The captivating charm of Kieran Culkin

For 42-year-old Kieran Culkin, visiting the building in Manhattan's Yorkville neighborhood where he spent the first eight years of his life brings back unusual memories. "I remember my mom baking a cake and it would come out slanted because the whole apartment was on a slant," he said. "We used to put cars on one end of the kitchen and let go and see them roll!

"We lived in a tight space where it was just seven of us running around. It was like a sort of little wolf-pack mentality," he said.

His father "Kit," himself a former actor, and mother Patricia, a telephone operator, raised their seven kids in a four-room apartment. Kieran came fourth in the birth order. "Whenever the door would open to let the kids in, I used to stand aside and make sure, and I used to count to make sure all six of them got in before I got in," he said. "That's how I remember growing up, too, was I couldn't fall asleep until they all fell asleep. Like, I only existed because they did around me."

He got into acting because neighbors of theirs ran an off-off-Broadway theater on the Upper East Side: "And they knew that there was this family that had a bunch of kids. And whenever they needed a kid they were like, 'Uhm, you know, we might need a kid for this show.' And my parents were more or less like, 'Okay, yeah, what gender? What age? We got a whole bunch.'"

Soon enough, Macaulay, two years older than Kieran, became world famous as the star of "Home Alone." Kieran also had a small role in that movie, and a year later played Steve Martin's son in "Father of the Bride."

Kieran was cute and charismatic. But making it as a grownup actor meant learning how to act. He says when he was 18 and starring in the movie "Igby Goes Down," the director, Burr Steers, wanted to break him of his "kid acting habits" – to unlearn the tricks that had served him so well as a child.

"He really didn't like kid actors, and he was like, 'You still have a few bad habits,'" Culkin said. "He was like, 'You're doing something with your eyes.' He would say, 'Soulful eyes.' Or sometimes he would say, you know, 'That was Nickelodeon,' or something like that. 'You're doing kid stuff.'"

And when that didn't work, "He bought me a six-pack of beer and he goes, 'I want you to take this beer and do the scene in front of the mirror.' And I was like, 'I don't think I can do that … I'm gonna be too self-conscious.' He goes, 'That's what the beer's for.'"

Culkin got praise for "Igby." But he wasn't sure he wanted to keep acting. For one thing, he was worried about becoming famous. "Definitely. I feel like any rational person [who] got to experience fame second-hand, they would not pursue it. It's not a nice thing."

His brother, Macauley, has become an international movie star at a young age. "And I saw that and went, 'Oh, I got it. That's awful. Let's never do that!'"

Kieran worked on stage and only sporadically on film for years, before landing the part he's best known for: Roman Roy, the filterless, fast-talking middle child scheming to inherit a media empire in "Succession."

Even as a member of the fictional Roy family, though, Culkin's real family played a role. Back in 2008, his older sister, Dakota Culkin, was struck and killed by an automobile. He said, "After a couple seasons on 'Succession,' I realized there was some stuff that Roman did that I was like, 'Oh, that's my sister. That was her sense of humor.' She could find exactly what the right thing to make fun of you was that would get to you, but be really funny and make the room laugh. That was her."

Sixteen years later, the loss of his sister is still devastating. "I only knew who I was because of who my siblings are," Kieran said. "So, to lose one was losing a big piece of myself. Losing one of my favorite people in the world, it doesn't get easier. But you get used to it."

Culkin's newest project is also about family. In the movie "A Real Pain," he and Jesse Eisenberg (who wrote and directed) play cousins on a trip to Poland to see where their late beloved grandmother was raised – and the concentration camp she survived.

Culkin's character, Benji, is a charming but rudderless man-child … a contrast to Eisenberg's straitlaced family man.

Asked why he connected with the role, Culkin replied, "I don't really know what it was with me, but I went, I instantly knew who this guy was. I understood the dynamic, and I really wanted to play."

Describing the character, Culkin has said, "I'm one quick little misstep away from being that person."

"That's good! I said that? Good!" he laughed. "I feel like I easily could've gone down that path. There was something in that that I recognized as myself, but I'm not that guy at all. But I think I'm worried that I easily could've become that guy, [had I not] married, kids, or figured out how to, you know, get my s*** together."

Indeed, Culkin is not "that guy." He's been married to his wife Jazz for 11 years. The couple has two children.

Asked what he likes about being a dad, Culkin said, "Oh, man, everything. Everything except dinnertime. Dinnertime's a terror. I've seen some kids sit and eat dinner, it's great. My kids sit and eat breakfast, they'll eat lunch, but dinner is just throwing things around the house, and it's very stressful."

Kieran Culkin may be at the top of his game, but he says he's still figuring it out.

"There's different versions of success. I think for many years success, for me, was, like, working on projects I really like [that] nobody really sees. Fly under the radar, but keep getting to do what I do. And now I'm like, 'Well, now I gotta figure out how to do the jobs I want but also make money.' It's really hard to find the way to do that!"

One word: Marvel. 

To watch a trailer for "A Real Pain," click on the video player below:

For more info:

• "A Real Pain" (Searchlight Pictures) is now playing in theaters

      
Story produced by Julie Kracov. Editor: Lauren Barnello.

      
See also:

• "Succession" star Jeremy Strong on his road to success ("Sunday Morning")
• "Succession" composer Nicholas Britell: Knowing the score ("Sunday Morning")
• James Cromwell, never tiring of acting and activism ("Sunday Morning")