SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details of tonight’s episode of Succession. So stop right now if you don’t want to know what went down.
“Today’s the day,” says Logan Roy in tonight’s truly shocking and yet so-expected episode of Succession. “Strategic refocus,” barks the media mogul played by Brian Cox to son-in-law and chief sycophant Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) as they board a private jet to seal a multi-billion sale to streaming kingpin Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) and rebuild their empire.
That refocus by the self-professed corporate pirate takes a very different turn when Logan drops dead on the plane. “My suspicion is that it won’t be the kids,” declares Cox of who will ultimately end up being Logan’s successor in the final seven episodes of the fourth and last season of the Emmy-winning Succession. “I think that they will get locked out,” the classically trained Shakespearean actor adds.
As of tonight’s “Connor’s Wedding” episode, penned by series creator Jesse Armstrong and directed by Mark Mylod, that’s all to come. Tonight, in what has proven the most successful season of Succession so far, the lion in winter roars no more.
Playing to some of the most vigorous traits of the HBO satire, a parsed and play-by-play call from Tom on the plane to his estranged wife Siobhan “Shiv” Roy (Sarah Snook) and her perpetually scheming brothers Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Roman (Kieran Culkin), while the trio is at the ill-starred wedding of half-brother Connor (Alan Ruck), rips apart the offspring’s fragile psyches as the man who has dominated and plagued them for so long is finally gone. “Let’s grieve and whatever,” Kendall tells his siblings in one of those Succession lines of brevity that says almost everything.
As Waystar RoyCo’s PR machine jumps into a spin after the patriarch’s death and keeps the GoJo deal in play and Wall Street happy, the palace intrigue that has always fueled Succession truly goes full beast mode, as Logan would say.
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Surprised with himself that he could keep the secret of the character’s death, the blunt Cox spoke with me earlier this week about Logan’s end, and how he learned from Armstrong that the Grim Reaper was coming. Cox also offered his take on potential spinoffs, and why Armstrong had to bring it all to an end. The Scottish-born actor and self-described “Socialist” reveals how he got inside billionaire Logan Roy and why he would never play Donald Trump. And, of course, there was intrigue on both sides of the camera as Cox played a fast one on the press at a funeral.
DEADLINE: So, Logan Roy is dead. How did you find out it was going to finally happen?
COX: Well, he was very good about that, Jesse, because he told me right before the season started, this was going to happen. And I knew that I was going to be going.
I’m very proud of myself, that I managed to keep this secret. You know, I thought, wow, Brian, for the first time ever, you’ve actually kept a secret. It’s such a big secret.
DEADLINE: Where do things go from here in the final episodes with the Big Bad Papa gone?
COX: I mean, I’m eager to see how it shapes up, eager to see how…because it’s a slightly different show when you don’t have Logan. It’ll be interesting to see how Logan’s shadow looms, but I really don’t know, because I’m out of it.
DEADLINE: Entirely out of it?
COX: (LAUGHS) I mean, I did actually turn up for the funeral
DEADLINE: What?
COX: On my funeral day, they were going to do a scene with me, a fake scene with me at the church, so, just to throw people off the scent.
But they were running out of time, it was very difficult shooting in that church, and there was a lot of stuff that they had to cover. And the one thing they didn’t need to do was to have a fake scene with Logan Roy that wouldn’t even be in the show, anyway. So, I was on my way to do the scene, to go up to the church, I can’t remember where the church was, uptown, and what happened was, I was about to do that, and then they called me and said, you don’t need to come in now.
And I said, I do. And they said, what? I said, I’m coming in. They said, yeah, but we’re not doing the scene. I said, look, I’m coming in, because I know there’s going to be a whole lot of paparazzi there, and they’re going to be wondering what that funeral is. I am coming in. So, I said to my driver, I said, Joe, let’s go, we’re going. So, and as soon as I got out of the car, there were paparazzi shooting me left, right, and center, and therefore, they thought, Logan’s at the funeral, what is he doing?
You see, and if I hadn’t done that, if I hadn’t come, they would’ve gone, it’s Logan’s funeral. And I was the one who took that responsibility. They didn’t even think of it. They were so rushed, and so much, you know, this last season was very difficult to film.
DEADLINE: You know, I have to tell you, when you tell that story, the line between you and Logan Roy becomes so blurred because that’s such a Logan Roy thing to do.
COX: Well, yeah, I suppose it is. I never thought about it that way. Yeah, so, I was still in character.
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DEADLINE: In that vein, what are your thoughts on Succession now and the end?
COX: I think it’s one of the best shows on television, and I think for a reason, because of the integrity of the show, and the discipline of the show. Also, you know, I think Jesse was at a point where he was done. You know, also, I think Jesse needs to move on to other stuff. You know, he’s been writing this show for six years, so…
DEADLINE: So, no spinoffs?
COX: No.
DEADLINE: Really?
COX: I don’t think so. I don’t think there’ll be a spinoff, no. I really don’t. I really don’t. I mean, the only spinoff would be Greg (Logan’s gormless nephew played by Nicholas Braun), but I think that would be pretty boring. I think that would be just same-old, same-old. I think we’ve covered it. I don’t think there are any spinoffs, really. I think it’s unnecessary. You know, and Jesse, he’s not going to do a spinoff. He wants to move on. He wants to go into other territories, you know?
DEADLINE: Such as?
COX: Well, the problem is, politically what is happening now. If you hold the mirror up to nature, which is the job, and you look at the nature around you, it’s pretty shitty. It’s, even more, exasperating now, what’s happening in the UK and what’s happening here.
So, Jesse has reached a sort of plateau, where he has to decide, what do I want to do next? Where do I want to go next? What do I want to explore? Do I want to explore…you know, I’ve done corporate America, because virtually, that’s what he’s done. Maybe I want to look at something else back home in the UK, he may ask himself. Do you know what I mean? It’s the writer’s imperative that needs to move into another area, you know?
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DEADLINE: Staying in the area of Succession, who do you think ends up ruling the empire?
COX: I don’t know, because I haven’t seen it, so I don’t really know what, you know because I don’t read stuff if I’m not in it. I’ve got enough to be getting on with.
My suspicion is that it won’t be the kids. I think that they will get locked out. Ultimately, they’ll get locked out. Ultimately, they will be, you know, the whole Pierce thing was such a stupid fucking idea anyway, and not well handled on their part. It was the last big mistake and I could see them walking into a shitstorm.
And I think they’re going to be walking into more shitstorms. So, I’m not sure if they’re going to be coming out running it. So, the only other alternative is to, I suppose is Matsson, you know, if that works. Or, the other alternative is, where does Tom and Greg go to, you know? Where do they go to? What does Tom go to, with, in his extremely dysfunctional relationship with his wife?
DEADLINE: Where the show is at now, that relationship is riddled with emotional cancer…
COX: Yes. I was in Stockholm the other week and I came in, and they were showing episode two and I saw that scene between, [the] beautiful scene between Tom and Sarah, the one of would they make love or wouldn’t they make love. They played it beautifully. That tragedy is still to be resolved in some way, you know?
So, I don’t know who will end up running the empire. I don’t know. It’s hard to tell unless another agent comes in, but I doubt it. I doubt Jesse’s going to introduce anybody else at this point.
DEADLINE: When the show came out, and after those first episodes where Logan suffered a stroke, it seemed by the very nature and name of Succession that Logan’s death would come before the end of the series…
COX: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, when it was pitched to me because my manager said, I think it’s a one-season part. So, on the pitch, I said to Jesse and Adam McKay, so, this is a one-season part? And there was a pause. Jesse was in Italy, Adam was in LA, and there was a pause, and they both went, no, no, no, no. So, I don’t know if that was the moment they made the decision, because we had a long, long conversation, but they decided
DEADLINE: So, how did Jesse bring it to you that Logan was going to die in the third episode of the fourth season and that the fourth season would be Succession’s last?
COX: He knew he had to bring it to a close, you know? He knew he had to bring it to a close. It was difficult for him to bring it to a close.
DEADLINE: Why?
COX: Because I think when you start to write something, you don’t always know how it’s going to end up. Then, because of the other writers, it sort of went on this different route. I was delighted because I’ve always been delighted by the writing anyway, and for me, less is more.
DEADLINE: You’ve been Logan Roy for a few years now, it is a character you will always be known for. Was this the right way, the right time to kill him off?
COX: When Jesse decided that he said, look, I think we’re going to kill him off in episode three. I just thought, okay, and then I thought, you’re making a tough job for yourself, because you’ve created this role for three seasons, and we all know it’s about succession, and you’ve got seven episodes to fill out after he goes.
DEADLINE: I always expected him to just die one episode, out of nowhere. like what ended up happening in this episode on the plane. There was a narrative flow that consistently went in that direction, no dramatic set-up…
COX: So, that’s going to be the interesting thing, to see how that shapes up. I mean, it’s interesting that in the original idea, but I think they realized they couldn’t kill him off because that was the tension.
DEADLINE: The tension?
COX: The tension between the father and the children. If you think about it, the fourth season is where it is done. Each season centered on one of the children. Season 1 dealt with Kendall. Season 2 very much dealt with Siobhan and Sarah, and Season 3, all was intermittent through was Logan and Roman. And so the last season was really about the family …you know, about the group, and that dynamic
I think that’s how it fell together, that he realized that that’s the way the whole thing shaped up. Therefore, I’m very impressed by the fact that Jesse, A, he had the courage to do it, and B, that he did it in such a skillful way, you know?
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DEADLINE: Let’s talk death…
COX: Let’s…
DEADLINE: You’ve often, and I’m going to put this politely, scoffed at the idea of method acting. But what was it like shooting the death scene, with you on the floor in the plane?
COX: I was never there. I wasn’t there at all.
DEADLINE: Was that a choice of yours, or a choice of Jesse’s, or was it just timing?
COX: They decided, well, they didn’t want to do that. I mean, they had this idea, you know, I think it’s a phone and an ear. I think that’s all you see, isn’t it?
DEADLINE: Well, you see a bit of a nose and a chin, that kind of thing. You know, it’s an out-of-focus body, people in the fore. So, what was the last Logan Roy scene that you shot?
COX: I think the last was the one moving towards the plane, for what’s the beginning of episode three.
DEADLINE: One of the last great Logan lines comes in Rehearsal, episode 2 of this final season, when he says to Kendell, Shiv and Roman at the Karaoke bar, I love you, but you’re not serious people.
COX: You hit it in one, that’s the one. That’s what it is.
DEADLINE: In a case of your beloved less is more, that, to me, is the entire show, in that line.
COX: Yeah, that’s the root. And he’s got that line because he knows it, and Logan is serious. He’s always been serious. He’s wrong, from my point of view, he’s wrong because I’m a Socialist, but as a human being, I totally understand who he is, and I totally am empathetic to who he is.
You know, because I think he’s tragic.
He’s very cynical, and people who are cynics are always, they always say, and I think it’s true, that most cynics are disillusioned romantics. You know, that they have a romantic nature, and I think Logan had certain principles that he believed in, which he’s abandoned, towards this nth degree, this ruthlessness. His Achilles heel is his own children and the fact that he loves his children
DEADLINE: As a Socialist, did that give you a pathway in a sense to play this hyper-capitalist boss?
COX: You know, somebody said, would you ever want to play Donald Trump, I may have told you this before, and I said, well, no. Because I think it’s such a bad script, the Donald Trump script. But then I look at Donald Trump, and I think, God, he’s so lost. He’s just a lost individual, and he’s so full of shit, and the reason he’s full of shit is that he’s an abused child. He’s really an abused child, Donald Trump.
A tragic figure.
Even though a lot of these very right-wing individuals are repellant, ironically, from the actor’s point of view, when the actor gets into the skin of these guys, you begin to understand where they’re coming from.
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