Yahoo Lifestyle Kieran Culkin Shares Prank That Had Co-Star Saying, ‘Are You F**king Kidding Me?’
Kieran Culkin has revealed that Colin Hanks wasn’t laughing when he initially joked about pulling a prank on the actor.
The Golden Globe-nominated actor said he shared the idea — where he swaps a fake cannabis joint for a real one — with Hanks while they were working on the West End production of “This Is Our Youth.”
“And he’s like, ‘Are you fucking kidding me? If you ever do something like that, I swear to God, I’m going to punch you in the face,’” Culkin recalled in a feature for The Guardian.
Toward the end of the play’s run, Culkin said Hanks “shrugged like he was saying, ‘If you do, it might be fun.’”
Hanks’ character in the production — Dennis Ziegler — rolled a joint on stage each night.
“So, one day I hand him the real pot on stage and I see him, like, react. It looked like he was excited,” Culkin explained.
“But then he got too excited and got nervous. And his hands started shaking so much that he couldn’t get the joint rolled, and when he tried to light it, it fell apart. Thankfully, we had a pre-rolled fake joint behind him, so we ended up with that.”
Culkin, who said he now knows “better” at age 42, said he once pulled the prank on Mark Ruffalo a number of years prior while they acted in James Lapine’s off-Broadway play “The Moment When” in 2000.
He said he watched as the future Marvel actor took a hit of what he thought was a fake “joint” before passing it off to a co-star.
Culkin added that he initially thought it was a “good prank” but apologized to Ruffalo only to find out that he “loved it.”
“Mark says, ‘I haven’t smoked pot in 10 years; the second half’s going to be so much fun,’” Culkin recalled.
“There was this other actor who had never smoked pot in her life. She goes, ‘Is this what being high is? This is lovely.’ And then Phyllis Newman comes in and goes, ‘I haven’t smoked pot since the 1960s. Thank you, darling.’”
Culkin said the stage manager then appeared with a message, “‘I don’t care whose it is, or what happened, but Kieran, give me the joint.’ I sheepishly handed her the roach and she said, ‘Ruin your life on your own time.’”
Culkin is up for a Golden Globe Award at Sunday’s ceremony for his supporting role in the Jesse Eisenberg-directed buddy comedy-drama “A Real Pain.”
The film got Eisenberg a nomination for his lead role, as well, and earned nods in the Best Screenplay along with the Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy categories.
