Kieran Culkin is now a Golden Globe winner – and it's all thanks to his ex-girlfriend, The Succession star won on Sunday January 5 for his work in A Real Pain, a loosely autobiographical story from Jesse Eisenberg.

The film, dubbed an heir of Woody Allen, follows Jewish American cousins who travel to Poland in memory of their late grandmother

Although Kieran Culkin won a Golden Globe for his performance in A Real Pain, he would have dropped out of the role if not for producer Emma Stone.

Culkin earned his second Golden Globe in two years after being awarded for his role as Roman Roy in “Succession.”

Kieran Culkin won the 2025 Golden Globe award for best supporting actor for his performance as Benji in this cousins-on-a-Holocaust tour drama

So “A Real Pain” is a buddy comedy-drama written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, who played Mark Zuckerberg in 2010’s “The Social Network” and was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar.

Culkin bagged the award for Best Supporting Actor in a Feature Film, and his Oscar chances are looking better than ever.

A Real Pain follows the cousins as they embark on a Holocaust tour of Poland in memory of their grandmother, a Holocaust survivor who recently passed away. While the pair, who were very close as children,

Jesse Eisenberg wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the film opposite Culkin, who also won a Golden Globe for his work on the film. It was among the 12 films nominated in the Best Motion Picture categories at the Globes, too, and Eisenberg picked up nods for his lead performance in the film and the screenplay.

A Real Pain, which is out in cinemas, is mostly a two-hander between Eisenberg and Culkin. None of the other characters, notably Will Sharpe’s overly solicitous British tour guide, registers, especially before Culkin’s Benji, who most vividly expresses the generational trauma and resilience of the Jewish people.

Jesse Eisenberg's A Real Pain explores intergenerational trauma and survivor's guilt in a darkly comic, weighty meditation on grief.

Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin’s award-winning comedy drama—is new on Hulu this week. Find out when you can stream the film at home.