Kieran Culkin reacts to his Golden Globe nomination for best supporting actor in a series, miniseries or motion picture made for television.<\/b>
\nKieran Culkin, SUCCESSION 107 Ursula Coyote\/HBO
HBO\u2019s breakout summer hit Succession has been dominating awards buzz conversation since it hit screens back in June. This past Friday, the months of rumors culminated in a Golden Globe nomination for best supporting actor in a series, miniseries, or motion picture made for television for Kieran Culkin. Kieran cinched his second nomination (his first was back in 2003 for best actor in a motion picture musical or comedy for his role in Igby Goes Down) for his cringe-inducing performance of sniveling nihilist Roman Roy\u2014the third son of Rupert Murdoch surrogate Logan Roy. Throughout the season, Kieran navigated the psyche of the chronic privilege of the under-qualified white male with surprising ease, refusing to shy away from the grotesque (like masturbating against a giant window overlooking New York City from his lush new corner office) and imbuing seemingly innocuous movements with measured humanity (like cleaning up after his punishingly narcissistic father after his stroke impairs some basic motor functions). The performance was particularly adept at bringing his character right to the brink of edgelordom before shrinking back into the cowardice that ensures the safety net of his father\u2019s influence and wealth never falls out from underneath him.
Forbes caught up with Kieran a couple days after the announcement to talk about the process of creating Roman, the weight of a Golden Globe nomination and what season two has in store for the Roys.
Forbes: How did it feel to find out you were nominated for a Golden Globe?
Kieran Culkin: Uh, to be honest, completely baffled. Like what the f*** is going on. Very very surprised, it wasn\u2019t even on the horizon. I was even unclear as to whether our show was even eligible this year! And I didn\u2019t really know that the announcements were even happening so my experience was that I was in a hotel in LA, my phone starts ringing at 5:30 in the morning waking me up. I let it ring twice, and by the third ring, I thought \u2018oh boy let me check,\u2019 so I check my phone and I have like 8 texts and I go \u2018shit. Somebody died.\u2019 So I brace myself and answer my phone and it\u2019s my manager Emily. She\u2019s quiet on the other line, and it seems that she\u2019s crying. She says \u2018Hey, good morning,\u2019 and I just went \u2018Just do it Emily, who died? Just f***ing do it.\u2019 And she goes \u2018you were nominated!\u2019 and I go \u2018for what?\u2019 *laughs* \u2018a Golden Globe!\u2019 and I go \u2018what? Wait, those happened today? Our show is eligible? What the hell?\u2019 I had no idea! It\u2019s a wonderful, pleasant surprise. You know, I feel like normally people campaign for these things, and I was willing to do that, I just didn\u2019t realize we were even up for it this year!
F: There was a lot of awards buzz around Succession itself, but you seemed to snag the only major Golden Globe nomination, how does it feel to carry the torch for the show?
KC: Any kind of recognition that the show gets is good. I\u2019m no businessman but I\u2019ve had people ask me if I wish Succession got any more nominations and I\u2019m like, you know, sure! But all of this stuff is just a bonus because I get to do this show, I get to do what I want to do and it makes me happy to do this. I think everybody on board\u2014the writers, everybody\u2014they\u2019re just pumped that we get to keep doing it.
F: Do you model your performance after any real-life socialites or anyone you know?
KC: No. No one whatsoever. In the past, if I tried doing that, I just fail miserably before I even start. I can\u2019t do the external research thing. If I start doing it, if I start looking into people and trying to understand how they live and looking at it from the outside, I cannot connect with any of the material or the person that I\u2019m trying to be. If there\u2019s something that clicks, which, with this character, something kind of does\u2014and I actually don\u2019t know what it is, but I really don\u2019t want to know because he\u2019s not a very good dude, so it\u2019s speaking to something about my personality that I\u2019d rather not tap into. So anything like that I can\u2019t really do, but I really admire people that can really dive into the world and learn about it. I just try to go with what the writers give me. They\u2019re really good and they know what they\u2019re doing; Something instinctive in me knows how to pursue it or portray it the way that I do and they seem on board with it, so I try not to question or think about it too much.
F: Yea, you guys are ramping up to start filming season 2, right?
KC: Yup, I\u2019m pumped!
F: What are you hoping to get a chance to do?
KC: I have no expectations! I have no ideas about what they\u2019re doing. Brian Cox always seems to be a step ahead of the rest of the cast in terms of knowing little tidbits or ideas of where we\u2019re going and when I spoke to him about a month ago, he started to tell me what he knows and I said \u2018actually don\u2019t tell me, I don\u2019t want any spoilers!\u2019 Because we get some of our scripts, sometimes the night before shooting or in the middle of the night before we were going to work. Sometimes it\u2019ll be 5:30 in the morning and I\u2019ll have no idea what we\u2019re shooting tomorrow!
F: Oh wow.
KC: Well, I like it! It keeps things very lithe, very spontaneous. I have the utmost faith in what they\u2019re doing will work. They also give us the freedom to dick around with it a bit. I think the large, large majority of the words that we say were written but they let us open up a bit I think to kind of loosen it up and make it ours. They used a little more than I thought, but I think that was an experiment, except that it\u2019s kind of a collaborative effort where everybody trusts each other. So when a script comes in late I know that everybody\u2019s going to be fine and we\u2019re going to make it work and I actually get very excited at the end where I go \u2018Okay I\u2019m kind of off-book, I think? And I have no idea what I\u2019m doing! Let\u2019s just roll with it and see where it goes!\u2019
F: How do you feel about the other nominees?
KC: I\u2019m actually way backed up on what I\u2019m watching\u2014the only show that I just started watching is Barry, and I\u2019ve only seen the first two episodes but Henry Winkler is awesome.
F: Yea you\u2019re in for a treat with the rest of the season.
KC: This is all I keep hearing about! People are so pumped about Barry. My wife and I have been meaning to watch it for months since it came around but the reason we fell behind on most shows is that we just this summer discovered Game of Thrones and that kind of consumed our summer. It\u2019s awesome, and we\u2019re only on season six, which we just started the other night, and we were like \u2018oh dammit! weren\u2019t we supposed to do Barry? \u2019 There\u2019s actually loads to see and now there\u2019s a specific reason to actually sit down and go \u2018hey it\u2019s for work, I have to stay in and watch this show!\u2019
I am a writer living and working in Los Angeles. After graduating from Yale with a degree in history and a ravenous appetite for consuming prestige TV, I worked for a record label in A&R and post-production. I have since covered Top Chef for Food and Wine magazine, worke…
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