Kieran Culkin portrays an on-camera sibling relationship in HBO’s “Succession,” but in a new interview he is opening up about his real-life siblings, including “Home Alone” star Macaulay Culkin.
In an interview with Esquire published Monday, Kieran Culkin discussed his home life growing up with six siblings and how the family unit handled fame.
With his older brother Macaulay Culkin taking off as a household name in the ’90s, the younger Culkin recalled feeling empathy for his brother as he watched him elevate into the limelight.
“He was little and having to try to accept that level of fame as reality,” Kieran Culkin said. “Even at that time, as a kid, I remember thinking, ‘That sucks for him.'”
Kieran Culkin said that his brother’s fame also had an effect on the entire family, especially as their parents’ 1995 divorce was highly publicized. Kieran Culkin wrote letters to the court as a teenager asking that press not be allowed inside the proceedings.
The “Succession” actor told the magazine that these private moments, which were made public, affect him today as he refuses to talk to certain outlets including Access Hollywood and The New York Post.
“The newspaper doesn’t always give you the facts,” he said. “Let me rephrase that. The New York Post doesn’t always give you the … facts.”
“I had this unhealthy relationship with what I did for a living. I really wanted to do it, but I didn’t want to be successful at it,” he said.
In an interview with NPR in 2021, Kieran Culkin said fame is “not a very nice thing” due to the lack of anonymity.
“I have friends that are very famous. They can’t walk down the street without several people stopping them,” he said during the radio interview
. “Some people probably enjoy it, and they probably have been able to figure out life with it. But I think for the most part, it comes to people and they go, ‘Oh, I’ve made a horrible mistake,’ and now they have to manage it.”
