keep living in his father’s shadow or come
out from it altogether.”
As for Logan, Cox teases that he’s no longer
planning for succession following his stroke last
season and subsequent change of heart.
“He’s playing bigger stakes, which is not
necessarily a healthy thing to do when you’re
80, but he can’t help himself,” says the veteran
Scottish actor. “He pushes the envelope and
does the opposite of what everybody tells him
to do, but that makes him a very exciting
character to play.”
Whereas Strong immersed himself in books
about various family dynasties prior to filming
commencing, Cox looked to his classic theatre
roles for inspiration.
“Look at King Lear in Shakespeare and his
great line, ‘I have ta’en [taken]. Too little care of
this,’ when he realises how horrific things have
become when he feels he hasn’t done his job,”
Cox explains. “If someone is in a powerful
position, you have to wonder to what end the
power goes, and I’ve played a lot of characters
like Lear and Churchill in the theatre. They all
belong to a certain group of people who operate
in a way that’s completely alien to me.”
Former child actor Culkin, who began
his career opposite brother Macaulay in the
Home Alone movie franchise, looks like
the cat who ate the canary when he recalls
his own introduction to his alter ego Roman.
“The script was sent to me to read for
another character and I immediately knew
I wasn’t right for that role, but I was 20 pages
in and Roman walks in and his first line is
‘Hey, motherf***ers!’” he recalls with a chuckle.
“I was like, ‘Oh cool, I want to be this guy!’”
It turns out the experience of playing such
a loathsome character didn’t disappoint.
“There was one scene where they gave me the
freedom in a work scene to start yelling at extras
and being generally horrible, so I got angry and
screamed at one guy, ‘What are you looking at,
you piece of s***?’” he recalls. “As soon as the
director said, ‘Cut,’ I went over to him and said,
‘Hi, I’m Kieran by the way and I’m sorry I didn’t
tell you what was going to happen to you!’”
hen US drama Succession first
premiered to critical acclaim last
year, speculation abounded as to
which real-life family the show
- part Shakespearian tragedy, part Lifestyles
of the Rich and Famous – could be based on.
Series creator Jesse Armstrong is quick
to insist he borrowed from not one but
several famous global media dynasties when
shaping the wonderfully dysfunctional Roy
family – media baron and patriarch Logan
(Brian Cox) and his four scheming adult
children, Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman
(Kieran Culkin), Shiv (Sarah Snook) and
Connor (Alan Ruck).
“The germ of it was a story I read about
[controlling shareholder of Viacom and CBS
Corporation] Sumner Redstone making a joke
when asked who his successor would be, and
he said he didn’t need one because he was
never going to die,” Armstrong offers with
a laugh. “I knew Rupert Murdoch had
made [a comparable] joke and it made me
think about the similarities in all those big,
powerful men and how their power and
influence gives them a sense of immortality.”
While the show’s enthralling debut quickly
led to a second season being commissioned,
actor Strong admits the cast was surprised to
discover it had attracted a few unlikely fans.
“I’ve heard that one of the Murdochs
bumped into Brian Cox in London and told
him that the family has seen the show and
apparently like it,” Strong reveals proudly
to Foxtel magazine in a stunning Long Island
penthouse suite during a break in filming.
“I saw [controlling shareholder and chairman
of the board of The New York Times Company]
Arthur Sulzberger Jr at a Broadway play and
he said all the family watch the show, so I’d like
to think that we’ve done an honest job in the
telling of these struggles of dynastic families.”
In last season’s action-packed finale, drug-
addicted Kendall accidentally caused the death
of a waiter at his sister’s wedding; Shiv revealed
her expectations of an open marriage to her new
husband; and Roman had shifted blame for the
shuttle explosion away from himself. This time
around, Oscar-winner Holly Hunter joins the
cast in a recurring role as politically savvy rival
media conglomerate CEO Rhea Jarrell.
But while we often see the rich and powerful
dodging the consequences of their actions,
nobody escapes the judgement of family.
“It’s painful for Kendall,” Strong hints
of season two. “He can’t decide whether to
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