PLAYING SCHEMING TYCOON
mad character. The circumstances of his own upbringing – he lost his father when he was very young and was raised by his ill mother – means he has had to create his own parenting template.
He said: “I think parenting is hard and I’m a different generation. I had my latest two sons recently, they were born when I was in my 50s.
“My father died when I was eight, so I have a very strange thing about fatherhood and to me, the male parent is mythic.
“My mother was severely troubled and had a lot of problems. She was left a widow quite young. My father has always been a mythical figure. I’m not the most practical parent. I’m a bit too emotive sometimes.”
Cox said that he found more inspiration for Roy from King Lear, rather than Rupert Murdoch or Donald Trump.
While he is often cast in serious roles like Succession, Churchill, Troy and Manhunter, Cox has a love for comedy – as seen in his most recent cinema outing Super Troopers 2 and BBC sitcom Bob Servant.
He has enjoyed returning to TV, though he headed to Hollywood in the 90s to target the big screen.
He said: “One of the reasons I went to America was to do movies, but then I did Deadwood and fell in love with the long form. You never knew where the character was going to go, and that makes it much more exciting.
“I actually think of myself as a comedy actor even though I play all these heavies. My antecedents are more Jerry Lewis than anyone else and Super Troopers is just as valid as doing Deadwood or Succession, and equally rewarding.”
In the first episode, we see Roy about to announce his retirement and anoint his business protege son Kendall to the head of the empire, until things start to go askew. As well as being about family dynamics, Succession is a mirror for society.
Cox said: ”It was a very exciting thing to be part of because you know it is huge and was a strong morality tale and very accurate for these exceedingly selfish times we live in. It’s a very different world.
“You have this giant foetus, not even a baby but a foetus floating around amniotic fluid pretending to be president of the United States, and this complete bandit on the other side, the old KGB man who has acquired a bit of wealth and is now as corrupt as anything, and this world is prone to this kind of writing to examine it. What is the world, what are your values, what do we have, what are we doing, what’s happening?
“You’re not judging, you are just presenting it.
“The great thing about Succession is I am proud of most of my work – but I’m proud of this politically and spiritually and socially. It’s an amazing piece of work and I am really proud to be part of it.”
It’s clear Cox is not shy about his own political views, and the current political state of Scotland, Britain and Europe. As a keen supporter of Scottish independence during the 2014 referendum, he said: “I feel stronger about it than ever – and the sooner we get rid of the English parliament, the better. “We are two separate countries with a different ethos at work. And the Brexit thing has brought it even more. The Scots are all-embracing.
“We are more European in our sensibility than the Little England mentality which has been encouraged by these prats like Jacob Rees-Mogg, David Davies, the horrible Michael Gove and the equally horrible Boris Johnson. I just think these are vile, vile men with minds as narrow as you can get.”
Succession starts on Sky Atlantic tonight at 9pm.
BRIAN COX ON DIFFICULTIES OF MODERN PARENTING