Kieran Culkin wins the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor 2025 for ‘A Real Pain’
He’s been working since he was eight, but success eluded him until ‘Succession’ changed his life. Now, he has Hollywood at his feet.
It was an open secret (he’d been sweeping all the awards), and he approached it with his usual humor, but one of the most emotional moments of these 2025 Oscars was seeing Kieran Culkin ascend to collect his statuette. Because fate has its quirks. When people think of ‘Home Alone,’ most talk exclusively about Macaulay Culkin. Hardly anyone remembers his brother, even though he was also in the film. Kieran Culkin began his career overshadowed, playing second fiddle. However, today, while Macaulay has distanced himself from anything related to Hollywood, Kieran stands here, raising his first Oscar.
Hollywood hasn’t made it easy for Kieran Culkin. He’s been in our lives since before he might have preferred, starting at age eight alongside his brother in the ‘Home Alone’ series. Although he hasn’t stopped working since, significant success remained elusive. His resume includes just one Golden Globe nomination for ‘Igby Goes Down’ (back in 2002) and very few notable films (‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,’ from 2010, being one).
But then came ‘Succession,’ the series that changed his life, earning him a Golden Globe in the lead category after three supporting nominations. In the film that earned him the Oscar, ‘A Real Pain’ (you can find MeriStation’s review here), traces of that same Roman Roy character are evident, but there’s also something much more personal. The film addresses depression and life’s bitterness, subjects Culkin knows all too well. He not only experienced them firsthand but also witnessed them closely in his brother. Perhaps that’s why his performance in the film feels so genuine and indisputable, rescuing scenes with subtlety and subtext.
Kieran Culkin’s Oscar is a testament to perseverance, to those who never give up, and especially to Hollywood’s broken toys left along the way.
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