Kieran Culkin's unstructured acting style was a real pain for Jesse Eisenberg on the set of A Real Pain

The director recalled how the two stars’ different approaches to their work (Eisenberg more methodical and precise, Culkin more chaotic and unrehearsed) created challenges. Eisenberg was thrown off by Culkin’s reluctance to rehearse and his difficulty delivering his best work when he had to stick to his marks, a big change from Culkin’s four-season run on Succession. Eisenberg ultimately had to adapt his filmmaking style, giving Culkin more freedom as the cameras followed him. Eisenberg’s assessment of Culkin is pretty consistent with what his previous co-stars have said about working with him, but Succession and A Real Pain were two very different beasts. On the HBO drama, actors often went off script, Culkin disregarded his marks, and he delivered an Emmy-winning performance with little rehearsal or script review (his ability to memorize lines on the fly drove the very-rehearsed Brian Cox nuts). But those who’ve worked with Culkin seem to agree the payoff outweighs any qualms. Cox once ranked Culkin as the Roy sibling that he’d most want to hang out with, and Eisenberg said that hiring Culkin was ultimately “worth the risk because he’sso great.”