[Published at The Playlist] Kieran Culkin has been performing since the age of six, and yet, the actor still hasn’t reached his prime in the film industry. One of the small percentage of child actors to brave childhood stardom and find success well into his adulthood, Culkin began acting alongside his older brother, Macaulay, in “Home Alone.” Macaulay’s knack for the craft paved the way for his younger brothers, Kieran and Rory, to pursue their own careers in the industry. Impressively, Kieran has arguably surpassed his older brother in notoriety and acting talent, becoming the consummate actor in a prolific showbiz family.

Culkin has developed an aptitude for playing slightly off, sometimes borderline sociopathic characters. He burst onto the scene as the titular role in the critically-acclaimed “Igby Goes Down,” his first role as an adult, earning him a Golden Globe nomination. As he matured as an actor, Culkin grew more selective in choosing his roles, sometimes taking two or three years to find one that struck the proper chord with him. He would go on to star in such critically-acclaimed indie films as “Lymelife” (with his brother Rory), “Paper Man,” “Wiener-Dog,” and “Infinity Baby,” as well as big-budget fare such as “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.”

His latest role on the HBO show, “Succession,” is right in his wheelhouse. He plays Roman, a questionably sociopathic, spoiled, and obnoxiously outspoken, unfiltered brat, and the son of Logan (Brian Cox), an aging media mogul. “Succession” tells the story of a dysfunctional American family running a global media empire. Roman is one of Logan’s four children, and certainly not the only one eyeing his position as CEO once he is ready to retire.

On the week of Episode 8’s air date, and less than three weeks before the season finale, I had a chance to converse with Culkin about all things “Succession,” his adroitness for playing sociopaths, his transition from child to adult actor, and more.

What initially intrigued you about the project and the role of Roman?
It was the role of Roman that attracted me. I’ve never really known why I liked something. I was just reading it and felt that I kept wanting to read it. I’ve never really been able to put to words why I like something. I just read it and I was like, “Oh, writing good. Roman good. Me want to play [laughter].” I liked the way he spoke.

There are prominent themes of family, nepotism, neglect, greed and betrayal. Your character often provides comic relief in tense situations. In preparation for your role, how did you go about bringing a relatable, humorous quality to Roman?
By saying the words that the writers wrote. The fun about playing him is the freedom to say and do whatever the hell he wants. You say, “Comic relief.” He’s not even trying to be funny or insulting. He just kind of can always get away with saying and doing whatever he wants, no matter how inappropriate. And that’s just because of the way he was raised. He was raised very privileged, rich, entitled, and could always get away with anything.

For me, it’s fun to be able to play that and to work with writers who are always trying to push it even a little further. There’s a lot of stuff that didn’t even make the edit that they would say, “Well, what if Roman said this.” It just pushed it too far and really trying to piss the people off. And then, that gave me the freedom; telling my brother that he’s not even fucking his wife right to his face, but then, trying to be able to get away with it. But I don’t see it as comic relief or trying to be the funny guy. He’s just the kind of dude who, if he thinks it’s funny, he’s just gonna say it.

Another theme is that of seeking one’s parents’ approval. However, Roman doesn’t seem as interested in achieving that as much as the others. As you mentioned, Roman’s a little bit of a shit disturber, so, what is he primarily motivated by?
That’s actually a good point. What does motivate the guy? I actually think he is seeking his father’s approval. that’s the only person that he cares to get the approval of. Like I said, he can say and do whatever he wants to do. Who cares? If it’s funny, he’s gonna say it because he doesn’t care who gets pissed off. The exception is Dad. Dad is the only guy who, if he raises his voice or gets angry, Roman gets shook. And he wants to get in the COO position so that he’s in that position, he does a great job, even though he has no idea what that job entails, just so his dad can be like, “I’m proud of you, Roman. You did it. You’re better than Kendall. And I kind of knew you were the one.” But I do think that is a bit of a motivating factor.

He gets moments where he’s pretty self-aware. he, deep down, knows that he’s not COO material but is gonna bully his way to get the job because he still feels he’s entitled to it. And then, he gets into his office for his first day, opens up the computer, sees just too many emails and too much work and realizes he’s in over his head, has no idea what to do with the job. So, he jerks off in his office to try to at least control something, get some sort of control over something.

A form of control in an otherwise chaotic environment.
He has all the powers, but he just doesn’t know how to wield them, so what else can he do? Not to be too on the nose or too gross about it [laughter].

Roman seems to suffer from intimacy and inferiority issues in his life. And yet, he’s the most outspoken and unpredictable kid in the family. Do you think these qualities he carries are a result of his insecurities, or does he just exude a careless confidence?
Certainly. I didn’t see him as necessarily [having] intimacy issues, but I actually do, now that you say it. That’s quite possible. I don’t usually think too deeply for stuff like that. I’ll only think as deeply as I feel like he would have. Like most people that are putting out that sort of careless, “I don’t give a shit,” thing, it most certainly comes from a place of insecurity. But he’s aware of it to a certain extent.

When we started shooting the pilot, I sort of made one choice with him or one thing that made sense to me which was that, “Okay. Roman is the kind of guy who makes sure he’s comfortable in any room he walks into,” which comes from him walking in, feeling vulnerable, and then, he has this safety built into him where it’s like, “Oh, I feel insecure. I’m gonna do something weird. I’m gonna insult somebody to make them feel bad so that I feel better,” because that probably comes from an insecure place. But that’s why he does that thing in his office, too. It’s, “Oh, I feel off. I need to change it or just fix it.”

He’s insecure because he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s COO of the company. There’s so many more people that work beneath him that he’s in charge of that are, I’m sure, smarter than him – and he’s aware of that – and probably suited for the job.

You kind of make a joke on the show that Roman has borderline personality disorder. What exactly do you think he suffers from? Would you consider him the biggest black sheep in the family?
Borderline personality disorder is pretty right. he’s one of those rare, self-aware sociopaths. he would otherwise be considered a black sheep in the family if it weren’t for Connor (Alan Ruck) who, is I would say, the clear black sheep of the family, not just because of his erratic behavior or the fact that he’s quite a bit older than us and comes from a different mother. We’ve sort of made him an outsider just because he’s [laughter] weird, but he’s also really trying his best to be in touch with his emotions, which seems to be something that the rest of the family doesn’t like to do. One turns to drugs. The other just becomes sort of an asshole. Actually, one person that is a little more on top of it as a pretty whole person is Shiv (Sarah Snook). But she has her hang-ups and issues, as well.

You have “I don’t give a fuck” qualities in “Igby Goes Down,” “Infinity Baby” and a few others. How similar are you to Roman? How have you developed such an affinity for playing quirky sociopaths? [Laughter] I don’t really know, though. I’m not sure. Were you the guy who saw “Infinity Baby?”

I was the one guy, yeah. 
Because that was another one where I was like, “Oo, this guy is awful,” I was like, “I must play.” And it wasn’t until we just started to do it that I was like, “Oh, I get it. Total sociopath.” And that’s just appealing to me because I know people like that in my life and sometimes it’s incredibly frustrating. I used to have zero tolerance for that kind of behavior. And now, I’m kind of like, “Oh, I get it. You’re not great, but it’s not really your fault [laughter].” It’s therapeutic, in a way.

What’s it like working with Brian Cox?
I gotta say something about Brian too. He is just effort-effortlessly fantastic. He shows up prepared and he simply does his job, and does it so well. Whereas, some of us have just struggled from time to time. But he’s just, like, “No, no, no. I got it. It’s this.” And it’s wonderful to be around, to just simply be in a room because we already know our lines, we’re already in our costumes, we’ve gotten all the bullshit out of the way. So, now, it’s just a matter of playing the scene.

You’ve been acting steadily for almost three decades now and you started acting with your brother in “Home Alone.” What are some of the things that you may have learned about the industry or the craft of acting having grown up with a family of actors?
In terms of acting, that part of my job I can’t really take anything from what I did as a kid and apply it to what I do now because it’s just not the same thing. Not for me, anyway. And I also think that I just wasn’t very good as a kid. But the standards for a good kid actor are sometimes kind of low. Basically, all you really have to do is show up to work on time, know how to hit your mark, and know all your lines.

I had a director, Burr Steers, when I was 18. It’s funny because it was the first job [“Igby Goes Down“] I did actually, technically, as an adult. And it was the first time I feel like I was really working as an adult. And he basically said before we started shooting, “I want you to just remove everything that you ever thought you learned as a kid actor and just don’t do any of that stuff.” Basically saying, “Approach this as your first job.” And I was like, “I’m on board.” And I learned so much from that guy and from working on that project, throwing away everything that I thought I knew because, apparently, I didn’t know shit [laughter].

You’ve acted in both visual mediums now. Do you prefer film or TV?
Well, TV always terrified me because the idea of not having an idea of where it’s going. And when I do a movie, I’ve shot it. It’s done. And now, I actually just don’t care what the response is because I’ve already done it. So, this is a very different kind of feeling because we did it already, but because we’re gonna do it again [in other seasons]. The way we shot it and did it, it was like doing a six-month shoot, but it felt like we shot a six-month-long film.

When [“Succession” season one was ending], I was like, “Oh, man. I’m actually having a great time playing this guy. I’m gonna miss it when this is over.” And then, when we did finish, I was like, “Oh, wait. That’s right. There’s a possibility we may do this again.” So, it getting picked up actually made me very excited because I get to go and be this guy again, unless they kill me off in the first episode or something like that [laughter].

Do you have any details of season two of “Succession”?
Well, not only would I probably not be able to share it, I don’t even have the vaguest idea of where the show is going. I’ve heard a rumor or two, [but] I have no idea. They’re in the writers’ room now. I have no idea what they’re coming up with. I’m not even sure how many episodes we’re doing for this year. I just assumed we were gonna do another 10, but I actually don’t even know that now. I have some ideas of my own. And everybody else just sort of has some sort of guesses as to where we think it’s gonna go. But we don’t know.

“Succession” currently airs on HBO every Sunday at 10 pm.