Oscars 2025: Why Kieran Culkin Almost Quit A Real Pain Before Win

Watch: Oscars 2025: Kieran Culkin Makes Another Pregnancy Pact With Jazz Charton After Win

For Kieran Culkin, timing was a real pain.

After winning Best Supporting Actor at the 2025 Oscars March 2, he shared insight into his initial decision to quit A Real Pain ahead of production.

“It wasn’t for any creative reason,” Kieran—who shares kids Kinsey, 5, and Wilder, 3, with wife Jazz Charton—explained to reporters in the press room after leaving the stage at the Dolby Theater. “It was just the way the schedule changed right before we started, it was taking me away from my kids for almost a month.” 

He continued, “I was like, ‘Well, I don’t want to do that.’ Then I got talked into it, which, obviously, I’m very glad that I was.” 

The 42-year-old revealed that playing the charismatically brash Benji Kaplan in the film—which was shot in Warsaw, Poland—was “the first time I ever read something and went, ‘I fully understand this guy.'”

“It felt like I knew who this guy was, but I couldn’t identify it,” he reflected. “I didn’t want to analyze it because right away upon reading it, I went, ‘I know who this guy is.’ I’m just gonna leave it and just do it.”

As for the person to keep Kieran in the project? It was producer (and ex) Emma Stone.

“She goes, ‘If you don’t do it, the entire movie falls apart. But that’s not your responsibility. You shouldn’t feel that burden at all,'” he told Vogue in September. “She was nice enough to let me off the hook.”

And with the win at the 97th annual Academy Awards, Kieran might’ve also won a bigger family.

“About a year ago, I was on a stage like this and I very stupidly, publicly said that I wanted a third kid from her because she said if I won the award, she would give me the kid,” Kieran, who won Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series for Succession at the 2023 Emmys, said onstage. “Turns out she said that because she didn’t think I was going to win.”

“After the show, we’re walking through a parking lot,” he recalled. “She’s holding the Emmy. We’re trying to find her car. And she goes, ‘Oh God, I did say that! I guess I have to give you a third kid.'” 

However, Kieran admitted to her that he really wanted four kids.

Photo by Michael Buckner/Penske Media via Getty Images

“She turned to me,” he continued, “and she said, ‘I will give you four when you win an Oscar.’ I held my hand out. She shook it, and I have not brought it up once until just now. You remember that, honey?”

Before leaving the stage, Kieran concluded, “No pressure. I love you. I’m really sorry I did this again and let’s get cracking on those kids. What do you say? I love you!”

Read on to see all the winners at the 2025 Oscars.

WINNER: Anora

The Brutalist

A Complete Unknown 

Conclave

Dune: Part Two

Emilia Pérez 

I’m Still Here

Nickel Boys 

The Substance

Wicked

Cynthia Erivo – Wicked

Karla Sofía Gascón – Emilia Pérez 

WINNER: Mikey Madison – Anora

Demi Moore – The Substance

Fernanda Torres – I’m Still Here

Monica Barbaro – A Complete Unknown 

Ariana Grande – Wicked 

Felicity Jones – The Brutalist

Isabella Rossellini – Conclave

WINNER: Zoé Saldaña – Emilia Pérez

WINNER: Adrien Brody – The Brutalist

Timothée Chalamet – A Complete Unknown 

Colman Domingo – Sing Sing

Ralph Fiennes – Conclave

Sebastian Stan – The Apprentice

Yura Borisov – Anora

WINNER: Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain 

Edward Norton – A Complete Unknown 

Guy Pearce – The Brutalist

Jeremy Strong – The Apprentice

WINNER: Sean Baker – Anora

Brady Corbet – The Brutalist

James Mangold – A Complete Unknown  

Jacques Audiard – Emilia Pérez

Coralie Fargeat – The Substance

Mike Marino, Dave Presto and Crystal Jurado – A Different Man

Julia Floch Carbonel & Simon Livet – Emilia Pérez

Traci Loader, Suzanne Stokes-Munton & David White – Nosferatu 

WINNER: Pierre-Olivier Persin – The Substance

Frances Hannon, Sarah Nuth, Laura Blount – Wicked

A Lien 

WINNER: I’m Not a Robot

Anuja 

The Last Ranger

The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent

WINNER: I’m Still Here

The Girl with the Needle 

Emilia Pérez

The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Flow

WINNER: Anora

The Brutalist

Conclave

Emilia Pérez

Wicked

Arianne Phillips – A Complete Unknown

Lisy Christy – Conclave

Janty Yates – Gladiator II 

Linda Muir – Nosferatu

WINNER: Paul Tazewell – Wicked

WINNER: Sean Baker – Anora 

Brady Corbet & Mona Fastvold – The Brutalist 

Jesse Eisenberg – A Real Pain

Tim Fehlbaum & Moritz Binder – September 5 

Coralie Fargeat – The Substance

Jay Cocks & James Mangold – A Complete Unknown 

WINNER: Peter Straughan – Conclave

Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain, Nicolas Livecchi – Emilia Pérez

Joslyn Barnes & RaMell Ross – Nickel Boys

Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar – Sing Sing 

Alien: Romulus 

Better Man

WINNER: Dune: Part Two

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Wicked

A Complete Unknown

WINNER: Dune: Part Two

Emilia Pérez

Wicked

The Wild Robot

Judy Becker – The Brutalist

Suzie Davies & Roberta Federico – Conclave

Zsuzsanna Sipos, Shane Vieau & Patrice Vermette – Dune: Part Two 

Beatrice Brentnerova, Paul Ghirardani & Craig Lanthorp – Nosferatu

WINNER: Nathan Crawley – Wicked

WINNER: “El Mal” written by Clement Ducol, Camille & Jacques Audiard, performed by Zoé Saldaña and Karla Sofía Gascon – Emilia Pérez

“The Journey” written by Diane Warren, performed by H.E.R. – The Six Triple Eight

“Like a Bird” written by Adrian Quesada and Abraham Alexander- Sing Sing

“Mi Camino” written by Clement Ducol & Camille, performed by Selena Gomez & Edgar Ramirez – Emilia Pérez

Never Too Late” written by written by Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Bernie Taupin, and Andrew Watt, performed by Elton John – Elton John: Never Too Late

WINNER: The Brutalist

Conclave

Emilia Pérez

Wicked

The Wild Robot

WINNER: Lol Crawley – The Brutalist

Greig Fraser – Dune: Part Two

Paul Guilhaume – Emilia Pérez

Edward Lachman – Maria

Jarin Blaschke – Nosferatu

WINNER: Flow

Inside Out 2

Memoir of a Snail 

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

The Wild Robot

Beautiful Men

WINNER: In the Shadow of the Cypress

Magic Candies

Wander to Wonder

Yuck!

Black Box Diaries

WINNER: No Other Land 

Porcelain War

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat

Sugarcane

I Am Ready, Warden

Death By Numbers

Incident 

Instruments of a Beating Heart 

WINNER: The Only Girl in the Orchestra

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