Launching what seems likely to become an auspicious awards season for him, Kieran Culkin won the Golden Globe for best supporting actor in a feature film, for his performance in “A Real Pain” as Benji, a wayward, charismatic Jewish man on a Holocaust tour in Poland with his strait-laced cousin (Jesse Eisenberg, who wrote and directed the film).
Culkin started by shouting out a fellow actor who started young: Mario Lopez. “My wife and I did a shot of tequila with Mario Lopez,” he said with a smile. “Definitely feeling that! Whole speech is gone!”
This is the second consecutive Globe win for Culkin, who took home the statue last year for best actor in a TV drama for the final season of “Succession,” winning over his cast-mate Jeremy Strong — who was also nominated for supporting actor in a feature film this year for his performance in “The Apprentice.” Culkin was previously nominated three times in the TV supporting actor category for the HBO series, and for best actor in a musical or comedy for the 2002 film “Igby Goes Down.”
The actor acknowledged that nomination in his speech. “The first ever acknowledgement I got as an actor was Golden Globe nomination,” he said. “I was basically a kid, and so that meant a lot. Now it’s like the best date night that my wife and I ever have.”
Culkin’s performance in “A Real Pain” — his first film role since 2021’s “No Sudden Move” and 2017’s “Infinity Baby” — has propelled the 42-year-old actor to the forefront of this year’s Oscar race, with nominations from the Independent Spirit Awards, Gotham Awards and Critics’ Choice Awards. He’s already won supporting actor from the National Board of Review, the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (shared with fellow Globes nominee Yura Borisov, for “Anora”), among several other critics groups awards.
He praised Eisenberg as “a fantastic director and scene partner” and told everyone in the Beverly Hilton ballroom to “leap” at the chance to work with him.”
Along with Borisov and Strong, the other Globe nominees this year in the supporting actor category were Edward Norton for “A Complete Unknown,” Guy Pearce for “The Brutalist” and Denzel Washington for “Gladiator II.”
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