Kieran Culkin, Adrien Brody VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images; Monica Schipper/FilmMagic
Kieran Culkin is no stranger to unfiltered comments at awards shows — and his acceptance speech at the 2025 SAG Awards is no exception.
“Thank you SAG-AFTRA for this incredibly heavy award,” Culkin, 42, said upon accepting his trophy for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in A Real Pain at the Sunday, February 23, awards show. “I don’t think there’s any way anyone can hold this for 45 seconds. Which is the allotted time, Adrien Brody, 45 seconds.”
After Culkin’s jab at The Brutalist actor, who is nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, he immediately clarified it was said in jest and there are no hard feelings between the two men.
“There was no reason to take that shot,” Culkin said. “I love you, it’s a joke. You take your time. Lord knows I will because I didn’t think of anything.”
Bruce Glikas/Getty Images Kieran Culkin was noticeably absent from the 2025 British Academy Film Awards. Culkin, 42 — who was nominated for Supporting Actor for his role in A Real Pain — was not present at the Sunday, February 16, awards show to receive the accolade. Culkin’s A Real Pain costar Jesse Eisenberg accepted the […]
The camera then panned to Brody, 51, who was seen laughing at Culkin’s comment.
Despite calling out the length of his fellow actor’s awards show speeches, Culkin went on to go over his own allotted time.
“It is funny that the heaviest of all awards is the one that’s given by actors. It’s, like, you know, ‘Us, what we do means so much,’” he joked as he carried on, sporadically counting down how much time he had left throughout his speech. “Anyway, sorry moving on. I see the clock ticking. Moving on.”
Culkin continued: “Believe it or not, this actually means a lot to me. It does. It’s hard to be sincere after that. Or in general. But yeah, thanks — it actually is a huge honor. Thirteen, 12, 11. I haven’t said anything.”
The Succession alum went on to thank Jesse Eisenberg, his costar and the writer and director of A Real Pain, whom Culkin claims had never seen any of his work prior to casting him in the film.
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Kieran Culkin’s untraditional way of preparing for dialogue in his roles managed to blow away his A Real Pain costar Jesse Eisenberg. “Kieran wouldn’t learn the lines until the morning we were shooting — and you saw the movie — you saw he has, like, monologue after monologue,” Eisenberg, 41, said during a Thursday, December […]
“I do want to talk about one actor. Five seconds. Jesse Eisenberg, who’s a great actor, great director, brilliant scene partner,” Culkin said. “For those of you who don’t know, he cast me in this movie without auditioning me, or seeing my work in anything ever … He cast me because his sister told him to and he puts a lot of faith in her which is really sweet but dumb. So yes thank you Jesse for putting me in this movie but I want to take a moment to thank your sister Hallie. Thank you Hallie for thinking of me and putting my name in your stupid brother’s ear.”
He wrapped up his speech by rapidly expressing gratitude for those in his life, including his team, his wife, Jazz Charton, and his mom, who was in attendance at the award show.
Both Culkin and Brody have had immensely successful awards seasons thus far, with both actors racking up trophies at the BAFTA Awards, Golden Globe Awards and Critics’ Choice Awards. They are also both nominated for Academy Awards for their respective performances.