Kieran Culkin Talks HBO’s ‘Succession’ And The Therapeutic Benefits Of Playing Sociopaths [Interview]

Roman seems to suffer from intimacy and inferiority issues in his life. And yet, he’s the most outspoken and unpredictable kid in the family. Do you think these qualities he carries are a result of his insecurities, or does he just exude a careless confidence?
Certainly. I didn’t see him as necessarily [having] intimacy issues, but I actually do, now that you say it. That’s quite possible. I don’t usually think too deeply for stuff like that. I’ll only think as deeply as I feel like he would have. Like most people that are putting out that sort of careless, “I don’t give a shit,” thing, it most certainly comes from a place of insecurity. But he’s aware of it to a certain extent.

When we started shooting the pilot, I sort of made one choice with him or one thing that made sense to me which was that, “Okay. Roman is the kind of guy who makes sure he’s comfortable in any room he walks into,” which comes from him walking in, feeling vulnerable, and then, he has this safety built into him where it’s like, “Oh, I feel insecure. I’m gonna do something weird. I’m gonna insult somebody to make them feel bad so that I feel better,” because that probably comes from an insecure place. But that’s why he does that thing in his office, too. It’s, “Oh, I feel off. I need to change it or just fix it.”

He’s insecure because he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s COO of the company. There’s so many more people that work beneath him that he’s in charge of that are, I’m sure, smarter than him – and he’s aware of that – and probably suited for the job.

You kind of make a joke on the show that Roman has borderline personality disorder. What exactly do you think he suffers from? Would you consider him the biggest black sheep in the family?
Borderline personality disorder is pretty right. he’s one of those rare, self-aware sociopaths. he would otherwise be considered a black sheep in the family if it weren’t for Connor (Alan Ruck) who, is I would say, the clear black sheep of the family, not just because of his erratic behavior or the fact that he’s quite a bit older than us and comes from a different mother. We’ve sort of made him an outsider just because he’s [laughter] weird, but he’s also really trying his best to be in touch with his emotions, which seems to be something that the rest of the family doesn’t like to do. One turns to drugs. The other just becomes sort of an asshole. Actually, one person that is a little more on top of it as a pretty whole person is Shiv (Sarah Snook). But she has her hang-ups and issues, as well.

You have “I don’t give a fuck” qualities in “Igby Goes Down,” “Infinity Baby” and a few others. How similar are you to Roman? How have you developed such an affinity for playing quirky sociopaths? [Laughter] I don’t really know, though. I’m not sure. Were you the guy who saw “Infinity Baby?”

I was the one guy, yeah.
Because that was another one where I was like, “Oo, this guy is awful,” I was like, “I must play.” And it wasn’t until we just started to do it that I was like, “Oh, I get it. Total sociopath.” And that’s just appealing to me because I know people like that in my life and sometimes it’s incredibly frustrating. I used to have zero tolerance for that kind of behavior. And now, I’m kind of like, “Oh, I get it. You’re not great, but it’s not really your fault [laughter].” It’s therapeutic, in a way.

What’s it like working with Brian Cox?
I gotta say something about Brian too. He is just effort-effortlessly fantastic. He shows up prepared and he simply does his job, and does it so well. Whereas, some of us have just struggled from time to time. But he’s just, like, “No, no, no. I got it. It’s this.” And it’s wonderful to be around, to just simply be in a room because we already know our lines, we’re already in our costumes, we’ve gotten all the bullshit out of the way. So, now, it’s just a matter of playing the scene.

You’ve been acting steadily for almost three decades now and you started acting with your brother in “Home Alone.” What are some of the things that you may have learned about the industry or the craft of acting having grown up with a family of actors?
In terms of acting, that part of my job I can’t really take anything from what I did as a kid and apply it to what I do now because it’s just not the same thing. Not for me, anyway. And I also think that I just wasn’t very good as a kid. But the standards for a good kid actor are sometimes kind of low. Basically, all you really have to do is show up to work on time, know how to hit your mark, and know all your lines.

I had a director, Burr Steers, when I was 18. It’s funny because it was the first job [“Igby Goes Down“] I did actually, technically, as an adult. And it was the first time I feel like I was really working as an adult. And he basically said before we started shooting, “I want you to just remove everything that you ever thought you learned as a kid actor and just don’t do any of that stuff.” Basically saying, “Approach this as your first job.” And I was like, “I’m on board.” And I learned so much from that guy and from working on that project, throwing away everything that I thought I knew because, apparently, I didn’t know shit [laughter].

You’ve acted in both visual mediums now. Do you prefer film or TV?
Well, TV always terrified me because the idea of not having an idea of where it’s going. And when I do a movie, I’ve shot it. It’s done. And now, I actually just don’t care what the response is because I’ve already done it. So, this is a very different kind of feeling because we did it already, but because we’re gonna do it again [in other seasons]. The way we shot it and did it, it was like doing a six-month shoot, but it felt like we shot a six-month-long film.

When [“Succession” season one was ending], I was like, “Oh, man. I’m actually having a great time playing this guy. I’m gonna miss it when this is over.” And then, when we did finish, I was like, “Oh, wait. That’s right. There’s a possibility we may do this again.” So, it getting picked up actually made me very excited because I get to go and be this guy again, unless they kill me off in the first episode or something like that [laughter].

Do you have any details of season two of “Succession”?
Well, not only would I probably not be able to share it, I don’t even have the vaguest idea of where the show is going. I’ve heard a rumor or two, [but] I have no idea. They’re in the writers’ room now. I have no idea what they’re coming up with. I’m not even sure how many episodes we’re doing for this year. I just assumed we were gonna do another 10, but I actually don’t even know that now. I have some ideas of my own. And everybody else just sort of has some sort of guesses as to where we think it’s gonna go. But we don’t know.

“Succession” currently airs on HBO every Sunday at 10 pm.