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Kieran Culkin, Mark Ruffalo
TheStewartofNY/FilmMagic ; Amy Sussman/WireImageKieran Culkin has come forward as the criminal he got Mark Ruffalo high during performance of The Moment When more than two decades ago.
“I was 17 and stupid,” Culkin, 42, admitted to the prank in an interview with The Guardian published Saturday, December 28.
Culkin and Ruffalo were in the 2000 production of the James Lapine play Culkin’s was the show Broadway debut. The Succession alumnus admitted he saw a bag of prop joints backstage and eventually decided to turn one out.
Weeks later after making the switch, Culkin sniffed the real joint and “watched” Ruffalo hit it before handing it over to another cast member. Culkin shared that he decided to come clean during the show’s hiatus.
Just like a Mac! Kieran Culkin has had a front row seat to his older brother Macaulay Culkin’s acting career long before following in his footsteps on screen. “It was pretty nuts. And I think what people sometimes fail to remember, too, is that he was a child. He didn’t really choose that,” the Succession star recalled to NPR in (…)
“I’m like, ‘I thought this was something good. I’m stupid. Oh my God, I’m sorry,’” he recalled. “But really, they loved it. Mark says, ‘I haven’t smoked pot in 10 years; the second half is going to be so much fun.’ There was this other actor who had never smoked pot in her life. He said, ‘Is this what it’s like to be loud? This is lovely.’ And then Phyllis Newman comes in and goes, ‘I haven’t smoked pot since the 1960s. Thank you, love.’”
Although Culkin’s costars did not see the harm in the stunt, the stage manager of the play did not share a similar sentiment.
“Then the stage manager comes in and says, ‘I don’t care who it is, or what happened, but Kieran, give me the joint,'” he reflected. “I gave her the roach as a sheep and she said, ‘Ruin your life on your own time.'”
Following the incident, Culkin learned his lesson and never pulled a stunt like that again.
Kieran Culkin’s unconventional way of preparing for dialogue in his roles managed to blow away his A Real Pain costar Jesse Eisenberg. “Kieran wouldn’t learn the lines until the morning we were shooting – and you saw the film – you saw that he had, like, monologue after monologue,” said Eisenberg, 41, during Thursday, December (…)
“I know, I know. But I was young,” he told the outlet. “I’m 42 now. I know better. I’m not going to try to get anyone high on the stage.”
Ruffalo previously shared the smoking accident during an appearance in 2012 The Graham Norton Show. The Marvel star never revealed who he was behind the prank.
“There was a play I did where I had to smoke a joint in the first scene,” he recounted. “And of course, there was a very bad young actor I was in the play with, and on the opening night with all the judges, he slipped a real joint on the prop table.”
Kieran Culkin doesn’t understand some labels used by other actors – and he wasn’t afraid to mention former Succession costar Jeremy Strong as a prime example. “I object when actors call themselves ‘storytellers,’” Culkin, 42, said during his Variety “Actresses on Actors” chat with Colman Domingo on Wednesday, December 17. “I don’t like (… )
Ruffalo shared that while he was on stage, he and his costar were “blatantly smoking on stage” and didn’t realize it until he noticed everyone laughing at his antics.
“I’m like, ‘Man, I’m in it tonight. I feel it. I’m on fire. I feel it,’” he reflected before he began to question his surroundings. “Why is that dude standing backstage laughing at me?’ And the kid who puts the joint on the prop board is standing there, (laughs). And I went, ‘Oh s—.'”
Despite the accident, Ruffalo had no hard feelings as he ended up getting “best reviews” of his career.
