Brian Cox pokes at the rich as his 'Succession' character

Although he has been acting for more than half a century, the Scottish Brian Cox (Dundee, 1946) has become one of the most famous actors in recent years thanks to the role of Logan Roy, the relentless and millionaire patriarch of the Succession series ( HBO Max). The actor visited Madrid last week to promote the recent premiere of the fourth and final season of the show, for which he has won an Emmy Award for Best Dramatic Actor.

Cox, trained in classical theater and starring in many productions by the Royal National Theater and the Royal Shakespeare Company, has been credited for such successful films as Rob Roy (1995), Braveheart (1995), The Bourne Affair (2002) or Troy (2004). His film debut was precisely in Spain, playing Trotsky in Nicolás y Alejandra (1971), and during his time in Madrid he recalled “that it was Franco’s time and there was tension in the environment”. In 1987 he returned to Madrid to play Tito Andrónico at a theater festival: “It was a great success”.

On his recent visit to Spain, the actor had the opportunity to visit the Prado Museum, where he joked in front of Goya’s painting “Saturn devouring his children” by comparing it to the character he plays in Succession. And it is that in this series he plays an eccentric media magnate (who reminds many of Rupert Murdoch) at the head of a family that is as wealthy as it is dysfunctional in which everyone (the fearsome father and his ambitious children) fight over the power.

During his visit to Spain, Cox assured that he is clear about the nature of those who are as rich as his character, attacking them harshly. “They are all the same. Look at Trump, the fantasy world in which he lives”, indicated the actor who exclaimed that the former US president “is crazy, they should put him in a mental hospital and receive care and ‘electroshock’ treatment to recover his brain, because he no longer it is, it is gone”.

The British also took the opportunity to point out other names of great magnates, in addition to the former president of the United States. “Elon Musk may hide under the fact that he is autistic, but he is not doing autism any favors. I think he’s being stupid, and that’s not autistic, it’s just stupid. How he is handling Twitter and all that, ”criticizes the interpreter. “Power is the manifestation of money,” he says.

In turn, Cox qualified that some rich people have known how to adapt and do things correctly. “Bill Gates, in many ways, has used it incredibly well. His sense of the world is quite good. He has his own problems, his personal and domestic problems, which do not interest me. But what he has done, as I see it, is something that I can understand, it is positive, ”the veteran actor praised.

Next, Cox referred to the exploitation problems faced by workers at companies such as Amazon or Starbucks. “They make a fortune. Of course it’s a person’s vision that gets it done, and I don’t want to discredit any of that, having a certain vision and doing it. But it is the sense of reality, the sense of knowing where you are in the world. Unfortunately that is lost in certain cases. Not in the whole world, but in some. That’s what our series is about too, ”he explained.

The actor acknowledges that the role of Logan Roy has “stripped his anonymity” after a brilliant career as an excellent secondary. “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”.

After finishing Succession, and waiting to win another Emmy, the actor reveals that his most immediate projects are to return to the theater and direct his 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 play Bach in a production for the Royal Theater in Bath and in January 2024 Eugene O’Neill’s ‘Long Journey Into Night’, a work I have always wanted to do”.