Kieran Culkin hilariously rejected Jesse Eisenberg’s director notes while on set

Kieran Culkin has revealed that he playfully rejected Jesse Eisenberg’s director notes while the pair filmed their Sundance film.

The Sundance Film Festival is well underway as many high profiles celebrities have flocked to Utah to showcase their latest films.

One of those films is A Real Pain, a comedy/drama film written, directed, and produced by Jesse Eisenberg and starring Kieran Culkin that tells the story of two cousins who travel to Poland after their grandmother’s death and end up on a Holocaust tour.

Culkin and Eisenberg joined the cast and crew of the film for a Q&A after the film was screened, and Culkin used the opportunity to joke on how he didn’t take well to Eisenberg’s set notes.

Culkin jokes that he criticized Eisenberg during filming

During the cast Q&A for A Real Pain, Culkin explained how he and Eisenberg got along on set as the actor both starred in the movie and had to direct his performance.

“There was a pretty good rapport right away,” Culkin explained, “But right after the first scene, he’d be like, ‘Cut,’ and start giving me notes. And my first thought is, like, bitch, I got notes for you, too. I don’t want to be noted by an actor. Get out of here. Fuck you.”

Eisenberg told the joke in stride as he laughed at his co-star and then began to praise him stating, “I’ve never seen a greater performance in person, and maybe on screen, except, I don’t know, On the Waterfront, and I don’t even remember it that well.”

Though the pair had a good working relationship during filming, Culkin almost pulled out of the project after his last job, Succession, wrapped filming their fourth and final season.

“Because of the job I just came off of, I was really looking forward to free time. And I remember, I was trying to get out of doing the movie,” Culkin told Indie Wire, “And I thought, I’m gonna read the script for the third time, and maybe I’ll find some flaw in it, something that makes me go, ‘Oh this isn’t worth my time.’”

He continued explaining what cemented his decision to go forward with Eisenberg stating, “[Then] I read the whole thing, and the third time in a row I’m laughing out loud at the script and going ‘Dammit, I feel like I need to do this.’ I told my wife and she goes, ‘Are we going to Poland or not?’ And I’m like, ‘I think we are honey, I’m sorry.’”