Brian Cox Says Jeremy Strong’s ‘Succession’ Acting Method “Worries” Him

Succession star Jeremy Strong won an Emmy last year for his portrayal of prodigal son Kendall Roy. But in a recent New Yorker profile of the actor, costar Brian Cox (who plays his father, Logan Roy) admitted that he sometimes worries about the lengths Strong goes to in order to play the role.

“The result that Jeremy gets is always pretty tremendous,” Cox said. “I just worry about what he does to himself. I worry about the crises he puts himself through in order to prepare.”

While Strong doesn’t consider himself a method actor, he told The New Yorker that “I think you have to go through whatever the ordeal is that the character has to go through. And usually that means clearing away almost everything around and inside you, so you can be a more complete vessel for the work at hand.”

Cox expressed concern elsewhere in the profile, referencing an incident in which Strong injured himself by jumping off a five-foot-high platform in a scene that was later cut, impacting his femur and his tibia.

“It’s the cost to himself that worries me,” he said. “I just feel that he just has to be kinder to himself, and therefore has to be a bit kinder to everybody else.”

Cox added: “Actors are funny creatures. I’ve worked with intense actors before. It’s a particularly American disease, I think, this inability to separate yourself off while you’re doing the job.”

Succession airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.

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