Kieran Culkin’s episode of The Hot Ones aired today (April 6). Culkin is currently starring as Roman Roy in the final season of HBO’s drama Succession.
In the episode, presented by Amazon Prime, Culkin participated in the traditional Hot Ones formula: he tried X spices, each getting hotter in succession (sorry, not a pun!). The set-up of Hot Ones includes an interview with Sean Evans, a gifted interviewer who just gets better and better with each season of the show.
- Classic Chili Maple, Scoville rating: 1600
- Shaquanda’s Banjee Ranch, Scoville rating: 6200
- Donis Cadejo Hot Sauce, Scoville rating: 15,000
- Hot Ones Los Calientes Verde Hot Sauce, Scoville rating: 36,000
- Brooklyn Delhi Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce, Scoville rating: 39,000
- Torchbearer Sauces Mushroom Mayhem Hot Sauce, Scoville rating: 68,000
- Angry Goat Dreams of Calypso Hot Sauce, Scoville rating: 101,000
- Da Bomb Beyond Insanity Hot Sauce, Scoville rating: 135,600
- Butterfly Bakery of Vermont Taco Vibes Only Hot Sauce, Scoville rating: 638,000
- Hot Ones The Last Dab Apollo Hot Sauce, Scoville rating: TBA
Here are 7 quotes that give us insight into Kieran Culkin, his career, and even his favorite sandwiches.
On Succession ending: “It feels like there’s so much more I wanted to do, which is probably a good thing. Instead of the opposite, which is feeling like, okay I’ve done this already.”
On his friend Michael Cera: “Well he’s also wildly competitive. But like sort of under the radar, sort of just, I’ll teach him a game that I’ve been playing for years and be like, ‘Here, I’ll sort of teach you how to play. I’ll go easy on you.’ And then he whoops my ass, and I can never beat him again. Like, he’s just that guy. And he plays like every instrument and he taught himself how. . .Stop being perfect.”
On Dave Bautista as a wrestler vs. as an actor: “Bautista was sort of decent as a wrestler who didn’t have, like, the most appealing screen presence as a wrestler. And then I saw him in Guardians of the Galaxy, and he blew me away. I was like, this guy is so funny, where the hell was this guy? I guess the character he was playing as a wrestler didn’t have much humor to him, and he wasn’t really that alive. And that’s the thing, too, with wrestling, too. Once you find your character, that’s the character you play for 30 years.”
On putting together an SNL monologue: “I stressed out about that more than anything else, because it was personal. . .I just wasn’t looking at the sketches because I was just doing that. . .So I just focused on the monologue, and in the end, I was pretty pleased with it.”
On his way of making grilled cheese: “There was this deli I used to go to, me and my friend, drunk, and we would just tell them to make sandwiches and we would throw out different ingredients. And this one time, I threw it out, and it was so good, I made it at home. It was Muenster, with mushrooms that I sauteed with butter and teriyaki sauce. Put it on the Muenster, and then you put a bunch of garlic salt and garlic powder on the butter that you use to make the grilled cheese with. Very good.”
On the experience of eating the hot sauces, to Sean Evans: “So, do people like you after this show?”
On movies that you remember as awesome…but might not be: “I have a friend who recently watched Goodfellas for the first time. Didn’t watch it when it came out, so he’s heard all this hype. He’s like, ‘That movie’s terrible.’ And I’m like ‘F*** you, that movie’s amazing, I’ve seen it like 8 times!’ But whens’ the last time you saw it? ‘Yeah, whatever, twenty years ago.’ And he just gave you his review of it, and based on his review, I’m like, Oh my god, does that movie suck?”
