“Succession” might have ended in a boardroom shocker, but after manipulating each other out of the family media empire, the Roy siblings are reuniting in New York. Real-life friends and Emmy winners Kieran Culkin and Sarah Snook are performing two blocks away from each other on Broadway.
Culkin plays Ricky Roma, the smooth-talking salesman who stops at nothing to convince suckers to sign on the dotted line, in the revival of David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross.” Snook, meanwhile, is earning Tony buzz for juggling 26 roles, ranging from a dandy to a longshoreman to a dowager countess, in a solo adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray.”
In a free-spirited conversation, the duo talk fast about their HBO lineage and their turns in two of the season’s hottest shows.
KIERAN CULKIN: Thank you for doing this in my home [gesturing around the Rainbow Room]. I know it was a last-minute change for you, but I just thought the views …
SARAH SNOOK: It’s rather opulent.
CULKIN: I think so. I saw [“Dorian Gray”] when you did it in London. It was intense and awesome. But it also was, how the hell are you getting through each day and doing eight shows a week?
SNOOK: Yeah, and breastfeeding. I had two major panic attacks, one before leaving.
CULKIN: Geez.
SNOOK: I’m having one now.
CULKIN: You’re reliving it. This is great.
SNOOK: I never leave the stage. I step forward, and then I say a sentence in my head, and then I go on.
CULKIN: What’s the sentence in your head? Can we know it?
SNOOK: Yeah.
CULKIN: You brought it up, so obviously you’re going to tell me.
SNOOK: As I was saying this, I was like, “Ucch, Kieran’s going to say that,” as is your [she makes an annoying poking gesture].
CULKIN: … the needling thing that I do.
SNOOK: Daughter, the other day, jumping off a step, was like, “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I do a trick.” And jumped.
CULKIN: She said that? So that’s the sentence you say to yourself?
SNOOK: Now in my head I get on stage and I go, “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, mama do a trick.”
CULKIN: And then you jump.
SNOOK: It’s nice because it settles me.
CULKIN: Is it still fun?
SNOOK: It is.
CULKIN: But in London, you must have been like, “As much as I’m having fun, I can’t wait for the end date.”
SNOOK: Totally. I do a prison count.
CULKIN: I saw that in your dressing room — you cross off the shows. How come you brought it here?
SNOOK: It’s Broadway. Why are you doing it? It’s Broadway.
CULKIN: The money. [They both crack up.] No, it’s Broadway. How’s the experience so far — do you want to maybe do it again?
SNOOK: [Out of the corner of her mouth] Not for another 10 years. How old are you now?
CULKIN: Forty-two.
SNOOK: Peter Pan. [Laughs]
CULKIN: I know. I’m old as shit. I got children, plural. I’m middle-aged. And I’m doing Broadway. Do you miss having a scene partner?
SNOOK: I would like to say, honestly, yes, but I don’t miss it as much as I thought I would, weirdly.
CULKIN: My favorite part of [“Glengarry”] is this section where Bob Odenkirk as Shelley Levene describes a sale to me. And it’s like five minutes of me just sitting and listening to him, and it’s my favorite part.
SNOOK: Really?
CULKIN: I love it. Because he’s always finding new shit, and he’s doing different things, and it’s so much fun every night.
SNOOK: That’s so good.
CULKIN: I know. And I’m like [in a singsongy way], you don’t get to get that.
SNOOK: [Pouting] No, I don’t.
How did you feel during your opening night? Were you like, “I’m really excited”?
CULKIN: I wish we had opened two weeks later. I went in with an idea of this character. I’ve never seen any previous production of it. I’d never seen the film. I have no frame of reference for the show. I had my interpretation of the character. I went in at the beginning with my first instincts, developed that for eight weeks. Then about 10 days before we opened, I had bronchitis and a sinus infection. I was on antibiotics, and a weird show happened. It was different. I was like, “I want to explore that.” We explored this other take on the character, especially in the first act. Then it wasn’t landing the right way. I slowly went back to what I was doing before, and it’s better.
The thing is, the second act has always been the same. And the struggle was, I found this guy in act one who was very different, and I couldn’t get him to fit there. Once I went back, I was like, “Oh, they match now.” We have the most awkward curtain call ever, by the way.
SNOOK: You guys do a bro hug.
CULKIN: Before that, it was even weirder. The director was like, “Bow whenever you feel like.”
SNOOK: Whenever you feel like it?!
CULKIN: I went, “Should we rehearse it?” And he goes, “No, I like that it’s sloppy.”
SNOOK: Was there a little bit of “No,no,after you, sir”? “Oh, no, no. I couldn’t possibly.”
CULKIN: I called a meeting to be like, “It’s a little too weird.”
SNOOK: Can you see people. in the audience when you bow?
CULKIN: I can see the first five rows. We had a guy in the front row who kept screaming at us as if we weren’t three feet away. “That was awesome, guys! [clapping loudly] That was awesome!”
How do you learn those lines?
SNOOK: How do you learn your lines?
CULKIN: I don’t know. I just read ’em.
SNOOK: I walk when I learn lines.
CULKIN: Sometimes people learn them within the blocking, so if the blocking changes, they can’t remember.
SNOOK: That’s what I used to do with “Succession.” I learned 80% of it. Then I would get 100% by the time the blocking was set. Except that time that you [laughs] … I would rely on other people to know their lines as well, and there was the time you came and you didn’t know any of them.
CULKIN: I just didn’t know any of them …
SNOOK: Oh my God.
CULKIN: … and I thought I could do it. I just remember starting the scene and going, “I actually don’t know this — even a little.”
You won’t say it yourself, so I’ll say it for you: You’re in a show that people love. And that’s a thing, people coming up to my stage door and telling me that you …
SNOOK: People come to my stage door and tell me that you were telling them to go see my show.
CULKIN: I tell them all the time. They’re like, “We came all the way in for this.” And I’m like, “Well, what else are you seeing?” And they’ll tell me and I’m like, “No, no, no. You got to go see ‘Dorian Gray.’”
SNOOK: Very sweet.
CULKIN: I’ve also had people ask me to sign your Playbill.
SNOOK: Oh, I signed yours. There was one that was bookmarked, and you’d signed it already. You’d written, “Did I?” So I wrote, “You did.” [They laugh.]
CULKIN: Have you ever been a part of a play or something that you’re like [whispers], “This isn’t very good.”
SNOOK: I’ve been in a play that was really good, but I wasn’t good in it. Or at least I wasn’t enjoying it.
CULKIN: I’ve been there too.
SNOOK: It’s a pain in the ass.
CULKIN: It’s a bummer.
SNOOK: It was a potential transfer to Broadway, and I was like, “Please don’t. I couldn’t do this role there well.”
CULKIN: And you genuinely felt like you were not doing the job?
SNOOK: I got the collywobbles. [She cracks up.]
CULKIN: Nope, that’s not a word. We’re going to need a translator. You didn’t get the collywobbles? What?
SNOOK: I got in my head. I got the …
CULKIN: … oh, the collywobbles. What’s wrong with you?
SNOOK: I think it’s a British word, maybe. Your wife probably knows it.
CULKIN: She probably does. Both of you guys have the most ridiculous words. What about being in a play that’s bad? I did one of those where the playwright tried to shut it down. He goes, “I know you guys all worked really, really hard on it, so here’s my reasoning.” Everyone voted to keep it up and then we did it. We were really not doing anything good. I’m guessing you haven’t been a part of one of those.
SNOOK: Not a real stinker.
CULKIN: But this one must feel really great.
SNOOK: This question came up recently. Do I ever get the characters confused? I said, “Nope. Never do. How could I? It’s very clear. I don’t get them confused.”
CULKIN: And then you did…
SNOOK: It happened.
CULKIN: …because somebody planted that in your fucking brain.
I had that happen. I was onstage, and I was in my mind going, “Fuck, I feel really present.” [He pauses and looks around.] “Why is it quiet? Oh, it’s my line, isn’t it? ”It was like four whole seconds of quiet because I thought, “I feel really present right now.” Are you keeping up your health? I know you are.
SNOOK: Yeah, I’m not drinking coffee.
CULKIN: You did that in London. There was no alcohol.
SNOOK: Yeah, and no coffee. If I have a coffee too late, I can’t sleep after the show.
CULKIN: I was going to try to do what you do. Instead, my diet is like five cups of coffee, two scotches after a show and a 2 a.m. cheeseburger.
SNOOK: Oh my God. Do you sleep?
CULKIN: Three hours.
SNOOK: Oh, dude.
CULKIN: I also have sleep apnea, which is fun to talk about on camera. Sleep apnea, guys.
SNOOK: That’s bad for your brain.
CULKIN: Oh, no, this is gone [pointing to his head]. There’s a ticking clock on when this goes. Soon enough, you’re going to wheel me into a corner and just watch me chat to myself. That’s probably where I am right now, but I feel like I’m doing an Actors on Actors …
SNOOK: … in the Rainbow Room.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Photographed in the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center
Snook: Styling: Thomas Carter Phillps; Makeup: Mary Wiles; Hair: Chris Naselli; Culkin: Stylist: Chloe Hartstein; Grooming: Benjamin Thigpen; Snook, clothing: Clothing: Suit and shoes: Stella McCartney; T-shirt: Leset; Earring: Tabayer; Necklace: Briony Raymond; Rings: State Property and Alice Pierre
From Variety US