Succession Lead Brian Cox Reveals Which Character He Would’ve Played Instead of Infamous Logan Roy: “Because of his relationship with my horrible daughter…”

Spoiler-free article for Succession Season 4

If all else fails, Logan Roy actor Brian Cox knows who he’d want to play if he could have another go at Succession. The HBO series, which only recently dropped the first episode of Season 4, its highly-contested final run, has given its audience more than plain thrill and drama. Succession has intertwined its corrupt vision of the American Dream, the capitalist ideology that underlines it, power play, hierarchy, and family politics, and blended all of it together in a pot of blackening familiar tension: a family one can neither love nor hate or escape.

Also read: Succession Season 4 Review – An Acting Masterclass Gets Even Better

Succession Star Brian Cox Reveals His Favourite Character

At first glance, the entire Roy dynasty seems crippled with its need for approval, self-assertion, and dominion all at once. And while the patriarch Logan Roy plays the role of the absent father a bit too dramatically, Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook), and Roman (Kieran Culkin) take a jab at the vacant throne in an elaborate show of viper-like cunning.

Among all the shows of strength and power, one might almost cast aside the naïve innocence of Matthew Macfadyen’s Tom for the fast-paced world of the siblings. But not Brian Cox – he sees himself in that character just as he sees the beauty in the complexity of Tom.

“I think if I was younger, I think Tom would be an interesting character to play. Because he’s so complicated and so driven, because of his relationship with my horrible daughter and how she treats him. And his innocence because he’s from Wisconsin, so he’s very sort of — he’s a country boy at heart. And it’s a very good role […] So of all the roles, that would be the most interesting one if I was, you know, 40 years younger.”

Also read: “I worry about what it does to him”: Succession Star Brian Cox Worried Co-Star Jeremy Strong Might Wear Himself Out Like 4 Times Academy Award Winner Daniel Day-Lewis for His Extreme Method Acting

Brian Cox’s role in Succession, however, is the glue that keeps the show running. The vicious, precise, and cruelly direct Logan Roy has become the recipient of noteworthy awards like a Golden Globe in 2020 for Best Performance by an Actor and a Screen Actors Guild in 2022 for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble.

Succession Sets the Bar High For Its Successors at HBO

HBO has been delivering consistently good television since the premiere of The Sopranos. Be it the epic fantasy series Game of Thrones, the bone-churning Chernobyl, a masterpiece of satire with The White Lotus, or the trauma-inducing Euphoria, HBO has adopted the motto: “go bold or go home” as its religion. The latest series, The Last of Us, turned more than just a few heads and its run with Succession remains impeccable to a fault. 

Also read: “It could’ve gone more”: Succession Star Disagrees With Brian Cox, Claims Series Can Go Beyond Season 4 After Final Season Confirmation

However, the flaw of every outstanding project that floats into our horizons is that every attempt at recreating the vision fails to impress. As such, there can only be one Soprano family and there can only be one Roy dynasty. Rarely ever has a follow-up to a critically acclaimed show been deemed worthy enough of its predecessor. HBO’s current decision to thus end Succession with Season 4 has not yet been faced with the inevitable question of a spin-off, but if the studio considers the option, the bar will be high to match.

Succession is currently streaming on HBO Max.

Source: Us Weekly