FAMILY VALUES

Succession star Kieran Culkin on putting his children first, growing up in a famous acting clan and making the movie he almost turned down

- GILL PRINGLE

Kieran Culkin had made a promise to himself that he wouldn't be away from his wife and their two young children for more than eight days - and he really wanted to stick to that pledge.

But when shooting of the final season of the hit drama Succession ran over by two months, it left him precious little family time before he was due to fly to Poland to film the comedy drama A Real Pain. Even the title of the movie seemed vexingly apt. “When I saw the schedule, I was like, ‘You know what? I’m out,’” recalls Kieran, echo-ing the glib tone of Roman Roy – the most outrageous of Succession’s battling media-empire siblings, whom he played in four seasons of the award-winning show.

“I really tried to pull out for that reason. The kids being one and three, it would have been a nightmare for all of them. There was no way to figure out how to do it, so it was trying to weigh the personal versus the professional.