Kieran Culkin She lost “a huge piece of herself” when her older sister, Dakota Culkin, died in 2008.

Inheritance 42-year-old actor, extended family with his six siblings Macaulay Culkin and Dakota.

Dakota worked on the other side of the camera as an art production assistant on the 2009 supernatural thriller. Lost Soul. Dakota was 29 years old when she was hit by a car while crossing the street in Marina del Ray, California, in 2008.

“I only knew who I was because of my siblings,” Culkin said. CBS Sunday Morning In an interview published on Sunday, November 3. “So losing someone was losing a big part of myself.”

Culkin says the pain of Dakota’s death is something he must learn to live with.

“Losing one of my favorite people in the world couldn’t be better,” he continued. “It doesn’t get easier, but you get used to it.”

Culkin found a way to keep his sister’s memory close to him in the years following her death. he said Inheritance The character Roman Roy’s humor reminded him of his sister’s humor.

“After a couple of seasons, I noticed there were some things Roman was doing and I thought, ‘Oh, that’s my sister,'” she explained. “‘That was her sense of humor.’ He could find exactly the right thing that interests you to make fun of you, but he had to be really funny and make the room laugh. That was it.”

Culkin said the brothers were extremely close growing up. They stuck together, and Culkin took on the role of a protective brother, always making sure everyone was accounted for.

“When the door opened to let the kids in,” she shared. “Before I went in, I would stand to the side and count to make sure all six got in. That’s how I remember growing up, too. I couldn’t ‘I won’t sleep until they all fall asleep. I only existed because they were around me.”

Dakota was the second child of Kit Culkin and Patricia Brentrup. At the time of her death in 2008, Dakota had recently moved from New York City to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film production, her friend Andrea Poe said. I told the people.

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“He was very humble (about his name), but he was also proud of his siblings,” Poe said. “He was very close to Macaulay. They would often talk on the phone or go out to eat.”

Dakota’s name lives on in the Culkin family. When Macaulay and Brenda Song, 44, gave birth to their first child in 2021, they named the baby boy Dakota.

Culkin, who has two children — kinsey And Wild – with Jazz CharterThe 36-year-old said it was difficult knowing her children would never meet their aunt.

“I accepted at the time that this was going to last forever and it was never going to be good. It was always going to be devastating,” the actor said. Hollywood Reporter from grief. “I still cry out of the blue. I’ll think of something funny he did and make me laugh, and then I’ll cry.