Kieran Culkin Almost Bailed On His Upcoming Movie Because He Feared He’d Miss His Family Too Much To Film It, Then His Ex Emma Stone Saved The Day

Kieran recalled going into “panic mode” and feeling “broken” after being forced to spend three weeks away from his wife and kids.

By
Stephanie Soteriou
by Stephanie Soteriou

BuzzFeed Staff

It’s easy to forget that Kieran Culkin and Emma Stone are exes, with the two dating from 2010 until 2011 after meeting on the set of their 2009 movie Paper Man.

Emma Stone in a floral scarf and top posing with Kieran Culkin in a dark shirt at an event
Bruce Glikas / FilmMagic

In fact, Taylor Swift’s Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) vault track “When Emma Falls in Love” is largely believed to have been inspired by her bestie Emma’s early relationship with Kieran, although this has not been confirmed by anybody involved. 


Still, Emma and Kieran remained good friends after their split, and even starred alongside each other in the anthology film Movie 43 back in 2013. 

That same year, Kieran married his wife, Jazz Charton, and they have since welcomed two children together, a 5-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old son.

Kieran Culkin in a pastel-patterned suit and Jazz Charton in a yellow floral dress on a red carpet, with people in the background
Marleen Moise / Getty Images

Meanwhile, Emma welcomed a daughter in 2022 with her husband, Dave McCary, who she married in 2020.


Speaking to Rolling Stone earlier this year, Kieran said that “it's funny to even say 'ex’” when referring to Emma, adding: “To me, she's just a really good friend of mine and my wife's. She's lovely and great.”

And in a new interview with Vogue, Kieran revealed the sweet way that his good friend helped him and his family out when they worked together on their upcoming movie A Real Pain. Kieran stars alongside Jesse Eisenberg in the film, and Emma is one of its producers.

Kieran Culkin stands outdoors in front of a scenic landscape with hills and a pond, wearing a striped long-sleeve shirt
Vivien Killilea / Getty Images

Jesse is said to have sent Kieran the script for the movie while he was still working on Succession, and Kieran was quick to sign on to the project, which was shot in Poland, despite intending to take a break once he’d finished filming for the popular HBO series. 


When Succession ended up wrapping later than he had anticipated, Kieran panicked at the thought of having less time with his wife and kids between jobs — especially as he wouldn’t be able to see them for a month while in Poland. 


Speaking to Vogue, Kieran admitted that he ended up calling Emma a matter of weeks before filming was due to start to break the news that he was going to have to bail on the project. 

“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,’” Kieran fondly recalled, with Emma ending the conversation by telling him that she understood his concerns and that she would handle the situation.

Emma Stone and Kieran Culkin pose together at an event, both smiling; she wears a stylish white dress with feather details, and he wears a black tuxedo
Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

“She was nice enough to let me off the hook,” he added, with Emma going on to accommodate Kieran as much as she could.

His wife and kids ended up joining him in Poland for two weeks at the start of the shoot, and Emma made sure that she and her husband were on the same flight over as Kieran.


Despite this, Kieran did still have to spend three weeks away from his family, and the actor admitted to Vogue: “I was in panic mode the whole time. I just went to this horrible place.”


“I was just so fucking broken,” he added. “Jesse was like, ‘What’s wrong with you?’”

And Jesse himself confessed that working with Kieran was tricky at times, telling Vogue that he “was infuriated” when he learned of how close Kieran had been to walking out on the project.

Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg, dressed in casual shirts, pose together in front of a stone wall. Charlie wears sunglasses and has his arm around Jesse
Paul Best / Getty Images

“But the more I got to know him, the more I understood that he just kind of lives in this way that is totally unusual in an industry riddled with eager obsequiousness,” he explained.




The two actors also locked horns over the blocking on set, with Kieran not always understanding Jesse’s vision as the movie’s director. 


“He was brilliant,” Jesse recalled. “But I still don’t understand how he thinks or works. He didn’t know his lines, and then I would show him a page right before we started filming, and he’d memorize it.” 


“You stop questioning these things,” he went on to conclude. “Kieran was just exhilarating and constantly baffling.”

You can read Kieran's interview with Vogue in full here!

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