The Succession showrunner was “nervous” about revealing Logan’s fate

Warning: There are spoilers for successor Season 4 Episode 3 in which a big shocking thing happened.

Over four seasons of successorBrian Cox has said goodbye to a respected character actor – he was the original on-screen incarnation of Hannibal Lecter in the 1986s manhunter, to name an illustrious credit – to a well-known name. Since then he has made a feared figure. Not only is he terrifying as the tyrannical one-man business empire Logan Roy, he’s not above speaking his mind, including on the acting approaches of his peers.

So if you are Jesse Armstrong, successorCreator and showrunner of , and you have to inform Cox that his character is going to eat it, you’d probably be a little nervous. In a behind-the-episode featurette on HBO Max, Armstrong talks about what it was like.

“I was very nervous to tell him because there’s a lot of fear as to whether it’s the right creative decision and there’s fear that someone I enjoy working with who was the focus of the show is changing on a human level feels rejected because he didn’t want to leave when he was so central to the whole thing,” revealed Armstrong.

But he didn’t have to worry, and Cox “took it like a total pro,” Armstrong said. “He was professional and decent and kind enough to make it a pretty good meeting, but a sad and significant one.”

Cox returned the compliment. “When you work with the genius of someone like Jesse, it’s always sad when it ends, no question, because you had so much respect,” he says in the featurette.

In short, Brian Cox in real life isn’t as scary as Logan Roy. Even if you do some variation of method acting on set, worst case scenario, he’ll complain about you to journalists.

(Above insider)