Magdalena Tsanis
Madrid, (EFE) patriarch of the series “Succession”, is the one that has made famous the Scottish actor Brian Cox, at 76 years of age.
“It’s funny because I’ve always seen myself as a comedian, but I’ve ended up doing something else,” he told Efe during his visit to Madrid to promote the recently released fourth and final season of the series about the Roys, the dysfunctional family of a media mogul created by Jesse Armstrong for HBO Max.
Winner of thirteen Emmy Awards and five Golden Globes, the end of “Succession” is one of the most anticipated premieres of the season and will show the Roy brothers trying to iron out their differences to face their fearsome father together.
Cox has been in Madrid for several days, where he has had the opportunity to visit the Prado Museum -his jokes about Goya’s painting “Saturn Devouring His Children” went viral- and to present on Wednesday afternoon, in a colloquium at the Film Academy, the first chapter of this last season.
QUESTION.- You made your debut as a film actor in Spain, playing Trotsky in “Nicolás y Alejandra” (1971). What memories do you keep?
ANSWER.- “I remember that it was Franco’s time and there was tension in the environment. Also the extraordinary apartments where we stayed (…) and I remember the tremendous stillness of the first day of shooting, with Freddie Young as cinematographer. I returned to Madrid many years later, in 1987, to do “Tito Andrónico” at a theater festival, it was a great success”.
Q.- What would you say today to that young man who was beginning his career in the cinema?
A.- “I would tell him: ‘it’s going to go well for you, be patient and don’t lose sight of what you want.’ I think I have been extremely lucky, when I look back, the variety of my work is incredible, I am surprised myself. When I was young, everyone told me that success would come when I was older and more mature, but I didn’t imagine having to wait until I was seventy-odd”.
Q.- Do you consider Logan Roy your greatest success?
R.- “It is the role that has stripped me of anonymity. Earlier in the hallway a guy accosted me saying that he looked like Logan Roy. I told him: ‘I’m Logan Roy’ and he replied: ‘My God, you’re very attractive’; the truth is that never in my life have I been told that I am attractive”.
Q.- You must feel powerful in your skin
A.- “Yes, before I didn’t think it was good but now I do, people feel intimidated and it’s okay because they keep a respectful distance.”
Q.- What do you think has been the key to the success of the series?
A.- “It is in the tradition of series like “Dallas”, “Dynasty” or “The Sopranos”, and at the same time it talks about our time, about people like Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Rupert Murdoch or the horrible Donald Trump. It’s a social satire and it also has some gladiator fighting in it, human beings love that, to see people suffer.”
Q.- You have almost always played characters with a strong character or villains. Do you think that gives you more status as an actor?
A.- “It is common to say that ‘the devil has the best tones’ -a set phrase- and some of that is true, but it’s not that I always agree with what people believe. I don’t agree with what people think of Logan, he is a misunderstood, lonely, outcast guy who just wants to find a successor among his children, but each one of them fails miserably.”
Q.- You trained in classical theater and have starred in many productions at the Royal National Theater and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Has that experience been useful when dealing with this character?
A.- “Without a doubt, when you have experience in the classics you know how to recognize great works and I believe that Jesse Armstrong and his team have succeeded.”
Q.- You’ve also made crazy comedies like “Super Troopers” (2001), although that facet of yours is less well known.
R.- “My heroes as a child were Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, together they were brilliant, I also love Spencer Tracy, with Katherine Hepburn he has great moments. I have always seen myself as a comedian but I have ended up doing this other thing. I love ‘Super Troopers’, I want to make more movies like that”.
A.- I’m going back to the theater and I’m supposed to be directing my first film this summer in Scotland. It’s a story about a family distillery, two brothers who haven’t seen each other for a while, I play the eldest and direct, and we’re looking for the lead actor. In September/October I will be playing Bach in a production for the Royal Theater in Bath and in January next year Eugene O’Neill’s ‘Long Journey Into Night’, a play I have always wanted to do”.
“I am nervous about going back to the theater because now it is difficult for me to learn the text. But they say that when you are afraid of the lion, what you have to do is open its mouth and put your head inside.
