Jesse Eisenberg was humbled by co-star Kieran Culkin on the set of their new movie, “A Real Pain.”
Eisenberg, who wrote and directed the movie, tells Page Six he felt like a “hack” and embarrassed himself in front of the “Succession” star on their first day of filming.
He explains that during Culkin’s time on the Emmy-winning HBO series, they filmed him documentary-style as he walked around the room instead of having the actors stand on a set mark for filming.
“The Social Network” star, 43, says that he asked Culkin, 42, to stand on a mark only to have the Emmy winner question him.
“He said, ‘Why would I stand over there? ‘” Eisenberg recalls. “I said, ‘We have this gorgeous shot, these statues behind you and it’s beautiful’ and he just wouldn’t stand on this mark.”
Instead, Culkin suggested that the camera follow him around, and Eisenberg says the alternative “was so funny, it was so alive.”
“And I realized, OK, the way we’re going to be filming Kieran is going to be, you know, with the camera on our cameraman’s shoulder and not getting the kind of gorgeous vistas that I had been planning for months.”
Eisenberg confesses that his first thought on the interaction left him feeling like a “hack.”
“I felt immediately embarrassed,” he adds, noting modestly that “I always just kind of try to consider the behavior that I can change, which is my own and I was thinking, yeah, I’m probably in the wrong here. Let’s make the movie that is going to make Kieran excel the most.”
It appears that Eisenberg achieved his goal as the film has opened to rave reviews and Culkin is already being mentioned for an Oscar nomination.
The duo plays cousins who tour Poland to honor their grandmother. However, the trip becomes complicated as family tensions surface.
The premise was inspired by Eisenberg’s own trip to Poland.
“My wife and I kind of backpacked through Poland in 2008,” he explains. “We actually did go to all the places the characters go to, I mean pretty specifically all the places [in the movie].”
The “Zombieland” star was so moved by the visit that he applied for Polish citizenship which he’ll receive in a couple of weeks.
“I just feel this deep connection to the country of Poland,” he says. “My family lived there longer than they lived in New York… it felt to me like this is it felt like something I wanted to it’s always felt like something I wanted to connect to for reasons that I’m not exactly aware of.”
“A Real Pain” is playing in theaters now.
Read the full article here
