Kieran Culkin missed out on another chance to collect a prestigious award on Sunday night, with his A Real Pain co-star Jesse Eisenberg accepting his BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor in his absence.
And it’s now been revealed that reason he could not attend the glitzy ceremony was due to the same issue which previously threatened his entire involvement in the film
The honour became the fifth that the film’s director and writer has picked up on Kieran’s behalf and Jesse initially made a quip about the trend to a full house at The Royal Festival Hall in London.
‘Hi, thanks again,’ he said. ‘This is also the fifth award I’ve accepted on Kieran’s behalf.
‘It confirms what I’ve thought which is that we share the same life but his is about 27% better than mine.’
Jesse, 41, who also plays the film’s lead David Kaplan, then revealed the real reason for his colleague’s repeated absences.
Kieran Culkin (pictured, left, in A Real Pain) missed out on another chance to collect a prestigious award on Sunday night, as co-star Jesse Eisenberg (right) accepted his BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor
It became the fifth gong that the film’s director and writer picked up on Kieran’s behalf and Jesse initially made a quip about the trend to a full house at the glitzy ceremony
He said: ‘Kieran would love to be here, we spoke this morning. He is in New York with a family member who is quite sick.
‘He is so devoted as a dad that he tried to drop out of my movie two weeks before we started shooting because he didn’t want to leave his kids.
‘It’s real, it’s beautiful and it’s admirable his devotion to his family.
‘He is one of these lovely people who is brilliantly talented, but who for some random luck of the cosmos, has his priorities in order.’
Kieran, 42, also gave an insight into the film’s hectic development on the Graham Norton Show in December, admitting that he made a last-minute bid to pull out of the project after going through a bizarre casting process.
‘He cast me without auditioning me or seeing me in anything, ever,’ he told Graham. ‘He goes, “yeh that’s fine I’m aware of you, I’ve met you before” – we’ve met twice before.’
Jesse responded: ‘He has an essence – look at his essence. I don’t know how else to describe it other than it felt exactly right. He’s amazing.’
Kieran then revealed, ‘At one point I did try to back out of this film. Whoops’, to which Jesse added, ‘two weeks before we shot, not “at one point”.’
Kieran told Graham Norton (and Daniel Craig, Nicola Coughlan and Jesse Eisenberg, pictured L-R) in December about the issue which threatened his entire involvement in the movie
Later in the evening Jesse also collected Best Original Screenplay gong and shared an emotional speech on the stage
His co-star explained: ‘He didn’t know that. They kept him in the dark about the me trying to get out of the movie thing. Glad I didn’t…You made a good movie.’
The Succession star was awarded the gong for his performance as Benji Kaplan in the film, beating off competition from his Succession screen brother Jeremy Strong, as well as Edward Norton, Yura Borisov, Guy Pearce and Clarence Maclin.
Jesse has previously collected Kieran’s gongs at Critics’ Choice Awards, National Society of Film Critics Award and National Board of Review Awards.
Later in the evening Jesse also collected Best Original Screenplay gong and shared an emotional speech on the stage.
Picking up the movie’s second prize, he admitted: ‘I didn’t write anything because I didn’t think I’d win.
‘I want to share this with my wife, who didn’t come because she didn’t think I’d win.’
Meanwhile Conclave picked up four gongs at the 2025 BAFTAs including the Best Film and Outstanding British Film Awards.
Up against a huge list of 10 nominees, Conclave came up trumps in the flagship categories – adding to their previous gongs for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing.
Receiving the BAFTA for Outstanding British Film, director Edward Berger said: ‘It is a huge honour, outstanding British film, and I’m not even from here! I feel so welcome in your midst.
‘We live in a time of crisis for democracy. Institutions that used to bring us together are used to pull us apart.
‘Sometimes it is hard to keep the faith in that situation, but that’s why we make movies and that’s why we made this movie.’
The biggest night in British film returned with actor David Tennant as host and an array of guest presenters on hand to deliver awards throughout the night.
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