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It’s the question every fan wants answered: who will take control of media giant Waystar Royco in tonight’s finale of the hit HBO show?
“I’m fascinated to find out,” said Peter Friedman, who plays Frank Vernon, Waystar Royco’s vice chairman and former consigliere to the late Logan Roy (Brian Cox). “I look at Reddit sometimes and I can tell you people are on the right track,” Friedman told the Guardian in an interview. “The darts are scattered everywhere. But they’ve narrowed it down to what’s actually going to happen.”
Friedman said the cast remained largely in the dark about the plot of the finale. Friedman said when Harriet Walter, who plays Logan’s ex-wife Lady Caroline, arrived for the big funeral scene, she wasn’t sure who had died.
“She saw all the black clothes and said, ‘Who died?’ It was kept secret even from her,” Friedman said. He added that he accidentally told his wife the big secret.
“I accidentally mentioned something funny that happened in Norway. She said, ‘Wait, is Logan dead?'”
Producers even created decoys to deflect public suspicion.
“When you think about all the extras at Logan’s funeral or Connor’s wedding, it’s amazing that nothing leaked out,” Friedman said. “Some fans online enlarged the funeral service order – I think Sarah (Snook who plays Shiv) had it in hand – and it said ‘Ewan Roy’. [Logan’s estranged brother, played by James Cromwell]. They actually printed a lot of decoys to scare people away.”
Who does Friedman want to win? Friedman said he’s “in love with Lukas Mattson, the weird billionaire CEO of GoJo who once put a frozen brick of his own blood on an employee.”
“His acting is so beautiful – upbeat and confident yet fearful – I would choose him,” Friedman said. “As a viewer, I’d say, ‘These kids aren’t up to it.’ I think Frank wishes Kendall would stop and be a musician somewhere. Please get out of here and live a peaceful life! He just wants to see her happy, which probably won’t happen.”