When you are the younger sibling, you inevitably look up to your elder brother or sister. It’s natural for the youngest to want to have their cool toys, to do the fun activities they are allowed to do, or just generally be around them to annoy them.
Kieran Culkin and Macaulay Culkin’s dynamic was slightly more complicated than this. From an early age, Kieran saw what his brother’s fame did to him and thanked his lucky stars that it wasn't him. Fame is not something to be envied, according to Kieran.
Kieran, who is currently starring as Roman Roy in the hit HBO series Succession, opened up about this in an interview with Esquire magazine. "Poor [expletive] guy. He was little and having to try to accept that level of fame as reality," he recalled. "Even at that time, as a kid, I remember thinking, 'That sucks for him.'"
Macaulay became famous after starring in the hit family movie Home Alone. Kieran remembers things changed for him quickly, and he was not jealous of it at all. He recalled people staring at them in restaurants. One time a cab driver even followed them home.
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Kieran also touched on the subject during an appearance on Fresh Air with Terry Gross on NPR.
"It was pretty nuts," he recalled. "And I think what people sometimes fail to remember, too, is that he was a kid. He didn't really choose that. It's something that happened to him. And I think when you're a kid, you obviously don't have the tools to handle something like that. So I think it might have been pretty tough. For me, I got to sort of experience it secondhand as a child. So to me, I always have known this is not something one would want to pursue. It's not a very nice thing, fame. No anonymity, it's terrible."
