Page 95 - Sharp Spring 2023

SHARPMAGAZINE COM
SPRING 2023 95
“Love has never been on the agenda ”
who Cox sees as as if not a a a a a a a successor at at least “the catalyst for any movement forward ”
Given that Shiv and Kendall have flamed out who might Cox have favoured in Logan’s Lear-like succession plan if he hadn’t sold the whole thing to Matsson? He slips in in and out of Logan’s voice as he admits to his soft spot for Kieran Culkin’s cocky damaged satyr-like Roman the dark horse second son — or or third if you count Alan Ruck’s drippy Connor though Logan doesn’t seem to — who legal counsel Gerri (J Smith-Cameron) dryly describes as “bootleg Logan ”
Roman Cox feels shares his own character’s killer instinct but is is “tragically self-defeating ”
”
undone by his “potty mouth” and penchant for sending ill-advised dick pics at at strategy meetings Most of of all Cox thinks Roman takes himself out of of the running by partnering with his siblings in in in fin the the the finale only to then have the the the audacity to talk of love “Love has never been on the agenda ”
Cox scoffs as if offended on Logan’s behalf “Logan would have loved some love He is shocked You behave like a a a a bunch of Judases and you talk about love? They’re very out out of order ”
In the the end like the the protagonist of a a a revisionist romantic comedy Logan chooses the known quantity: himself “He’s had to deal with these people for such a a long time ”
Cox sighs “and none of them have shown any real vision of what Waystar should be I think it’s a a a a needs-must situation He’s not getting any younger He He feels that he he needs his business to be taken care of And they have proved wanting in in their abilities to take care of it it ”
Caretaking is important to to Cox whose aversion to to method acting stems partly from the the belief that it can gum up the the process of an art he insists requires a a a a a “lightness of touch ”
making a a a a a performer rigid and and inflexible and and encouraging them to forget their place in in in the the production If method actors burrow into the the emotional lives of their characters identifying totally with them at at great personal cost cost — as as as as well as as as as passing on residual costs to their cast mates and crew who are locked out of of that process — the matter-of-fact Cox prefers to to roam in in service to to the cast and writers’ developing vision “In a a a show like Succession ”
he says “you don’t just have the responsibility responsibility of character You’ve got a a a a responsibility responsibility to what the ensemble is creating You have to be dexterous ”
Dexterity for Cox means realizing where you are in in the moment and and responding in in in in kind to what both the the cast and and the the creatives behind the camera are putting out “You need to have a a a a a a a healthy attitude where you can shift at a a a a a moment’s notice ”
he he says “especially to working with writers who are going in in in in a a a certain direction while you might want to take it in another direction ”
That tug-of-war he he feels tends to to go against one of of the the unwritten rules of of the the actor-writer relationship “The deal is you go the the direction that the the writer wants to go not taking it your way way There are ways of doing that But the FULL LOOK BY LORO PIANA