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Actor Brian Cox had the whole world savagely muttering ‘F*ck Off’ with his Golden Globe-winning performance as the media mogul Logan Roy in the HBO showSuccession. The satirical drama series had its fourth and final season earlier this year and the season finale had 2.9 million viewers, making it the most watched episode of the show.
Cox’s performance has been lauded by many, with the makers extending the character after seeing the Scottish actor’s performance. However, the actor once got director Mark Mylod spooked after he walked into busy traffic while being in character.
Also read:“You don’t always like the people that you love”: Succession Star Jeremy Strong Claps Back at Co-Star Brian Cox for Criticizing His Method Acting as Series Set to Return for 4th Season
Brian Cox As Logan Roy
It is impossible to imagineSuccessionwithout the stronghold ofBrian Cox’s Logan Roy. The old-timer is everywhere in the show, even when he is not physically present. Logan Roy is a flawed father who, according to Cox, is disappointed with human beings. He mentioned in an interview withThe Guardianhow he saw the character and how he as a person connected with Roy,
“Look, the one thing Logan and I share is our disappointment in the human being. Like this farce that we all watched of [Jeff] Bezos going up in the sky, started by Branson. What the fck are they doing? He went up there for 11 minutes and then came back down. And you go: ‘So fcking what?’”
Also read:“It could’ve gone more”: Succession Star Disagrees With Brian Cox, Claims Series Can Go Beyond Season 4 After Final Season Confirmation
Series creator Jesse Armstrong does not reveal much about Logan Roy’s past in the series. There is no flashback that reveals when he started the conglomerate and how he became such a ruthless capitalist who would go to war against his own children. Many have compared the CEO to Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch. While Cox disregarded Trump as an inspiration, Murdoch is someone that Armstrong said the team looked at. He revealed in aHBOinterview,
“We thought of famous media families like the Hearsts, to modern-day Redstone, John Malone, Robert Fitz of Comcast, Murdoch, and Robert and Rebekah Mercer, who founded Breitbart. Lots of real-life moguls. We collected a myriad of these kinds of relationships that we knew about.”
Cox brought in a lot of nuance to the character and is mostly the reason Logan Roy seems so cold and menacing despite not knowing much of the character’s history. In fact, his performance was so good that the makers canceled their plan to kill off the character at the end of the first season. For his performance, he won a Golden Globe Award and has been nominated for Primetime Emmy Awards.
Also read:Succession Lead Brian Cox Reveals Which Character He Would’ve Played Instead of Infamous Logan Roy: “Because of his relationship with my horrible daughter…”
Brian Cox Spooked His Directors While Improvising As Logan Roy
While the writing ofSuccessionhas been lauded time and again, the show boasts of seasoned performers who have all the capabilities to improvise in a great scene. The series stars actors such as Jeremey Strong, Kieran Kulkin, Sarah Snook, Alan Ruck, and Matthew Macfadyen. While Brian Cox mentioned that there were moments of improvisation in the show, he did say that he was not a fan of the process.
In an interview withThe Guardian,he said,
“I’m a great believer in the script. I don’t mind improvisation. I can improvise with the best of them. And yes, we do a fair bit of improvisation in Succession. Sometimes it can release an actor. But in general, it doesn’t release me. The script releases me.”
However, the actor recounted one scene where the team was filming at an airport, and director Mark Mylod gave a note to the actor to show a bit of ‘craziness’. The team was shooting the first episode of the third season and it was the scene where Logan Roy realized that he would not be CEO anymore. Cox mentioned that he had a novel idea to bring out the ‘craziness’ by walking into oncoming traffic. He recalled,
“…I was on the phone, and I started to walk. There was all this traffic, so I thought: ‘I’ll just walk on the main road.’ So I did that and they went f*cking nuts! ‘Get back! You’ll kill yourself! Don’t go down there!’ I said: ‘You wanted me to do something crazy so…’ And they’re going: ‘Not in the cars!’”
Cox reportedly felt that it would be great if he could get into the cars on the scene. However, Mylod stopped him, saying that it was a bit much.
Also read:“I did feel a little bit rejected”: Brian Cox Feels His Succession Character Should Return Despite Shocking Death Scene
Source:The Guardian
Nishanth A
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2419
Nishanth A is a Senior Entertainment Writer at FandomWire, majorly focusing on TV shows with over 2,000 articles published. He has been an entertainment journalist for the past two years and a scriptwriter at various corporations before that, working on educational content. With a Communications, English Literature, and Psychology triple major, Nishanth usually covers news and analyses on Star Trek, particularly Strange New Worlds and The Next Generation; Doctor Who, the DCU, and more.A Nolan fan, Nishanth spends his time exploring the filmographies of various directors with an auteurial style or can be found making short movies of his own. He has also contributed as a feature writer for Film Companion, focusing on the South division.
