Kieran Culkin has been acting since he was a little kid, and apparently, he has a reputation for being a bit of a troublemaker. The Oscar nominee recently revealed he got some actors high by replacing a fake joint with a real one while participating in the play The Moment When in 2000. He was only about 18 at the time and clearly was testing the waters for a prank that went exactly how you’d expect. Now, Mark Ruffalo, who was one of the victims of this on-stage fiasco, is telling his side of the story.
Ruffalo was a guest on The Tonight Show to promote his new movie with Robert Pattinson, Mickey 17. The conversation soon turned to Kieran Culkin, though, who is having quite the moment right now after his acclaimed performance in A Real Pain made him a frontrunner in the Oscar conversation. However, instead of talking about what's going on now, this viral decades-old story came up.
The Avengers actor revealed he had a unique experience working with a young Culkin over 25 years ago on a stage play. In one of the scenes, the actors are supposed to smoke a fake joint, which, unbeknownst to them, had been swapped by the mischievous teen actor. Thinking it wasn't real, the actors had a pretty confident approach to smoking, as Ruffalo explained:
In the beginning of the play, the first scene, we have to pass a joint around, me and Arija [Bareikis] and Phyllis [Newman]. We're passing it around. And you know, when you're on a stage -- in real life, you take like two puffs and you're so stoned, but when you're in a play you're just killing that thing and it's a long scene. It's usually fake. Not this time.
The actors ended up smoking a lot of marijuana on stage, and it hit them all pretty quickly. At first, Ruffalo was feeling pretty good, and he felt a wave of confidence towards his performance. Very quickly, however, the Spotlight actor realized what was happening, and Culkin’s giggles behind the curtain confirmed his suspicions. He recalled:
Arija had never been stoned in her life. Now, I, on the other hand, smoked a lo...a little bit. So I had some experience. So, we're passing it back and forth, and I'm like 'Man, I am really in the moment man, I am so in the pocket. I'm really feeling this tonight!' And then I look down and it doesn't stop, it just keeps going and going and going and going and going. Then the lights start to fade, and I look down and I realize it's a real joint. And I look at Aria and she's just like this [makes paranoid face]. And then I look backstage, and there's that little cutie, Kieran Culkin, behind the drapery going [starts laughing].
Clearly, this gave the play a certain energy. While the actors ended up being pretty cool with what was going on, especially considering the smoking gave them a newfound confidence and calm, not everyone behind the scenes was as on board. One of the stage managers even threatened to shut the play down, but even in his altered state, Ruffalo wanted to protect Culkin from getting in trouble. He said:
Well, they wanted to close the play down, they were literally, the stage manager came running out saying, 'We're closing the show, we're closing it!' And I was like, 'You can't close the show! No, he'll get in trouble!'
The 13 Going on 30 actor then said the whole debacle resulted in him getting some of the best reviews he ever had, so thankfully, everything turned out okay.
Culkin said he got a pretty stern talking-to from the stage manager himself, but thankfully, nothing too damaging. It was the year 2000, and the cultural attitude towards weed was very different, but everything worked out, and it’s just a hilarious story now.
These days, the Succession star is still a bit of a troublemaker, but not in the same way.
He famously almost quit A Real Pain two weeks before shooting, but Emma Stone convinced him to stay on the project. Also, sarcastic quips and jabs have become his signature. And all of it has just made him even more hilarious and charming.
Even this story makes the actor even more endearing, showing he isn’t afraid to break the rules and have a little fun. He’s come a long way since then, but the mischievous spirit is clearly there and is what is making fans around the world root for him to take home the gold at this year’s Oscars.
You can see Kieran Culkin in the role that got him his 2025 Oscar nomination by streaming A Real Pain with a Hulu subscription. Also, make sure to check out Mark Ruffalo in Mickey 17, which is set to hit theaters on the 2025 movie schedule March 7th, 2025. Then, start crossing your fingers that these two work together again someday, because these on-stage hijinks and hilarious storytelling are things I desperately want more of from them.
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