{"id":68236,"date":"2025-04-08T03:19:37","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T07:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/?p=68236"},"modified":"2025-04-29T03:20:41","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T07:20:41","slug":"why-did-eric-andre-turn-down-role-in-a-real-pain-that-won-kieran-culkin-an-oscar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/why-did-eric-andre-turn-down-role-in-a-real-pain-that-won-kieran-culkin-an-oscar\/68236\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Did Eric Andr\u00e9 Turn Down Role in A Real Pain That Won Kieran Culkin An Oscar?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Comedian Eric Andr\u00e9 recently revealed a fascinating behind-the-scenes story about one of Hollywood\u2019s biggest \u201cwhat-ifs.\u201d In a candid conversation on the <em>Whiskey Ginger<\/em> podcast with Andrew Santino, Andr\u00e9 shared his regret over turning down a role in the movie <em>A Real Pain<\/em>, a role that eventually earned Kieran Culkin an Oscar.<\/p>\n<p>Andr\u00e9, now 42, explained that two years ago, Jesse Eisenberg personally offered him the role of Benji Kaplan, a loud and outspoken cousin in the film. However, after reading the script, Andr\u00e9 felt the movie\u2019s dark tone, especially its exploration of the Holocaust, wasn\u2019t the right fit for him at the time. \u201cTo go to Poland for six weeks and shoot a movie where we\u2019re just babbling about the Holocaust, seems like a bummer,\u201d Andr\u00e9 recalled. He appreciated the offer but admitted that it didn\u2019t align with the type of work he was hoping to do at that moment in his career. \u201cThe motherf<em>er won an Oscar for the role I passed up,\u201d he joked. \u201cIt\u2019s not like I get offered roles constantly. I\u2019m not f<\/em>ing Leonardo [DiCaprio].\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>A Real Pain<\/em>, directed and written by Eisenberg, tells the story of two cousins, David (played by Eisenberg) and Benji (played by Culkin), as they travel to Poland to honor their late grandmother. The film, which draws inspiration from Eisenberg\u2019s own family history, explores themes of grief, survival, and legacy, set against the backdrop of the Holocaust. Initially, Eisenberg had considered playing Benji himself, but producer Emma Stone convinced him to step aside and also persuaded Culkin to stay on board after he almost dropped out due to family commitments.<\/p>\n<p>At the Oscars, when Culkin won the award for Best Supporting Actor, he thanked Eisenberg in his acceptance speech, calling him a \u201cgenius\u201d for creating the role and the movie.<\/p>\n<p>While Andr\u00e9 may have missed out on what became an award-winning performance, his reflection on the decision offers a unique insight into the tough choices actors face when selecting roles. As <em>A Real Pain<\/em> continues to be celebrated for its powerful storytelling, Andr\u00e9\u2019s story adds an interesting \u201cwhat could have been\u201d layer to its legacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Comedian Eric Andr\u00e9 recently revealed a fascinating behind-the-scenes story about one of Hollywood\u2019s biggest \u201cwhat-ifs.\u201d In a candid conversation on\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":294,"featured_media":68237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[26219],"class_list":["post-68236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-news","tag-eric-andre"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}