Succession's Nicholas Braun Prepared To Play Greg By Awkwardly Approaching Strangers
There are a lot of clinger-onners orbiting the all-powerful (Murdoch inspired) Roy family in "Succession," and Greg is their galaxy's resident Pluto. He's a second-tier family member, despite his desperate attempts to make the "quad squad" happen, but he's definitely a staple in their universe. Despite being an unwanted presence without much to offer, the distant cousin manages to hang around for all four seasons. To train himself for such an uncomfortable social atmosphere, actor Nicholas Braun created awkward challenges to overcome before shooting.
Before even auditioning for the role, the actor immediately identified one of his character's key personality traits: "lurkiness."
"I think his lurkiness is a big part of his character," Braun explained on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. "So I guess I wasn't a real lurker before this part. I'm one to leave a conversation quickly and Greg isn't."
Most people, like Braun, tend to get out of the way when they feel unwanted — not so for Greg. If Braun wanted to weasel his way onto the show and into a family that would constantly reject him, he would have to learn to think like his character. On the way to his audition, he started flexing this muscle of blind persistence.
"On my way to the test with Adam McKay and Jesse [Armstrong], our writer, I was getting flown and I was in the airport and I was like 'I need to figure out how to do this,'" the stand-out supporting actor recalled. "So I went into various shops and I just stood next to people. And then I would have a really mundane conversation about the headphones they're looking at, or the jewelry they're looking at the little gift shop."
Greg is always playing conversational chicken
The exercise taught Braun quite a lot — not just about his new character, but about humanity in general. "You know, people hang in conversations a lot longer than you think," he observed. "I was like, 'Still? You're still down for me to talk about your ring on your hand or what you're wearing?' Like, people just don't wanna leave a conversation. So I just kept going, and then — I think I won a lot of the time ... I beat them."
Of course, "winning" a conversation is an important skill to have in the world of Waystar Royco, where every boardroom is a battleground. Every character takes on a different tactic. For Greg, socializing is a challenge of endurance. He's willing to take a conversational beating and get right back on his feet if it means he can linger a little longer. "People sometimes ask, 'What is Greg doing in there? What does he want? Why does he keep hanging around?'" Braun noted in an interview with The New York Times. "We weren't playing these big long game things."
When it comes to Greg's top-secret motivations, they are actually rather simple. "Greg just wants stupid things: a new suit, good shoes," the actor admitted. This levity of motive behind Greg's power grabs is almost a perfect foil to the Roy siblings, whose motives have nothing to do with money and luxury and everything to do with the immaterial — love, purpose, and their father's approval. Therein lies the comedy and secret success of Greg and the final boss, Tom. "They didn't grow up in this dynamic of Logan batting them down and building them up and crushing them again," Braun explained. "Structurally, you need some contrast because otherwise you're just in the most serious stuff."
Being an outsider is what gives Greg his edge
Right away Greg sticks out like a sore thumb among the other characters. Just at first appearance, his incredibly tall stature gives him a looming presence over the others that accentuates his off-beat conversational style. He has no trouble inserting himself where he isn't wanted, even if it's a tight fit — like in the series premiere when he squeezes into Logan's car. Braun paid close attention to Greg's physical appearance throughout the show as he adapted to his surroundings. His wardrobe evolves over the course of the series from dockers and oversized parkas to bespoke suits and Rolexes, but he remains an outsider.
Hanging around too long, just as Braun was doing at the airport on the way to his first audition, became a crucial element of Greg. It was so crucial to his performance, especially at the beginning, that the actor kept up his conversational exercises even after he landed the role. The actor would strike up a dialogue with strangers on lunch breaks, he confessed on the Succession Podcast. He would even improv some awkward conversations while the cameras were rolling.
"He definitely is a watcher in the beginning, even towards the end of season two he's still got his [...] periscope," the actor explained. "I always feel safe as Greg to stare too long, look too long, check everybody out. You know sometimes we do takes where you can actually just talk to people and so you walk up to somebody you're not scripted to talk to, and sort of check them out, sort of 'frisk' them with dialogue."
Braun always knew Greg would hang around — it's what he does
Greg starts as a bit more of a tentative, hesitant character, one that seems to seek permission for his own overbearing presence with his eyes. This puppy dog look is precisely what made his character so lovable — and so unassuming — at the beginning of the series. Believe it or not, Braun found inspiration for Greg in an Australian Shepherd belonging to a friend of his.
"He would kind of follow me around and he was looking at me and he's like, 'It's okay that I'm in here with you?'" the actor recalled on Jimmy Kimmel Live. "He wanted to be next to me but he's sort of asking permission to be with me and I thought, 'That's pretty Greggy.'"
This part of Greg hardens a bit as the series progresses. But regardless of his acumen, Greg remains at the periphery of power until the very end. It might have seemed like his character was constantly at risk of being nudged off the edge of the world, but Braun had a feeling he wasn't going anywhere. In fact, it was precisely this willingness to loom around where he wasn't wanted that told Braun his character was there to stay.
"I figured he'd hang around," the actor admitted to The Hollywood Reporter. "I kind of knew what the duty of that character is, structurally. It is to be the outsider, the beginner; lowest on the totem pole. So it felt like that was the arc. I didn't know where it was going to end up, but I hoped there would be something special happening that would make where he starts worthwhile for a viewer."
"Succession" is now streaming in its entirety on Max.