Actor and socialist Brian Cox hasn’t found time for ‘Succession’ finale

What might come off as narcissistic from British actor Brian Cox, in saying that he hasn’t watched the finale of Succession since the demise of his character, actually stems from a sense of sincerity from the veteran actor.

Cox, who has grumbled about the early demise of his tyrannical character Logan Roy in the HBO drama’s last series, told BBC television he preferred not to go back over past projects.

“I never like watching myself, for a start. And somehow or other, because of what happened to Logan, I’ve been disinclined to watch,” said the actor.

“It’s a strange situation; I don’t cling on to things. When it’s over, it’s over and I go on. And I find that with this show, which has been a great show, it’s been one of the great shows of all time – especially for me. The wealth gap fascinates me, the fact that people are getting poorer and people are getting richer,” says the socialist.

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The Socialist

Cox who is deeply rooted in socialism, speaking about his character earlier this year said “He’s the antithesis of everything I believe in. Everything… I’m a socialist and I’m proud to be a socialist,” he told Sky News.

“I think we really need to think, rethink our politics. And our politics is in deep s*** really,” the 76-year-old actor said. “That’s the point of doing the show. It’s a great social satire.

“It’s about the horrific wealth gap. We don’t see very many poor people in Succession. They’re ignored. And it’s a question that you should ask yourself. Why are they ignored? Because those people are not interested in what’s going on in the low strata of life.”

“What I hate about what’s going on is that we go back to a feudal mentality, everybody in their place, so everybody becomes inhibited. And when you’ve got so many posh boys running the show, it makes it very, very hard. And it lacks compassion.”

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Solidarity with Hollywood writers

The actor has praised striking Hollywood writers as entertainment’s “prime forces”. The strike kicked off on May 3 after talks broke down between the Writers Guild of America and major US studios.

The writers want better compensation after the industry disruption caused by streaming and fears over the increasing use of artificial intelligence. “They are… very clearly the prime forces of what we do,” Cox said, praising Succession‘s British creator Jesse Armstrong as a “genius”. “And they should get their just rewards for it,” he added.

“Unfortunately, producers are the ones who behave rather badly. You know, they’re the ones who are kind of the manipulators and sometimes the writers get pushed to the tap end of the bath.”

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