Comedian Eric André is reflecting on the near-misses of his career, which allegedly include a starring role in A Real Pain.
“You want to know a f***ing doozy? Two years ago, Jesse Eisenberg calls me and offered me the role that Kieran Culkin got the Oscar for,” André, 42, claimed on the Friday, April 4, episode of the “Whiskey Ginger” podcast. “I read the script. I was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to go to Poland.’”
André, who said that his Jewish ancestors all came from Poland and “got cooked in the concentration camps,” further explained why he wasn’t interested in acting in Eisenberg’s directorial debut. (Eisenberg, 41, wrote, directed and starred in the drama that follows two cousins as they rediscover their Jewish roots on a trip to Poland.)
“I was like, ‘That seems really miserable and not my lane,’” André recalled. “I read the script and was like, ‘To go to Poland for six weeks and shoot a movie, where we’re just babbling about the Holocaust seems like a bummer.”
He continued, “I was like, ‘I appreciate the offer, I’m sure it’s going to be great … [but] I don’t think that’s what I’m looking for right now.’ The motherf***er won an Oscar for the role I passed on. It’s not, like, I get offered roles constantly. I’m not f***ing Leonardo DiCaprio. Once in a while, I get offered a role and I said no to one of the only times I was offered a role [and] then it turned into an Academy Award.”
Eisenberg has not publicly addressed André’s claims. Us Weekly has reached out to Eisenberg for comment A Real Pain was up for Best Screenplay at the 2025 Oscars, though it ultimately lost to Anora. Culkin, 42, won Best Actor in a Supporting Role during the ceremony last month.
Culkin also nearly turned down the role because he didn’t want to be away from his two kids with wife Jazz Charton during the shooting schedule. It was, ultimately, his ex-girlfriend Emma Stone, who produced the film, who got him to change his mind.
“She did an almost reverse-psychology thing on me,” Culkin quipped to Vulture in a March profile. “She was like, ‘Oh, I totally get that. If I were you, I’d probably feel that way.’ And I was like, ‘But have they started?’ She goes, ‘Oh, yeah. They’re actually already in Poland scouting locations; people are hired.’ I was like, ‘It’s not like people would be out of a job?’ She’s like, ‘No, no, they would, but it’s not on you. You said yes,but if you have your reasons for not doing it, you’re not responsible for these people’s jobs. It’s fine; you do whatever you want.’ And I got off the phone and I went, ‘Ah.’ ”
André, meanwhile, admitted on Friday that he “wasn’t right” for the part and praised Culkin’s portrayal.
