An Interview with Brian Cox Review – Succession Star talks about his legacy

Succession Star talks about his legacy

This week, BritBox releases An Interview with Brian Cox, a reflection on the Succession star’s life and career. As they flick through clips of Cox’s stunning catalogue, you’ll think – I know that voice. And Oh yes, that was a great film.

Brian Cox is rarely the main character but typically a strong player in so many memorable movies from Rob Roy and Braveheart to Adaptation, X2 and Troy. And of course, Succession where he’s recently been nominated for an Emmy, again.

An actor’s actor, Cox talks matter-of-factly about how he stumbled into acting in the 60s and fell in love with it. From his youth in Dundee, Scotland, where he spent time finding comfort in watching television to his early days in London’s 60’s theatre scene where he started building his repertoire.

On a completely blank set where his interviewer isn’t named (it’s Amy Irons), Cox shares reflections on his roles, his parenting skills and the person with whom he’d most like to collaborate. He chuckles as he explains how his role in Succession (HBO Max) was pitched as a single-season drama. And extricates himself from the character of Logan.

‘I don’t think of myself as a particularly good father because I was absent for a lot of the time. So in a way, like Logan, I was attending to my career and like Logan there is probably an element where he’s been remiss at dealing with his children. But unlike Logan, I express myself more about being remiss in that area of one’s life and you know I’m constantly apologizing for it. In fact, I’m a bit of a bore that way and Logan would find me a bit boring – he wouldn’t particularly like me.’

If you’re a Brian Cox fan or of any of his work, it’s an interesting hour-plus tour of the evolution of the industry. The closest thing to insider gossip is a mention of how Daniel Day-Lewis, with whom he worked on The Boxer (Prime), may go a bit too far in his method-acting. Cox believes that work should stay in the workplace, rather than extending into personal life. But other than that, he praises colleagues (including Day-Lewis) and notes the person he’d most like to work with in a movie.

‘I would love to act opposite Meryl Streep. I actually met her years ago. I used to be very dismissive of her and I said I’ve been very dismissive of you and then I realized I was jealous. I was jealous of your ability, I was jealous, it was all nonsense on my part. I was young, stupid because you are magnificent…there’s no question about it. Now Meryl Streep is someone I would like to work with – I wouldn’t mind throwing Martin Scorsese into that mix as well.’

He’s a nice, self-deprecating man with an interesting story. Watch it to remind yourself of how many absolutely classic films you need to re-watch.

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