Kieran Culkin Praised For Appropriate And Hilarious Response To Racist Remark
Kieran Culkin didn’t have to utter a single word to express his feelings about an ignorant statement.
A resurfaced video clip from 2016 has been getting a lot of attention on social media this week due to the “Succession” star’s pitch-perfect reaction to French American actor Julie Delpy.
At that year’s Sundance Film Festival, Culkin, Delpy and Danny DeVito took part in a panel event organized by TheWrap to promote the film “Wiener-Dog.”
Delpy — who garnered two Oscar nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay after 2004’s “Before Sunset” and 2013’s “Before Midnight” — was lamenting how the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had dismissed her complaints about its lack of diversity.
“Two years ago, I said something about the Academy being very white male, which is the reality, and I was slashed to pieces by the media,” Delpy said at the time. “It’s funny — women can’t talk. I sometimes wish I were African American because people don’t bash them afterward.”
In footage of the moment, Culkin, who is seated next to Delpy, can be seen lowering his face and rubbing his forehead in apparent frustration or secondhand embarrassment. DeVito’s jaw also drops after Delpy makes the loaded remark.
Oh dear 👵🏼 pic.twitter.com/ft6VqPzJ0I
— Ali Benzekri (@Alibenzkr) March 27, 2024
People on X, formerly Twitter, praised Culkin’s appropriately funny reaction to Delpy’s comments.
Kieran wanted the earth to swallow him
— Serendipity (@suspiriurum) March 27, 2024
Put it in the Louvre pic.twitter.com/BKzN2uWRmW
— chris evans (@notcapnamerica) March 27, 2024
Rubbing his forehead like "there's no place like home, there's no place like home"..LOL. If "anywhere but here, Lord" were a person....
— Cornelia (@TaylorMadeCori) March 27, 2024
Kieran Culkin literally went into Succession character pic.twitter.com/H43As9GRRl
— Devanayagam (@Devanayagam) March 27, 2024
"Where's that Earth-splitting earthquake when you need one!" pic.twitter.com/As0r6iNg7T
— Sam ALT Man (@k0ol1) March 27, 2024
Others appreciated DeVito’s response as well.
Everyone mentioned Kieran but Danny Devito just staring paralyzed and dropping his jaw at the very end is killing me 😭
— ૮₍˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶₎ა (@theiconicashley) March 27, 2024
Danny DeVito is looking at her like a person who can see the iceberg but can’t stop the Titanic.
— 🇫🇮Dr. Ali Shahed🇺🇸 (@mlhobbyist) March 27, 2024
If “WTF are you taking about” was a person pic.twitter.com/b1ZF0HMMU3
— Abraham Anania (@HouseofAnania) March 27, 2024
Danny DeVito thinking: “This is more offensive than anything I’ve said on ‘Sunny’”
— Just Dave ⛏✭🖖🏽 (@El_Daverino) March 27, 2024
Several X users had a few thoughts on Delpy’s remarks.
“People don’t bash them afterwards” 😑Where she from cause it couldn’t possibly be planet Earth.
— Shaw ✊🏾📺 (@LaDiDaShaw) March 27, 2024
What is so cringy about her words is that they have no historical or current truth, NONE. Not in America, not Europe, not even in country’s under Black leadership. Upon our enslavement, upon colonization we have been censored & PUNISHED when we speak up, YET we do so ANYWAY
— Sharone Wellington-deAnda🖖🏾 (@DeandaSharone) March 27, 2024
Maybe she could do a "Before Sunset" reboot but it's about towns she can't be in after dark
— cosmodrum (@Jackietreehog3) March 27, 2024
I love the immediate panic in their voice when white ppl let their racism slip on national television and now they have to over explain lmao
— Back Outside Girl 🦉 (@Leilarrr92) March 27, 2024
Although the clip circulating online cuts off after Delpy makes her biased statement, she continued to underscore her opinion that women are silenced more than Black Americans.
“It’s the hardest to be a woman,” Delpy said at the event. “Feminists is something people hate above all. Nothing worse than being a woman in this business. I really believe that.”
Not that we need to rehash the centuries of oppression that Black Americans have been forced to endure, but if we were to look back at recent history, we’d like to think that former quarterback Colin Kaepernick might have a few choice words for Delpy about being silenced.