Kieran Culkin hit new levels of fame when he scored the role of Roman Roy on “Succession,” but it’s a totally different situation from what his sibling, Macaulay Culkin, faced at a young age.
His older brother, who Kieran calls Mack, hit it big in the ’90s with “Home Alone,” followed by standout performances in “My Girl,” “Richie Rich,” and “The Good Son.”
But all Kieran could think was “poor fucking guy” when he saw his sibling’s celebrity rise to truly insane heights at the tender age of 10.
“He was little and having to try to accept that level of fame as reality,” Kieran told Esquire for the magazine’s digital April issue, revealing that “Even at that time, as a kid, I remember thinking, That sucks for him.”
Kieran has spoken in the past about how much his brother’s extreme fame spooked him, telling The Hollywood Reporter in 2021 that Macaulay “would get harassed on the street.”
“One time, a woman pulled off his hat and looked at him and said, ‘Yeah, it’s him! You’re not that cute.’ And then handed the hat back and walked away,” the “Igby Goes Down” actor said.
Seeing the circus surrounding his brother’s celebrity seemingly affected his relationship with fame. Kieran told THR that he turned down many offers after hitting it big with his role in 2002′s “Igby,” because he “was definitely not ready for it all.”
“I would not have been able to handle it, and I think I knew that,” he explained. “I would not have been able to handle whatever kind of success or attention came from that. So I quite literally ran away from it.”
Kieran, who just turned 40, now seems to have found his footing with fame and acting with his role on the HBO smash hit series.
Tune in on Sundays to watch the fourth and final season of “Succession.”