How Succession's Brian Cox Managed To Keep The Show's Biggest Moment A Secret
Major spoilers for "Succession" follow.
The twists and turns of "Succession" are usually related to juicy inner business politics combined with nasty backstabbing, but the latest episode of the HBO series featured arguably the most personal and shockingly human surprise of them all. "Connor's Wedding," as the episode is ironically called, was all about the death of Logan Roy. It's remarkable that the event happens so early on in the season when there are still seven episodes left, and it's equally impressive that such a high-profile show, filming in such public locations, managed to keep the reveal a secret for so long. Brian Cox, who plays Logan, had to do some crafty Waystar Royco PR moves of his own to hide his ultimate fate from the press.
Showrunner Jesse Armstrong informed Cox of Logan's death before shooting for the season started, meaning the actor had to keep it to himself for a while. "Well, that's a bit early," he mused in a NY Times interview, before laughing about it and adding, "Not that I was bothered." The real challenge for both parties was trying not to make the big bombshell predictable. Part of the impact of the episode lies in the fact that Logan's demise happened so suddenly and in an anticlimactic fashion, with no big leadup besides the intermittent health issues throughout the series. It truly seemed as if Logan was an immortal monster fueled by rage and spite, but alas, the rest of "Succession" will be all about the fallout of his passing.
A funeral for the living
Cox mentioned in an interview with Deadline that it was initially Armstrong's idea to stage a faux shoot of Logan attending a funeral at a church. However, "they were running out of time," according to the actor, and the crew reasoned that a publicity fakeout was too much of a stunt to interrupt real production. Cox was on his way to the church location when he got a call telling him that he shouldn't come because they decided not to shoot the staged scene. However, he wanted to keep the illusion up just in case, and popped up at the funeral anyway to make it seem as if his character was still alive and well. He recalled the situation:
"I said, look, I'm coming in, because I know there's going to be a whole lot of paparazzi there, and they're going to be wondering what that funeral is. I am coming in. So, I said to my driver, I said, Joe, let's go, we're going. So, and as soon as I got out of the car, there were paparazzi shooting me left, right, and center, and therefore, they thought, Logan's at the funeral, what is he doing?"
Cox brought up the fact that he personally made the right call by showing up, pointing out that:
"...if I hadn't come, they would've gone, it's Logan's funeral. And I was the one who took that responsibility. They didn't even think of it. They were so rushed..."
It's a moment that explains why the cast of "Succession" is so vital to the way the series gels together so finely. The whole play was a brain trick worthy of the CEO of WayStar himself.