Whoever has come this far in search of a good dose of sadism to which Logan Roy has already accustomed us can leave reading. Because Brian Cox (Dundee, 1946) does not inhabit it a bit. Those who have spent the last 48 hours with him in Madrid say that he walked excitedly through the corridors of the Prado Museum on his fifth visit to the gallery and that he resisted impassively the cries of a group of schoolchildren while he delighted with The executions of Torrijos, by Antonio Gisbert, which he himself had asked to see, before facing the alter ego of his character, portrayed by Goya: Saturn devouring his children. As the same Scottish actor will try to do in the fourth season of Succession, which has just premiered HBO Max, as a brooch of his latest international ball.
Have you ever felt devoured by Logan Roy as if he were Saturn? No, I've never done it because it's just discipline, knowing what you're doing. It's a role, I play it and I don't have any identification. I create the situation where the role can come out through me.How much similarity or difference do you have with Logan Roy? We are nothing alike, I am becoming more and more socialist and more left-wing and he is very right-wing. I am diametrically opposed to everything he believes in. But I understand Logan, I really do. He's not Brian, I understand where he comes from and why he's a sad, lonely and misunderstood character. And his temperament does not help him, he is monosyllabic and he is not one of those who gives great speeches.
The only similarity between the real person and the character is his hometown of Dundee, where Cox grew up in a humble family without a father since his earliest childhood. "My roots are important, but I don't stop at that," he says. "I'm very happy when I go back to my city, but I still have some reservations about it because of the way it developed in the 60s, with the corruption that there was. And the city isn't doing well now either. The poor are getting poorer and we also have the highest heroin addiction in Europe."
Brian Cox, in the photocall of MadridHBO
From there was emerging the actor who at age 70, after doing all the imaginable tragedies of Shakespeare in theater and the first Hannibal Lecter in Hunter of Men, landed in Succession to win his first Golden Globe.
Do you feel that success has come too late with the career behind you? No, no, no, not at all. I've always been happy and I would be happy even if I hadn't been Logan Roy. I'd say I've had a great career. If you look at my works, I've done more than many other actors over the years. Logan is great, he's given me a lot, but it's okay that it's just one more step on my way. It can't be my final destination. King Lear, Hannibel Lecter, Logan Roy... Why do they always give him powerful or sadistic characters? I don't know, I think sometimes people think I'm scary and don't understand that I'm always pretending. I do those characters well, I'm fascinated by sick minds and how they get there. I love looking at human beings and seeing why they are like that. When you walk into a hospital, you see all those babies in line crying and suffering and it's very moving. You couldn't say who Hannibal, Logan Roy or King Lear will be, but life is upon you and you evolve. I want to be the recipient of all those babies.Why are people afraid of him? I would say that you are quite kind, in fact. It's their problem if I scare them. As I get older, I'm more mouthy and I think about everything. That's possibly one of the reasons, but it's your problem, not mine.How is your vision of millionaires now that you've spent five years becoming one of them? I worry that they live so isolated from the world because their interest in others is sometimes absent. Not in all cases, there are millionaires who are conscious, but many are unconscious. And that worries me. Someone like Richard Branson, who has been in space for two minutes, comes down and says we need more spaceships. No, we first have to sort out a few things here before we worry about space. It is idiotic.Because of your origin, it is harder for you to understand them? Logan is a myth, a kind of fantasy, I just play the role because I'm interested in all the ramifications it has and what Succession means. That's what interests me about the role, I don't identify with a millionaire, but I get paid pretty well. So I do my job. Logan Roy, in a scene from SuccessionHBOVolemos to that disconnection of these tycoons with the real world. To some extent that's what they've done, but they should know that the world around them isn't very promising. If you think about it and are a presenter, one of the news stories of the day is that a young woman has entered a school and shot three children and three adults. You have to deal with those terms that are constantly happening now in America. The world has never been as bad as it is right now, we treat the murder of a child as an everyday occurrence because it is a damn everyday occurrence. And this series only sends an idea of the reasons why we are on such a bad track. Because these families live isolated lives and distance themselves from everything. Logan made that decision because he didn't like certain things and created his own bubble mercilessly. We always associate his character with Rupert Murdoch or Donald Trump. Were you really inspired by them? The character was created by Jesse [Armstrong], I had to figure out who that guy is and play with him. I haven't been inspired by them because I'm not interested in the outside show. I'm interested in the person inside. My favorite moments of Logan are when he is assimilating everything, silently, and gets angry very quickly with his children. All disillusioned romantics become cinics. And that's what happens to Logan. Many people who hate him, there are few, do not understand his scenes. They don't look any further, to the truth, to all the layers that this drama has and where that character comes from. Ready for the end of Succession? It's five years in his character I'm happy it's over, it's better to leave the party at the best time than to go downhill. Many series go beyond what makes sense, but here they will not allow it. His character is linked to the disputed meritocracy. Do you believe in it? I don't believe in any cracy, but I can understand that people receive what they contribute. On that I do agree. But, as I get older, I've become a lot more politically active and I don't give a shit about certain things. Now I can say what I want, I'm not interested in keeping quiet. When you're a young actor you're trying to have a career and find yourself. Where am I going? What should I do? What am I? Now I don't care about any of that anymore. I just think: fuck it, I'm here for better or worse. So everything can go to shit. Let them give them.
Suddenly, without warning, Logan Roy has appeared.
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