‘Succession’s Brian Cox Slams Jeremy Strong’s Acting Style: ‘It’s F**king Annoying’

The battles of the Roy family are well documented on HBO’s Succession, but sometimes those tensions leak through to the cast, especially when it comes to different approaches to acting.

Brian Cox, who plays family patriarch Logan Roy in the hit comedy-drama, continues to double down on his criticism of his co-star Jeremy Strong, who plays his son Kendall Roy. Strong has made it no secret that he likes to fully inhabit the character he is playing.

Cox previously said he doesn’t understand Strong’s commitment to method acting, telling the New Yorker in 2021, “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.”

Now, in a new interview with Town & Country, Cox was again asked about Strong’s acting style. “He’s a very good actor,” he said. “And the rest of the ensemble is all okay with this. But knowing a character and what the character does is only part of the skill set.”

As for Strong always being in character, he stated, “It’s f***ing annoying. Don’t get me going on it.”

Later in the interview, Cox referenced a YouTube video from 2009 where he teaches a toddler Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy. “There is something in the little boy that is able to convey the character,” he said. “It’s just there and is accessible. It’s not a big f***ing religious experience.”

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As for Strong, he doesn’t seem to take offense to Cox’s remarks. In a recent interview with British GQ, Strong noted, “Everyone’s entitled to have their feelings. I also think Brian Cox, for example, he’s earned the right to say whatever the f*** he wants. There was no need to address that or do damage control.”

He added, “I feel a lot of love for my siblings and my father on the show. And it is like a family in the sense that, and I’m sure they would say this, too, you don’t always like the people that you love. I do always respect them.”

Succession, Season 4 Premiere, Sunday, March 26, 9/8c, HBO and HBO Max