Brian Cox Talks Trash Like Logan Roy When It Comes to Jeremy Strong
Succession star Brian Cox claims to despise method acting, but his public pantsing of Jeremy Strong’s preparation strategy couldn’t be more in character.
Cox has commented on Strong’s notorious dedication to staying in character when the cameras stop rolling on multiple occasions. Most recently, the traditional thespian told Town & Country that he finds the actor who plays his on-screen son’s method approach “fucking annoying,” in contrast to what had been previously described as Cox’s “fatherly concern” for Strong’s strenuous commitment to playing the complicated and tortured Kendall Roy during every waking moment of Succession’s production schedule.
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Fans of the massively acclaimed Succession will understand that Cox’s profanity-laden public comments on his co-star are, in fact, incredibly fatherly — if that father is a belligerent billionaire who once tried to send his son to prison.
“Don’t get me going on it,” Cox told Town & Country when asked if he found Strong’s commitment to his character grating. “He’s a very good actor,” Cox complimented his co-star, “and the rest of the ensemble is all okay with this. But knowing a character and what the character does is only part of the skill set.” Cox illustrated his gripes by pointing to a 2009 video of him teaching a 30-month-old child the famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy from Hamlet, saying, “There is something in the little boy that is able to convey the character. It’s just there and is accessible. It’s not a big fucking religious experience.”
Cox, a classically trained actor and veteran of the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre, doesn’t think that Strong’s obsession with staying in character has any correlation with his on-screen results. “He’s still that guy, because he feels if he went somewhere else he’d lose it. But he won’t!” Cox exclaimed. “Strong is talented. He’s fucking gifted. When you’ve got the gift, celebrate the gift. Go back to your trailer and have a hit of marijuana, you know?”
As we wait for the return of Succession on March 26th, fans of the show should delight in getting an ahead-of-schedule taste of the defining dynamic that made the first three seasons so compelling. The struggle between Logan and Kendall Roy is the strongest plotline of the series, and it is an absolute Logan move for Cox to malign his on-screen son in the press while swearing like a Scottish sailor. If anything, it’s a testament to Strong’s method that Cox is annoyed with Strong enough to subconsciously play his part when he’s off-the-clock.
However, there is one key difference between Cox’s comments on Strong and their on-screen relationship: Logan would never call Kendall gifted.
