Kieran Culkin and Colman Domingo on Sing Sing, A Real Pain and Method Acting

Colman Domingo and Kieran Culkin have opposite approaches to their work. Domingo researches each role and sets his alarm for several hours before going on set, which Culkin teases him about. “If I have a 5 o’clock pickup, do you know what time I wake up?” says Culkin. “5 in the morning” But as they learn here, their hearts as artists are very similar. Domingo is one of only a few professional actors in “Sing Sing”; largely, his co-stars are formerly incarcerated men playing themselves in a story about a prison theater program. He plays their leader, whose confident demeanor crumbles as he tries and fails to overturn his wrongful murder conviction. In “A Real Pain,” Culkin plays the troubled, childlike Benji who goes on a Holocaust tour with his cousin, David (writer-director Jesse Eisenberg). As they travel through their late grandmother’s native Poland, David is overcome with worry at Benji’s constant emotional outbursts. Here, the two actors compare notes on their morning routines, the joys of having (and not having) children – and the annoying ways some of their fellow scientists describe their profession.

KIERAN CULKIN: You started in the circus?

COLMAN DOMINGO: I did that. I was just trying to get a gig because I had only taken a few acting classes.

CULKIN: Did you find any of it helpful? The acting classes? Some people say, “I need to listen to everything my teacher says as if it were gospel.” And it isn’t.

DOMINGO: Some things don’t work. But one of my first teachers told me, “I’m going to give you some tools and you can use them, but you also want to expand your toolbox.” What I do is always like the first time I do it. I don’t want to do anything the same way. I don’t have a method.

CULKIN: The moment you start doing it, you think, “I’ve become complacent and now I’m bored and I don’t want to do it anymore.” That’s why I like going to auditions. When I haven’t auditioned, I’m like, “You might not like this at all. You just did this because a producer said, ‘You have to give it to this guy. But if I’ve auditioned, at least you know what to expect. Jesse Eisenberg hadn’t seen ‘Succession.’ He says, “I’ve met you before.” We met twice in passing This is not how you throw someone.

DOMINGO: Look, I’ve passed you a few times. I got a feel for you very quickly. Just the way you make eye contact. You’re a bit of a…how can I say it?

CULKIN: Crazy. Psychopath. Bipolar.

DOMINGO: I would actually say that you are a very dangerous actor. And that’s the kind of actor I like. Your work is beautiful in “A Real Pain.” Like, “I’m not sure if I like him or not. Is he a bit of a narcissist?” But then there is something about him that is so honest.

CULKIN: Benji, I don’t think he thinks before he does anything. So I made a point not to plan. I would literally walk up and ask Jesse what scene we’re doing, which would give him a panic attack. He says, “You have a long speech!” I say, “I’m learning lines fast. Let’s figure out what the scene is by doing it.”

DOMINGO: Do you know where the cameras are?

CULKIN: Obviously, but it’s none of my business. On “Succession,” the cameras were always somewhere outside. You lean on the person you are with. I’m sure you’re used to that too. “Sing Sing” – one of the best ensembles I’ve seen in years, decades, possibly ever. And most of these people had never been on camera. It’s such an achievement.

DOMINGO: Greg Kwedar, our director, invited everyone to bring what they had and did not judge what it was. I recorded “The Color Purple” right before and did the pickups for “Rustin” right after, so I literally had 18 days. I had to go in there a little more raw, in a way I was uncomfortable with. I like to prepare. It was the first time I thought, “Oh no, I’m not going to know exactly what’s going on.” But it made sense for this film because here I am working with guys who have lived experience. There can be no polishing. I have to lean in you where the is.

CULKIN: Clarence Maclin is brilliant.

DOMINGO: He’s handsome, isn’t he? There is one shot, my favorite in the film, when he corners me in a cramped room and I offer him the word “beloved.” Then he just walked away. I’m thinking, “No, no, he’s got to really let that word work on him.” So I leaned into my director like, “Could he just hang with it?” And he did. I have to hand it to Greg Kwedar. He rarely wanted to call “cut”. Everyone wants to cut so fast. I say, “Yo, give me a little bit. There’s more. There’s always more.”

CULKIN: Sometimes, on “Succession,” we just wanted to shoot the shit. With the actors playing siblings, we filled in gaps in what happens between scenes. It made the case feel a little fuller.

DOMINGO: Who was one of your favorite scene partners?

CULKIN: Sarah Snook. You don’t have to have favorites; I have a favorite. There would be times, just for fun, that I would take her line and then give her a little sideways glance. And so the scene continued and when it was my line, she took mine and said, “Got it, bitch.” Right before we were about to finish shooting, she says, “Are you ready to cry? Nobody’s ever going to throw the two of us into anything. We’re never going to work together again.” I just cried. When you’re on a show like that and we’re playing brother and sister, people will always make that comparison. So she’s probably right.

DOMINGO: Do you still see a lot though?

CULKIN: She lives in Australia, so it’s hard to follow. I’m not the best with the phone. I always trusted that there would be another season. But she is my son’s godmother and one of my favorite people in the world.

DOMINGO: I know a lot of people, but when it comes to the people close to me, it’s really small. Do you have a small group of people or is it quite large?

CULKIN: My wife and my two children. That’s it.

DOMINGO: What do you like about being a father?

CULKIN: Absolutely everything except dinner time. I love everything else. It feels like nothing else matters. I am a father now and my only role in life is that. That’s real life. All this is great, but I’m just trying to get home. Will you ever have children?

DOMINGO: I wanted children in my 20s. Now I have a lot of really good furniture. Where do you go to unwind from it all?

CULKIN: I don’t do that.

DOMINGO: I’m not going to try to be a psychologist, but I think you need some time for yourself. What time do you wake up in the morning?

CULKIN: I don’t think I’ve ever woken up at the same time.

DOMINGO: I woke up at 4:30 this morning. Because I need a good two to three hours to myself before I do all this.

CULKIN: You are crazy. Do you do it on set?

DOMINGO: No matter what character. A hero, a villain, you name it – I need time to myself.

CULKIN: I have a good question. Is there any remark a director ever gave you where you’re like, “I can take this with me for anything”?

DOMINGO: George C. Wolfe broke my shit down on “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” He said, “You directed, didn’t you? I can tell because you know exactly how the scene should be.” I said, “That’s good, isn’t it?” And he said, “Yes, but I’m missing the discovery at the moment. I want to see you, behind your eyes, take in information and it moves you. Because you can’t reuse vulnerability.” He took me back to 21-year-old Colman, who was a little more wild-eyed and felt me ​​through.

CULKIN: I object to actors calling themselves “storytellers”. I don’t really like that. Sorry, Jeremy (strong). I don’t think so I am tells the story. Jesse Eisenberg was really good at making sure everyone was involved, but he wrote it. He tells the story. We all help him. So the note you got – if you’re paying attention to the story you’re trying to tell, and you’re trying to tell the story in the scene, that’s not really your job.

DOMINGO: We are not storytellers. We are servants of history.

CULKIN: Let’s work together, man.

DOMINGO: I would like that. You got a twinkle in your eye, man.

CULKIN: I’m not dead inside yet.

DOMINGO: You are alive.

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Production: Emily Ullrich; Lighting Director: Max Bernetz; Set direction: Gille Mills