Kieran Culkin is confessing to a prank he pulled almost 25 years ago on his former Broadway co-star Mark Ruffalo.
The 42-year-old actor was just 17 when he starred in a 2000 production of James Lapine’s The Moment When.
One scene called for Ruffalo to roll and smoke a fake joint, and Culkin revealed that there was a ‘bag of fake joints’ and traded one of them for a real one.
“I was 17 and stupid,” Culkin admitted, adding that weeks later, he smelled marijuana and knew Ruffalo found the real joint on stage.
He added that he “just watched” Ruffalo take long drags of what he thought was fake weed.
“I thought, ‘I thought that was a good joke. I’m stupid. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry. “But they actually loved it,” Culkin admitted.
Kieran Culkin is confessing to a prank he pulled almost 25 years ago on his former Broadway co-star Mark Ruffalo.
One scene called for Ruffalo to roll and smoke a fake joint, and Culkin revealed that there was a ‘bag of fake joints’ and traded one of them for a real one.
“Mark says, ‘I haven’t smoked marijuana in 10 years; The second half is going to be a lot of fun,” Culkin added.
He said there was another co-star, ‘who had never smoked marijuana in her life,’ who said, ‘Is this what it’s like to be high? This is lovely.’
“And then Phyllis Newman comes in and says, ‘I haven’t smoked pot since the ’60s. Thanks, honey,” Culkin said, though he admitted the stage manager wasn’t so happy.
“Then the stage manager stomps in and says, ‘I don’t care who it is or what happened, but Kieran, give me the joint,'” he recalled.
“I timidly handed her the cockroach and she said, ‘Ruin your life on your own time,'” Culkin added.
Ruffalo previously spoke about the incident in 2012 during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, although he did not identify Culkin as the culprit.
‘There was a play I did where I had to smoke a joint in the first scene. And, of course, there was a very mischievous young actor I was in the play with, who on opening night, with all the critics, slid a real joint across the prop table,” Ruffalo said.
He admitted that he tends to “overdo everything” when performing on stage, and explained that he was inhaling big puffs of what he thought was fake marijuana.
“Mark says, ‘I haven’t smoked marijuana in 10 years; The second half is going to be a lot of fun,” Culkin added.
He said there was another co-star, ‘who had never smoked marijuana in her life,’ who said, ‘Is this what it’s like to be high? This is lovely’
“Then the stage manager stomps in and says, ‘I don’t care who it is or what happened, but Kieran, give me the joint,'” he recalled.
‘And the guy who put the joint on the prop table is standing there (laughs). And I was just like, “Oh, shit,” he said.
“Between the two of us we smoked a giant joint on stage. And I was like, ‘Man, I’m in it tonight. I’m sorry. I’m on fire. I’m feeling it…why is that guy backstage laughing at me?'” Ruffalo said.
‘And the guy who put the joint on the prop table is standing there (laughs). And I was just like, “Oh, shit,” he said.
“But at the end of the play, I got the best reviews of my entire career,” Ruffalo said, although he admitted that it was a “nightmare experience” and that he would “never do that again.”
Culkin is currently earning rave reviews for his performance in A Real Pain and will return to Broadway this spring in a revival of Glengarry Glen Ross.