Kieran Culkin paid tribute to Jesse Eisenberg and his sister as he picked up the first award of the night at Sunday's (23.02.25) Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards
The 42-year-old actor scooped the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role accolade for his work on 'A Real Pain', and despite having won a string of other prizes for the movie this year, he admitted he hadn't prepared a speech as he joked about the weight of his statuette before quickly growing serious to thank his co-star and director
26 February 2025
Speaking on stage at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, he said: "Oh my gosh. Wow Thank you SAG-AFTRA for this incredibly heavy award, that's why they put the thing here I guess, right? I don't think there's a way anyone can hold this for 45 seconds - which is the alloted time, Adrien Brody, 45 seconds. There was no reason to take that shot, I love you, it's a joke. You take your time. Lord knows I will because I didn't think of anything.
"It is funny that like the heaviest of the awards is given by actors. It's like us, what we do, mmm it means so much... You'd see a meeting of actors 'Ah it needs more weight'. Anyway, moving on. There's one actor at the back who uses the word 'heft' just to be seen..."
Kieran, who saw off competition from Yura Borisov ('Anora'), Edward Norton ('A Complete Unknown'), Jeremy Strong ('The Apprentice') and Jonathan Bailey ('Wicked') to take the prize, then turned serious.
He continued: "Believe it or not, this actually means a lot to me, it does, it's hard to be sincere after that, or in general. It's a huge honour - 13, 12, 11, I haven't said anything.
"I do want to talk about one actor, Jesse Eisenberg, who's a great actor, a great director, a brilliant scene partner - and please wrap it up - I'm going to say something without Jesse.
"For those of you who don't know, he cast me without seeing me or seeing me in anything but he cast me because his sister told him to, he has a lot of faith in her, which is sweet.
"So thank you Jesse for putting me in this movie but I want to take a moment to thank your sister Hallie Thank you Hallie, for thinking of me, and putting my name in your stupid brother's ear."
The former 'Succession' star then issued a quick list of thanks to those involved in the movie, and his representation, as well as his "wonderful, gorgeous, funny" wife Jazz Charlton.
He concluded: "That's it, I told you I'd be fast. Love you mom."
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