before entering an awards ceremony hosted by Britain’s royal family. Right away, the film tells us what it is: a triumph over adversity that blends humor and human drama with education. It’s an important setup, as the film flashes back to Davidson’s 1980s youth, where we see his time as a star soccer recruit flatline as his condition takes hold. Davidson’s life spirals from there. Some aspects, like school bullying and accidental run-ins with authority figures, are expected but important to empathizing with young Davidson’s (young version, played with heart by Scott Ellis Watson) new everyday life. The more tragic, a complete meltdown of his family system, is unsettling if quick. His father (Steven Cree) is never given enough screen time to explore his alcohol coping tendencies. However, his mother Heather’s descent into easy fixes and blaming is crushing and convincing. Harry Potter series actress Shirley Henderson (Moaning Myrtle) gives a layered performance as Heather. Someone who loves her son, but also feels cursed by him as the entire family exits the picture. It’s bitter, she’s tired, and fills each conversation with ‘only medication and your mother can save you’ energy.
From there, the viewer and Davidson find refuge in a host of characters. Maxine Peake plays Dottie, the mother of a childhood friend and a retired mental health nurse. Screen vet Peter Mullan plays maintenance man Tommy Trotter. Together, they help Davidson build a life and an understanding of himself that carries the film forward into its second half. After that, the film is primarily a 3-actor show as director Kirk fills the screen with these tour-de-force performances. Peake and Mullan are great vessels to get the film’s main message across: patience, love, and a shared responsibility between the diagnosed and those who understand their struggle can help change the path for people quickly left behind by a normative world. Together, they are the soul of the movie, with the filmmakers clearly hoping the audience will follow their lead after they exit the theater (in my case, the beautiful Oriental Theater for the Milwaukee Film Festival). Both performances are perfectly warm and reflective and shouldn’t be left out in discussions of I Swear.
I say this because the movie is anchored by The Rings of Power actor Robert Aramayo, who leaves Elrond’s elf ears behind to bring an acute naturalism to his performance of main character John Davidson. Aramayo’s physicality and timing of the fitful Tourettes Syndrome never feel out of place or overplayed. In fact, the movie as a whole does an amazing job of never veering into sentimentality. While many moviegoers left with tissues dabbing their eyes, the filmmaking never felt like it was forcing that reaction out of audiences. It straddles the line between feel-good and reality with every story beat and lands squarely on the side of letting the real inform our feelings. Anyone with an ounce of empathy will grasp the film’s message and hopefully take it with them into life.
I Swear continues at the Milwaukee Film Festival on Tuesday, April 21st, and releases nationwide April 24th, 2026, courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
Several private equity firms and Hollywood power players, including United Talent Agency and longtime agent Patrick Whitesell, have expressed interest in buying parts of Casey Wasserman’s music and sports management firm after it abruptly went up for sale.
Wasserman became ensnared in controversy earlier this year after his salacious decades-old emails to Ghislaine Maxwell, an accomplice of child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, were released as part of the U.S. Justice Department’s trove of Epstein files.
The agency auction is in the early stages, according to three people close to the process but not authorized to comment.
Earlier this week, several interested parties submitted proposals to meet a preliminary deadline in the auction, two of the sources said.
The company, which changed its name to the Team last month, is expected to be valued at around $3 billion.
Providence Equity Partners holds the majority stake. The private equity firm has discussed selling the entire company or carving off Wasserman’s minority interest. Providence also has considered selling the bulk of the firm and staying on as a minority investor, one of the sources said. Another scenario could involve separating, then selling the individual business units that make up the Team.
Wasserman and Providence’s company boasts an enviable roster of music artists, including Kendrick Lamar, Coldplay and Ed Sheeran. Its sports marketing practice is viewed as particularly lucrative and has potential to grow in value as big dollars flow into sports that draw large crowds.
Wasserman, who declined to comment, has a veto right over any sale of the company that he has spent a quarter of a century building.
UTA, which also declined to comment, is among the most aggressive suitors, the sources said. The Team’s sports marketing and music representation divisions would dramatically boost the Beverly Hills agency’s profile and client roster.
Whitesell, former executive chairman of Endeavor, separately has been motivated to make investments in sports, media and entertainment since last year when he left the talent agency that he and Ari Emanuel built. Whitesell launched a new firm with seed money from private equity firm Silver Lake, and last spring he started WIN Sports Group to represent professional football players.
Whitesell wasn’t immediately available for comment.
European investment firm Permira also has expressed interest, according to a knowledgeable source. Permira declined to comment.
The New York Times first reported that Permira, UTA and Whitesell had expressed interest.
The sales process is expected to stretch into summer, the knowledgeable people said. The auction could become complicated particularly if Providence decides to unwind the business.
For example, UTA could not buy the entire company because of the Brillstein television unit. The agency is bound by an agreement with the Writers Guild of America that prevents it from owning television production.
Investment bank Moelis & Company is managing the sale. A representative of the firm declined comment.
Wasserman also is the chairman of LA28, the nonprofit group that will be staging the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in two years.
Following revelations of Wasserman’s 2003 emails with Maxwell, several musicians and athletes — led by pop artist Chappell Roan and soccer star Abby Wambach — said that, to stay true to their values, they would leave the agency then known as Wasserman.
Wasserman apologized to his staff for “past personal mistakes” and said he would sell the agency.
He had limited dealings with Epstein, flying on the financier’s jet along with former President Clinton for a September 2002 humanitarian trip through Africa.
Wasserman, a prolific Clinton fundraiser whose legendary grandfather, Hollywood titan Lew Wasserman, helped the Democrat win the 1992 presidential election, was joined on Epstein’s jet by his then-wife, Laura, actor Kevin Spacey, Epstein, Maxwell — who was convicted of sexual abuse in 2021 — and others, including security agents.
The LA28 board’s executive committee unanimously voted to keep Wasserman as chairman, citing his “strong leadership” of the Games.
Pizza Movie (2026) Director: Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney, Star: Gaten Matarazzo and Sean Giambrone
Somehow, I got through an hour of this movie. I was seconds away from turning off in the first fifteen minutes because of the juvenile humor. Pizza Movie is too silly, repetitive, and the characters are annoying. Stranger Things Gaten Matarazzo and Sean Giambrone star as college friends, Jack and Montgomery. College angles are rarely seen in films right now, and that’s the one saving grace of the film. Similar to high school, people are also trying to fit in. The story and visuals were too corny. You can only watch someone’s head exploding for so long without letting yours.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026) Director: Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, Stars: Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy
I never saw the first Super Mario Brothers Movie when it was out, but I heard it got positive reviews. My brother always loved playing Super Mario video games as a kid, and I’d watch him. I tagged along with my friends to see Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and it’s a cute and fun film. I like it when movies explore the video game world. The animation creates unique worlds and characters. The characters are split into their own storylines, and for me, I felt like it worked. It adds more action, especially for kids who are seeing the films.
Emily in Paris Season 5 (2025) Creator: Darren Star, Stars: Lily Collins and Ashley Park
After a bright spot in season 4, I thought season 5 of Emily in Paris would continue its growth in the story and its protagonist, but no, it’s all drained out in the usual Emily (Lily Collins) mishaps. Ashley Park (Mindy) has become too good for this show. Emily and Mindy waste several opportunities because of their love lives. The whole relationship angle is ruining it. I don’t understand why Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) is still in the show. I thought writers learned their lesson, but by the last episode, they’re continuing to bring the past into an apparent season 6.
Sarah’s Oil (2025) Director: Cyrus Nowrasteh, Stars: Naya Desir-Johnson and Zachary Levi
There’s always history lurking right beneath our noses. Sarah’s Oil (2025) tells the true story of Sarah Rector, an Oklahoma-born African American girl who became the first black female millionaire in the U.S. Naya Desir-Johnson is fierce and driven as Sarah. Zachary Levi is also along for the ride as Bert, a man who helps Sarah. Kate (Bridget Regan) was another favorite character as an intelligent woman. Cyrus Nowrasteh was drawn to the subject for its story and its themes. Nowrasteh’s direction is compelling as he unearths a hidden story from history. The film is streaming on Amazon Prime.
Jack Goes Boating (2014) Director and Star: Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Ryan
Jack Goes Boating (2014) didn’t quite work for me, largely because of its slow pace and uneven storytelling. The film stars the late Seymour Hoffman as Jack, who also directed the film. This was Hoffman’s first and only time in the directing chair. Amy Ryan also stars in the film, giving a solid performance. This was also based on a play that Hoffman starred in. Jack wants to participate in a swim championship. That’s hardly what the film is about, tracking other characters’ stories. While the film aims for quiet intimacy, it ultimately drags, making it an underwhelming viewing experience.
You Kill Me (2016), Director: John Dahl, Stars: Ben Kingsley, Tea Leoni, Luke Wilson
Meet You Kill Me (2016), yet another film that I found in the museum of underrated gems. The concept revolves around Frank (Ben Kingsley), a hitman, who is sent to an A.A. meeting to get his mind focused again. A different story happens, where Frank falls in love with Laurel (Tea Leoni). Leoni is one of my favorite actresses. It also stars the funny Luke Wilson. I liked the trio’s dynamics. You Kill Me is a mental health movie. It’s okay to make changes if you’re not happy. I recommended that you keep an eye out for this movie.
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