Kieran Culkin thanks Jesse Eisenberg’s sister in SAG Awards speech — here’s how you know her

We guess it runs in the family.

During Sunday’s 2025 SAG Awards, Kieran Culkin, himself part of an acting family with brothers Macaulay and Rory, thanked Jesse Eisenberg’s sister, Hallie, while accepting the award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role.

Culkin won for his portrayal of Eisenberg’s cousin in A Real Pain, a dramedy that Eisenberg wrote, directed, and costarred in. In his speech, Culkin revealed that Hallie, Eisenberg’s sister, encouraged her brother to cast Culkin even though he had never seen Culkin’s work (and without an audition).

“For those of you who don’t know, he cast me in this without auditioning me or ever seeing my work, which he thinks is normal and I can’t even get into how annoyingly wrong he is,” Culkin quipped. “But he cast me because his sister told him to. He puts a lot of faith in her, which is really sweet, but dumb, so yes, thank you Jesse for putting me in this movie, but I want to take a moment to thank your sister, Hallie. Thank you Hallie for thinking of me and putting my name in your stupid brother’s ear.”

Hallie Eisenberg is a former actor herself, having halted her film career to attend college in 2010. Audiences will know her best from a series of Pepsi commercials in the late 1990s and early 2000s that earned her the moniker, “The Pepsi Girl.” One of her most memorable commercials featured her ordering a Pepsi, only to be told they only have Coca-Cola. Upon hearing this, the voice of Joe Pesci immediately begins to issue from her body as she loses it.

Her other projects include Paulie with Jay Mohr, Beautiful with Minnie Driver, Bicentennial Man with Robin Williams, Swing Vote with Andy Garcia, a feature film adaptation of children’s novel How to Eat Fried Worms, and a TV remake of The Goodbye Girl.

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In A Real Pain, Jesse Eisenberg and Culkin portray two cousins who go on a trip to Poland to learn about where their late grandmother came from and spread her ashes.

Culkin has swept the Supporting Actor category throughout the 2025 awards season. His SAG Award win comes after already nabbing the same honor at the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards, easily establishing him as the Oscar frontrunner in his category.

See the full list of SAG Award winners.