Brian Cox Hates One Major Thing About His Succession Role
In the final season of HBO's critical darling "Succession," it comes as a shock when, in Episode 3, the powerful patriarch of the Roy family dies while aboard a private jet. Stage and screen veteran Brian Cox is a powerful force as Logan Roy, who looms over his children Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook), and Roman (Kieran Culkin) as they fight over his throne as CEO of Waystar Royco. This makes it all the more incredible that the show kills him off in a vaguely unceremonious way.
Cox has feelings about that as well, but as he recently told The Guardian, there's one thing that really bothers him about the role of Logan Roy. Apparently, Cox and his wife, Nicole Ansari-Cox (who has a cameo you probably missed in the final season of "Succession"), are caught by paparazzi frequently near their London home, and Cox isn't thrilled about that.
"I've lost my anonymity," Cox told the outlet, "and I've realized that that was what was important to me. I haven't ever experienced anything like this. I mean, you ask for success in your work, and you get it, and then you have to deal with the consequences. I've always valued my privacy, but that's gone. I've been very lucky that I've had it for so long. You know, I've been doing this for over 60 years. And finally it's over."
Brian Cox actually has a lot to say about Succession
Brian Cox is, if nothing else, a guy with a lot to say — his 2022 memoir, "Putting the Rabbit in the Hat," is mostly just a burn book about other actors — and he's spoken extensively about his role as Logan Roy. Specifically, he thinks the show's creative team, including showrunner Jesse Armstrong and director Mark Mylod, killed Logan off far too abruptly. While estranged from his children, Logan experiences a cardiac event while using the toilet on his private jet. Despite repeated attempts from the flight crew and Kendall's bizarre insistence that they track down the best "airplane doctors," Logan dies just like any man would or could, despite his immense money and privilege.
Cox didn't love the decision, as he told the BBC, but part of that was because he took it personally. "[Armstrong] decided to make Logan die, I think ultimately too early," Cox said. "I mean, he'd made him die in the third episode. And it was a great scene. That's why I didn't watch it, because I have no interest in watching. My own death will come soon enough. But I just thought, 'wow,' you know, he did it brilliantly. It was a brilliant scene, the whole act."
Cox did admit, though, that he took the demise to heart a little too much: "It was an odd feeling. I looked on it, wrongly, as a form of rejection. I was fine with it ultimately, but I did feel a little bit rejected. I felt a little bit, 'oh, all the work I've done. And finally I'm going to end up as a New Yorker on a carpet of a plane.'"
Brian Cox created one of the most iconic characters in recent TV history
Yes, Logan Roy died early and completely unexpectedly during the final season of "Succession." But the mark that Brian Cox left on television as the character cannot be overstated. When "Succession" starts off, he suffers from a minor health scare, leading his children to believe that he might vacate his seat as CEO and hand it off to one of them. Not only does Logan recover and retain his seat, though, but he makes Kendall, Shiv, and Roman suffer in turn as he gaslights them into thinking they actually have a shot at taking over Waystar Royco.
To cap it all off, after cutting them out of the company entirely at the end of Season 3, Logan's final words to his children in Season 4 — one episode before his death — are absolutely brutal. "You're such f**king dopes," he tells Kendall, Shiv, Roman, and Connor. "I love you, but you're not serious people." Logan's kids never get his approval, left to weep into the speakerphone as flight attendants perform useless chest compressions on their father.
Logan's early death doesn't lessen the impact of the character — especially considering Cox submitted for lead actor in a drama in the upcoming Emmys race and ended up securing a spot next to Kieran Culkin and Jeremy Strong. The Emmys air date is unconfirmed as of this writing due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, but you can revisit Cox's performance in "Succession" on Max now.