With jeans and jacket and shoes with comfortable beach shoes. This is how Brian Cox (Dundee, Scotland, 76 years old) received journalists who interviewed him this Thursday in a luxury hotel in Madrid. A far cry in spirit and looks from Logan Roy, the billionaire media mogul and head of the ill-fated family who stars in Succession. The creation of screenwriter Jesse Armstrong has just premiered its fourth and final season on HBO Max and is expected to depart as a great heir to the titles that brought prestige to the American cable channel. Another thing Brian Cox and Logan Roy don’t share: Throughout the interview, he only posts two derivatives of fuck (fuck), but no fuck off.
Questions. After such a long career, what did a role like Logan Roy mean to you?
Answer. It was a great experience, a great gift. It has outgrown me, it has become an icon. Although there is something uncomfortable about me not being scary to people, Logan is scary. It’s also true that sometimes people make you think, “Keep the damn distance”. Now I don’t have to do that anymore. Another thing I miss a bit is the anonymity. Some people used to know me, and they kept thinking, “Ah, yeah, you’re the one who performed in…”. But now that’s gone, and Logan is a ubiquitous individual. I had no idea Succession would be so successful. I knew it was a great show, don’t get me wrong, I’ve always loved it and it has an amazing script, but I didn’t know people would go crazy like it did. Wherever you go, there is an extraordinary response from people. A man walked into the hotel the other day and said, “You’re like the guy who plays Logan Roy.” And I said, “I’m Logan.” And he said, ‘Oh my God! You are very attractive”. I had never been described as attractive.
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Questions. Why do you think it happened that the series was so successful? What drew us to the characters?
Answer. We become addicted to seeing this kind of greed naked. These kids, you can’t believe how screwed up they are. We have a drive that pulls us as spectators into the gladiator spectacle. As gladiators, we love to see people throw shit at others, whether it’s with swords in the arena or on TV, and see broken families explode right under our noses. We find it reassuring. This shows in which stage of evolution we are. We haven’t evolved at all. I’m not criticizing people seeing it, that’s fine, but that’s why we love to see horrible things.
Questions. Do you consider Succession a drama or a comedy?
Answer. I would say it’s more of a satire. It has comedic elements, but it’s quite political. It’s a series that constantly raises questions.
Brian Cox and Matthew Macfadyen in the first episode of the fourth season of Succession.
Questions. From Succession you can also extract reflections on wealth and people’s relationship to power and money. What moral reading do you draw from the characters’ behavior?
Answer. People in this position disconnect from any form of earthly reality. Logan is a careerist, he only cares about his business, which led him in a direction and made him successful. I like to think that he had some ideals when he was young, but they were quickly eroded. And he created this family. He remembers his children as children and he loves those children, but now they have become monsters. He’s partly responsible for it, but he doesn’t bear all the responsibility. I think viewers blame him too much. We tend to hold parents responsible for who we are, and I think there’s some legitimacy to that, but there comes a point where you can’t go on. After the age of 21 you are responsible for yourself, you can’t keep blaming your mother and father, you have to admit who you are and I don’t think we do. People avoid being responsible for who they are. What they do is adopt a belief system, I don’t care if it’s Judaism, Islam or Catholicism, and if you’re a good boy you go to heaven. It’s really all crap.
Questions. Are extremely rich people so different from those who are not?
Answer. They are because they live in a bubble that they created. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not judging them all. When people use wealth for good intentions, that’s okay. Philanthropy is great, we all depend on it, my job depends on it, on the generosity of strangers. But it’s important to remember who you are. I have never considered myself working class. When I was a kid we got along. I lived in a very small neighborhood and we lived with just enough, we were lower middle class, more than working class. Later we became inferior because we lost everything. And you have to adapt.
Actor Brian Cox, Logan Roy in “Succession” pictured February 2023. Colin Hutton
Questions. Coming from there and considering yourself a socialist, is it easy not to judge characters who are so far from it?
Answer. Actors don’t judge characters. We present them with all their flaws and it’s up to the audience to judge them. And sometimes viewers judge them right, but often they get it wrong. A lot of people project things onto the characters. This in turn has to do with the evolutionary state in which we find ourselves.
Questions. Yesterday he visited the Prado Museum and said that people identify him with Goya’s Saturn devouring his son…
Answer. Yes, yes, and it was an unfortunate comment because it reinforces the myth. Logan doesn’t eat his kids, but people compare me to this painting, I was there and well…
Questions. Did you use other references to build Logan Roy?
Answer. No. It’s day to day, you see people who are in that situation, you hear stories about them… But it’s also your creation and you don’t always need references to create something. When we are young we do a lot of research, but I go back to childhood. Children have an instinct that we tend to forget later. We believe that we need to search in books and accumulate a lot of knowledge. Children don’t do any of this, they just do it, they are in the present.
Questions. In some statements he has questioned the acting methods of one of his series partners [en concreto, el de Jeremy Strong, que permanece en el personaje incluso cuando no rueda]. What do you think of the other actors in Succession?
Answer. We have a fantastic, really fantastic cast. Each of them is great and has gotten even better over time. Sarah Snook is phenomenal. I’ve never seen the series. My wife sees it and tells me. But I saw last night’s scene with Matthew. [Macfadyen] and Sara [Snook] in the bedroom, and Sarah’s performance is beautiful. And Matthew of course. I love what all the actors do, they are great.
Matthew Macfadyen and Sarah Snook in the first episode of the fourth season of Succession.
Questions. Why did Jesse Armstron decide to end the series in season four?
Answer. Because many series go further than they should. He doesn’t believe in endless television, he believes in endless television. And if you think about it, it’s four seasons, three sons, three seasons, one father, fourth season. It’s the perfect unit. I think it was hard for him, it was painful to make that decision, but he made it. And then he lives in England, but he’s been spending a lot of time in America lately and it’s tiring. I live in Brooklyn, I went there for many reasons, because I wanted to make films. I lived in Hollywood for a while, not anymore. But I understand that it is tiring for your family and it is tiring work for the Creator. He’s been working on this show since 2014 or so, about nine years, and he wants to do other things.
Questions. Without gutting anything, what do you think of the ending?
Answer. I think it’s okay, it’s great. It brings a lot of peace. Logan reaches a point of peace that is okay.
Questions. And you, have you thought about retiring?
Answer. I!? Retire!? Nonsense! No, no, I will never retire. In fact, I think I’ve given myself too much work to do this year. I will forcibly retire if I can’t remember what I am or if Alzheimer’s strikes and I don’t know where the hell I am. So I’ll probably retire, but I don’t intend to.
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