Suddenly Culkin begins vigorously brushing pistachio detritus from his clothes.
“We’re all our characters,” he notes with a smile.
My wife asked me how was work, and I said, “Good!
I think we have something here.
[Everyone laughs] Total imposter syndrome!
They knew exactly what they were doing.
That episode where I broke my foot running up and down the street, stupidly.
Yeah, the proxy call.
Once that fuse was lit for me in episode 6, it never stopped for me again.
The show went from cult hit toEmmy-nominatedphenomenon this year.
So they were ready to go on the ride.
Like, “Ouch?
CULKIN: People just shout at me on the street.
They did that a little after season 1, like, “Oh you’re on that show.”
Now they know the name of the show and they yell it at me.
It’s like, “Thank you.
You should know me in real life, I’m an absolute prick.
But this woman thinks I’m nice, so let’s keep the facade.”
“Mmmmm, me!
Everyone loves me!”
I think it’s good for you.
SNOOK: Wearing the “LOG” shirt.
STRONG: It’s so funny how that [happened].
I wear that Jersey for Kendall’s rap [in the season 2 episode “Dundee”].
That wasn’t called for [in the script].
I was like, “Think we can get this made?”
And so she had one made, and now people wear it for Halloween!
And that’s crazy.
CULKIN: You don’t want to have how you perceive the show to actually influence the work.
We’re just doing the work.”
I don’t feel like I’m seeing the show once we’re on set.
But going into the third season, it’s quite different.
I don’t feel like I have to start in the ninth circle of hell.
STRONG: …was the finale.
“CULKIN: And he alsojerked off in a bathroom.
And I was hoping to see the reason why.
And I started to [this season] little bits here and there.
STRONG: There was a certain courage of your convictions that started to happen.
I might as well just be honest.
STRONG: I also think on a fundamental level, the show is about individuation.
STRONG: …that’s the Trojan horse of it.
But it’s the evolution of these people, and we all went through our own process of that.
SNOOK: That’s the exciting potential journey of the show.
[To Strong] I think you’re right.
It’s not about who’s going to take over.
It’s not about who’s right to take over.
And that they’ve been told their whole lives they are meant to want this.
SNOOK: So you knew the whole time?
Oh, my God!
There’s this sort of darkening and annihilation of his soul that prepares him for something.
I don’t even know that Jesse and I agree with the reason for [Kendall’s] decision.
STRONG: I don’t think we do.
So that’s not new information.
The new information to me is Logan’s complicity in what happened [on the cruise ships].
Like when he says to Kendall, “No real person involved.
“STRONG: Yeah, exactly.
It doesn’t become about self-interest.
It’s about what needs to be done.
CULKIN: There are some funny fan theories [about the finale].
When he told me [their theory], I said, “Yeah, that’s bulls.”
He goes, “Do you mind if I take a video of you saying it’s bulls?”
His theory was that all the kids were in on Kendall’s decision.
I want to talk about that really tender moment between Kendall and Shiv in “Safe Room.”
They’re just desperate for some kind of affection.
You’ve seen both of our parents they clearly didn’t give us that language or that capacity.
And then “No?
There would be the broadsheets of all the newspapers on the table every day.
It’s a very different way of growing up.
CULKIN: Sometimes you just make a choice.
And so I’ll just make a decision about what that was [about].
Maybe the best example of this is Alan Ruck as Connor.
I feel like he just created that entire character.
Alan, talk about your home.”
And so he just started talking about this ranch that Connor has in New Mexico.
STRONG: And the aquifers.
To this 7-year-old kid!
CULKIN: I was terrified of improv.
I remember seeing Alan do that and [thinking], “I need to leave.
I need to find the back door.”
STRONG: Alan is just brilliant.
CULKIN: He can join any conversation and have a really amazing story that goes with it.
STRONG: It’s interesting about the backstory stuff.
In it, he talks about how the Merry Pranksters used to call Ken the anti-navigator.
There are really funny moments in season 2.
Like the “we hear for you” scene [in “Argestes”].
And then the chicken power-play scene.
CULKIN: I watched that scene 12 times, maybe 13?
“Thank you for the chicken.”
Matthew and I just completely lost it.
STRONG: He’s a heavyweight champion.
He possesses something when you’re in a scene with him that is sort of primal and actually dangerous.
Most of the great actors have that.
He’s the best scene partner you could ask for.
CULKIN: “It was Kieran that made me cry!”
STRONG: I was doing off-camera [lines].
And [Logan’s] cruelty in that moment, I really felt it.
We need to discuss the rap.
SNOOK: It was written in the script, but not the whole thing.
It was just like “Kendall does a rap,” with one verse.
And you didn’t want to do it at first!
STRONG: No, I immediately went to Jesse.
Jesse was like, something like that.
And then he said [Successioncomposer] Nick Britell is going to work on it.
Then Nick texted me saying, “I want to do the rap for you over the phone.”
I still have the recording on my phone of him doing the rap for me for the first time.
He played this beat.
And you know, Nick is obviously a brilliant composer and a real hip-hop aficionado.
When I heard him do it, I was like, “Oh, this is amazing.”
I only had four days until we shot it.
And we were working for two of those days.
SNOOK: People ask if we rehearse a lot.
CULKIN: We don’t rehearse at all.
So their responses, which are the best part of it, are genuine.
That was really how we were talking about it.
SNOOK: Shiv’s scripted response was completely different to what my actual response was.
I was actually filming on my phone as well.
STRONG: We had to do it a lot of times.
CULKIN: But it never ceased to make me be like, “Oh my God, stop!”
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