Naw man she is bottom heavy, she has kind of a fat lower half which is why the camera doesnt go below her waist when she isn't wearing pants.
HBO: Succession
- Thread starter SamSneed
- Start date
Naw man she is bottom heavy, she has kind of a fat lower half which is why the camera doesnt go below her waist when she isn't wearing pants.
IF YOU WANT IT YOU GOTTA TAKE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Man first off, that boat is sick!
I knew Ken would pull this shit.
Then, Tom completely cock-blocked us seeing Shiv naked in a 3sum
This show rates up there in my list, and now gotta go thru withdrawls waiting til next summer for it to return.
Oh well at least Ozark is coming...
I knew Ken would pull this shit.
Then, Tom completely cock-blocked us seeing Shiv naked in a 3sum
This show rates up there in my list, and now gotta go thru withdrawls waiting til next summer for it to return.
Oh well at least Ozark is coming...
Tom continues to be the worst lol
FAIL UPWARDS TRASH COMPACTOR.
Mad his wife wanted to have a 3some that she prearranged
Then got all pissy cause he could be fired and given 100m dollars to do nothing
FAIL UPWARDS TRASH COMPACTOR.
Mad his wife wanted to have a 3some that she prearranged
Then got all pissy cause he could be fired and given 100m dollars to do nothing
Pop said he wasn’t a killer
You won’t burn me in the sun, your rule is at an end dad.
Pops didn’t want Ken happy, any woman that made him smile he was told to rid of her.
Fuckin Greg gettin his money now, he help take down his uncle
The ship is sick, the smaller boats, the taxi one. Gotdamn it’s sick. Like knight rider on water.
Fuck you tom, he did love shiv tho. She ain’t shit.
Like my man said I’m just sitting back and enjoying this shit. Ken looking like Jesus on the cross in the pool. Lol. Can one of you brahs break down the thing about taking off the shoes/barefoot? Shiv took hers off before talking to the whistleblower and then before talking to dad over the blood sacrifice; and then when everyone had to take off their shoes before getting on the yacht; and then the screenplay made it obvious that Shiv was barefoot before Kendall went off. Lol. Best written show on TV.
I feel like Logan does things to the kids to get them to stand up for themselves and in turn earn his respect. He's their father so he already loves them in his own way. For example with Ken, Logan is always protecting him from the drugs, stealing and his indirect connection to the kids death. However, like with the older brother it could also be about not embarrassing the company or family too.
He was trying to get Ken ready this entire season and last night was just another test. If you pay attention, he seemed to be smirking when Ken flipped and that's assuming Ken really flipped on his own.
Logan seemed like he was ready to take the L for the company the entire episode. I think he knew Ken would step up given the opportunity and/or b if he shit on Ken one final time. Logan couldn't trust anyone else to do what needed to be done. I thought Ken was really bidding his time waiting for the right opportunity to get the company and was pretending to fall back inline.
To me the story is and has always been about Ken and Logan's relationship more so than the other kids. Ken is the one being groomed to take over.
Logan Roy fucked up when he made Ken kick his girl off the yacht. Ken was like fuck you Pops!
Tom just wanted a traditional marriage and was really happy just having Shiv. Shiv seems to be the one who is unhappy, but like real life knows Tom's the guy who really cares about her however Shiv wants someone more assertive probably closer to how she views her father.
The threesom is just Shiv's way of removing guilt about cheating on Tom. If Tom is fucking other women, Shiv feels ok doing her. I know Tom has had the chance to cheat or technically openly fuck someone else but I can't remember him acting on it.
You also have to factor in that Tom feels disposable to Shiv along with wanting to fuck other men.
Its probably way more Tom's in the world than you think. Men who talk about wanting to fuck other women, but it's just talk around their friends and there happy with just their wife/girl and don't need/want a threesom or outside women in general.
Ken realized it when he was willing to sacrifice him and he's the only one that truly unquestionably loves Logan and worships him
So yea I can't do it? I'm not a killer?
I'll show you.
The boat was insane what's more insane is that someone actually owns that boat in real life.
That boat actually exists in the world and someone can fly to it and chill
Chiv is chiv. He married her
Tom isnt trash cause he didn't want an open marriage with a woman
That's normal
Tom is trash for marrying her anyway and pretending to be ok with it for the sake of appearances
Shiv shits on him all the time
Did it before they were married too
But
When you're a dweeb you'll take it so you can keep your position in the company
Tom resented chiv for her success and her accomplishments
As long as they didn't threaten his he was great with whatever she was doing
But when she started to do stuff in her own family's company he turned into a bitch
He's unhappy because he's not strong
And everyone knows he's a push over
That's why they treat him like that and why he went so hard at Greg this entire time trying to capitalize on Greg being unsure to enact some sort of trickle down revenge
The family kind of treats everyone like shit including themselves. Roman had to remind everyone that he could have been killed at the hotel as they were trying to be make fun of the situation. Shiv clearly had a conversation with Logan about making Ken the fall guy and didn't seem to have an issue doing so. Ironically Shiv may have actually been trying to protect Tom.
Tom is that guy ( woman) who doesn't have control of their personal lives so they take out there issue on people who work under them .
Overall I agree except the part about Tom resenting Shiv for her success. The only time I can recall Tom having an issue with Shiv's moves were when they were at his expense. Typically Shiv was supposed to be supporting Tom getting promotions, but it would turn into Shiv looking to advance herself . Even then Tom still supported her.
There's a clear difference between joking with each other and treating people like shit. The family roasts together. Shiv treated Tom like a chump. Admitted to an affair right before the wedding, the dude she fucked showed up, then coached him into an open marriage of which she had to arrange a threesome in order for him to actually see any benefit from it other than knowing his new wife is out there fucking random dudes. That's treating someone like shit.
I never questioned whether she loves Tom, she does. She just loves non-combative Tom and Tom is too eager to be that.
And Tom was fine with everything going on with Shiv until her goings-on started with the company. After that, he has pretended to be supportive until he finally couldn't
When he got put on the chopping block he was actually fine with Roman and Ken doing it but then his OWN WIFE AGREED WITH THEM PUBLICLY.
And then when he tried to call her on it she said: "Hey, well I gotta be unbiased." This is his actual wife talking about his career and possibly going to jail like hey it's no big thing. You know I love you right?
It wasn't until he wondered out loud should he even be with her did she make a move to try and save what she said. Otherwise, she wouldn't have lifted a finger to help him.
The more I think about the season finale, Logan Roy knew the investors wanted him gone. I think he was testing his family and leadership staff.
No one wanted to take charge and wanted Logan to stay or hand off/give them power. For a minute, I thought Roman would do it but he never took the extra step. Shiv was just waiting around for things to be handed to her. Kendall had been walking around in a funk all this time since the accident but finally woke up when Logan told him his girl had to leave. Kendall will be the one to take over the company
No one wanted to take charge and wanted Logan to stay or hand off/give them power. For a minute, I thought Roman would do it but he never took the extra step. Shiv was just waiting around for things to be handed to her. Kendall had been walking around in a funk all this time since the accident but finally woke up when Logan told him his girl had to leave. Kendall will be the one to take over the company
Remember I said this this season.
Well the groundwork was definitely laid in the last episode.
Dont agree at all with joking vs treating people like shit. People try that shit all the time and attempt to hid behind oh I was just playing. Some times jokes reflect people's true opinion of you as a person or their level of respect for you.Ken and Roman are examples of joking that influence how people view them in leadership roles.
Tom always questioned Shiv's motive. However, Shiv always made it seem like her moves were to support him. He supported her because he wanted to believe they were on the same team. He was never jealous of Shiv potentially moving a head of him in the company.
If you go back to the scene with Logan and Shiv, she says I thought we already agreed to have Ken take the fall. I'm not sure if she was talking about the discussion at the table or the meet up that happened off screen when Tom was attempting to get out off the threesome, but it was clear she didn't believe Tom was in danger and potentially attempted to save Tom before the discussion on the beach. Even at the table it is stated that Greg and Tom may not be big enough.Shiv defending Tom at the table would clearly be seen as self interest given Tom was in charge of the division currently and he fucked the hearing. Shiv even says as much on the beach. Unlike Roman protecting Jerri in public, there was no way for shiv to do the same for Tom without clearly being biased and unlike Roman without a defense for Tom. Conner even attempted to give himself up and it was disregarded because it didn't make sense.The best chance to save Tom was in a private setting with Logan like she did.
Shiv prides herself on thinking strategically and logically. Protecting Tom when he was a prime candidate in public would have been an emotional call that goes against how she views herself as a professional.
Brian Cox Knows Exactly Why Logan Smiled in Succession’s Shocking Finale
By Hunter Harris@hunteryharris
Photo: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images
“There was a certain inevitability to it,” Brian Cox says of Succession’s season-two finale. After the Roy family gathers on a yacht in the Mediterranean to choose their blood sacrifice, Logan Roy picks his son Kendall to take the fall for Waystar Royco’s cruise scandal — unless he actually picks him to commit patricide? It all depends on how you see Logan’s ever-so-slight grin in the episode’s final shot, as he watches Kendall declare his father a cancer to the family’s empire, implicating him in the scandal that threatens to destroy the company he built. “Logan is really setting Kendall up to become the man he has not been,” Cox says. The smile, then, is a moment of pride.
Succession’s second season concluded Sunday night, but the 73-year-old actor has a busy week ahead: In glasses and a South Texas drawl, he’s currently starring as Lyndon B. Johnson in The Great Society on Broadway. The play, Robert Schenkkan’s sequel to All the Way, doesn’t have a lot of victories: In The Great Society, LBJ is embroiled in the Vietnam War, has shouting matches with Martin Luther King Jr. about integration, and quarrels with Bobby Kennedy over the 1968 election. Over the phone recently, Cox talked about the parallels between the irascible Roy patriarch and the towering good ol’ boy president. “When you listen to these wonderful DVDs called The LBJ Tapes, as I did in my research, they were fascinating about how Johnson operated. I was very much taken by that. [The Great Society] seemed to be a no-brainer, though quite frankly, I could’ve done with a little bit more leeway,” he says with a laugh. “I’m going between Logan Roy and LBJ!” Vulture talked to Cox about his presidential run on Broadway, the shocking twist at the end of Succession’s finale, and why the white male is past his “sell-by date.”
When you found out how Succession would end this season, what was your first thought?
It was inevitable but surprising, in terms of Kendall having been so careful through the whole second season. He’s shied away from his strength, Kendall has. Logan knew in order to sacrifice himself, he would have to do it through his family. He figured that the one chance he had was to make Kendall into the killer. That’s why, at the end, he smiles. He’s achieved what he was after. “My son has come of age. He’s now officially a killer.” [Laughs.]
Vulture.com/via GIPHY
Tell me more about that smile in the final shot.
It was gratifying to play because once Logan received the death sentence, it was important to him who’d deliver the death. He wanted to keep it within the family, as opposed to it coming from outside of the family. The smile is him saying, “Finally, my son is stepping up to the plate, doing what he needs to do to run a business. Finally, he’s the heir apparent to Waystar Royco.” In a way, it’s a completion. But there’s life in the old dog yet! We’ve got quite a journey now. Logan has to reclaim himself. He needs to even the odds.
But why Kendall? Why do you think Logan trusted Kendall to deliver that death sentence over Shiv or Roman?
Roman’s not such a — excuse the expression — fuck knuckle as people make him out to be. There’s more to Roman than meets the eye. He’s actually compassionate. It’s wonderful to see him defend Gerri in that episode. The way he questions what has just happened to him in Turkey, the way he sees through that [bad deal]. Roman has a particular vision, which Logan acknowledges.
He’s certainly not going to set up Siobhan to do it, because she’s in a fragile state in terms of her own marriage. Logan’s eldest son, Connor, God bless him, is far too much of a flake! [Laughs.] He would’ve taken the hit only for the money. It’s very, very thought through, very carefully done.
Do you see Logan as the malignant presence the shareholders seem to think he is?
Of course I don’t. They’ve had good times, the shareholders have. They’ve done very well off of Logan Roy. His fault was that he turned a blind eye. It was also a fault of the time. These assaults, this whole cruises thing, happened many years before, but he overlooked it. That’s what’s undone him. He himself is actually quite Puritan. He says it’s hard for him to take his own shirt off with his wife! He has not attended to what was vile within his firm, with Mo Lester and all of that. Logan’s a bastard, but he’s not an indecent bastard.
Tell me this: How many times did Matthew Macfadyen have to snatch that chicken from your plate and take a bite from it?
[Laughs] He had to only do it a couple of times. They cut a wonderful bit, which quite rightly was edited out, where Matthew walks away and has a moment of panic. He says, “Is he looking? What’s he doing? What’s the old boy doing?” They cut those lines, but it was quite good.
Do you think Marcia will come back to Logan?
I hope it will happen. He clearly loves Marcia. There’s this idea that he had this affair with Rhea, but I’m not sure that happened. Both Holly [Hunter] and I felt that hadn’t actually happened, that it was more in the minds of the kids. He does ask her to stay the night, but that was because he had plenty of rooms. His sell-by date on that sort of thing is near. The kids thinking they were having an affair was more them projecting.
That’s fascinating. The general consensus seems to be that Rhea and Logan were having an affair.
Of course people think that! That tells you more about those people than what actually happened. [Laughs.] That’s the giveaway. That’s frailty in human nature, I’m afraid.
Logan makes Kendall kick Naomi off the yacht. Was that Pierce-family resentment, or does something about her specifically set him off?
There was a scene where I actually talk to her. I hated the scene, it never made any sense [because] he would never talk to her directly. It was a family affair, and she was intruding. There wasn’t a reason for her to be there. The problem with her and Kendall, to Logan, is that they’re both addicts. He doesn’t necessarily think that will add up to a good relationship. I’m sure he understands that Kendall may love her, but given the fact that Kendall has to go into a new life, Naomi Pierce is not going to help.
Would Logan ever see Willa’s Broadway play, Sands?
Absolutely not. Absolutely not!
I’ll admit Sands was my favorite subplot this season. I want to see it!
I think his theatrical interests are at a minimum. He’d wish her well and good luck, but that’s it. I’m really curious about it, though. I want to know how good the play is. It may not be as bad as people have made out. I think there’s something quite considerable about Willa. She can’t be counted out. This is a girl who has tried to be a writer, she was forced to become an escort to [subsidize] her talent. In a way, I’m understanding of that. She might be a talent, but it’s a first-time play. She might be an extraordinary playwright for all we know!
You should never believe critics. They’re the last people you should believe. They’ve always got their own agenda. The problem with critics is that they’re [either] a force for good or they’re frustrated in their own lives. They’re naysayers. I think theatrical criticism has completely evaporated in the last years without Brooks Atkinson, Ken Tynan, [Harold] Hobson. I’m old enough to realize how great theater criticism was.
You have to tell me how luxurious that yacht was in real life.
Oh, ridiculously luxurious. I don’t know where it came from, but it was ridiculously luxurious.
I was talking to your Succession co-star Arian Moayed on opening night of The Great Society, and he said that you told him about the play right before you guys jumped into the Adriatic Sea together. Is that true?
Yeah, right before jumping into the Adriatic Sea, it was mentioned to me that this play was happening. At that time, it was going to be a dramatized reading. And then it ended up as what you saw.
What makes LBJ and this period of time interesting to you?
America has a checkered history, and it doesn’t ever quite own up to it. That’s what I loved about about Deadwood, the use of that lawlessness in terms of the Indian Wars. What I love about [Great Society playwright] Robert Schenkkan is that he really looked at Johnson, he really wanted to evaluate Johnson, to clear the debris that surrounded Johnson. Johnson did something that no other president could do. Great visionaries have a sense of the world at the grassroots, and Johnson certainly had that.
Do you think all powerful men have something in common? You’ve played a lot of them.
It’s a weird thing. As I get older — I’m still surviving, I’m still here — those parts become the key roles. I’ve been lucky enough to play them. I think it’s actually a reflection of my classical background, really, that’s allowed me the entry into those roles. They’re fascinating guys. The other thing now, especially in this age of diversity, they are like the white dinosaurs. There’s something fascinating and curious about that, dramatically.
Logan really bristles at that dinosaur label, and LBJ consciously made an effort to not be seen that way, no?
Exactly. Nobody thinks of themselves as dinosaurs. I’m talking about the objective view, but increasingly, it’s a world where the white male is past his sell-by date.
There’s an element of premonition about [The Great Society]. Robert has really tried to say, “You have to look at this guy.” Joseph Califano, who was domestic adviser to Johnson, came to see the show last night. He was raving about it and said, “My God, you’ve got him, you understand the guy.” He told me this wonderful story — and this is so typical of Johnson! — Califano had this son, Joe III. When Joe III was a little boy, he swallowed a whole bottle of aspirin. It was a panic within the household, and they had to pump it out. Johnson said, [uses Texas accent] “Where you been? I’ve been tryin’ to find you all mornin’!” Califano said, “I’m sorry, Mr. President, my son just swallowed a whole bottle of aspirin.” Johnson said, “He swallowed a whole bottle of — oh, I gotta deal with that now!” [Laughs.] So Johnson drafted up a bill. When you see a safety cap on a medicine bottle, that was Johnson.
I didn’t know that.
There’s certain things that really get me about Johnson. I love the fact that he was a schoolteacher. That’s how he started out. He would’ve been horrified by what’s going on at the border, because that’s where he was! That’s where his schoolkids were, that’s where his school was.
My personal favorite is how he looked. He looked like my dad. My dad wasn’t tall, but they [both] had the dark-brown eyes, dark-brown hair. They could’ve been brothers. I was always predisposed to Johnson because he looked like my dad. [Laughs.]
When you’re about to go onstage, do you see your dad in yourself?
Yeah, I can see the old man. My dad was slightly better looking than I was, but yeah. [Laughs.]
How did you do get the southern accent down?
I got it from the tapes. When you listen to the tapes, he talks to people differently. There’s a wonderful conversation between him and Jackie Kennedy about a month after the assassination. Jackie, she wasn’t a boo-hooer. She was in a state of shock after, as you see clearly in that famous picture of Johnson being sworn in and Jackie still standing there with a blood-stained outfit. A month afterward, he’s talking to Jackie and he’s very warm and she completely melts with him. It’s extraordinary when you hear it. She does this very revealing thing; she says, “I just want to thank you. You’ve written to me more than Jack ever wrote to me!’ That was who Johnson was. And he was a bit of a lady’s man, as history has revealed.
Succession is a show about the superrich. What’s your biggest extravagance?
My biggest extravagance? My biggest extravagance is probably having an ice cream. [Laughs.] I like vanilla. You know what a brown cow is?
No, what’s that?
A brown cow is ice cream and Coca-Cola. I have it with Coke Zero — I can’t take it any other way because I’m diabetic.
The Roys were barely in New York this season. Which location was your favorite?
It was wonderful going back home to my hometown, which was completely unexpected. To have an episode called “Dundee” is pretty amazing. I’m very fond of my hometown. It’s been a tough town, and it was a tough town. Winston Churchill was our MP, and we threw him out! Quite rightly, because he did a lot of strange things. I love going back to Dundee. But I do have to say, swimming in the Adriatic was pretty unbeatable. [Laughs.]
This interview has been edited and condensed from two conversations.
Correction: This interview initially referred to Joseph Califano as Joseph Campanello.
By Hunter Harris@hunteryharris
Photo: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images
“There was a certain inevitability to it,” Brian Cox says of Succession’s season-two finale. After the Roy family gathers on a yacht in the Mediterranean to choose their blood sacrifice, Logan Roy picks his son Kendall to take the fall for Waystar Royco’s cruise scandal — unless he actually picks him to commit patricide? It all depends on how you see Logan’s ever-so-slight grin in the episode’s final shot, as he watches Kendall declare his father a cancer to the family’s empire, implicating him in the scandal that threatens to destroy the company he built. “Logan is really setting Kendall up to become the man he has not been,” Cox says. The smile, then, is a moment of pride.
Succession’s second season concluded Sunday night, but the 73-year-old actor has a busy week ahead: In glasses and a South Texas drawl, he’s currently starring as Lyndon B. Johnson in The Great Society on Broadway. The play, Robert Schenkkan’s sequel to All the Way, doesn’t have a lot of victories: In The Great Society, LBJ is embroiled in the Vietnam War, has shouting matches with Martin Luther King Jr. about integration, and quarrels with Bobby Kennedy over the 1968 election. Over the phone recently, Cox talked about the parallels between the irascible Roy patriarch and the towering good ol’ boy president. “When you listen to these wonderful DVDs called The LBJ Tapes, as I did in my research, they were fascinating about how Johnson operated. I was very much taken by that. [The Great Society] seemed to be a no-brainer, though quite frankly, I could’ve done with a little bit more leeway,” he says with a laugh. “I’m going between Logan Roy and LBJ!” Vulture talked to Cox about his presidential run on Broadway, the shocking twist at the end of Succession’s finale, and why the white male is past his “sell-by date.”
When you found out how Succession would end this season, what was your first thought?
It was inevitable but surprising, in terms of Kendall having been so careful through the whole second season. He’s shied away from his strength, Kendall has. Logan knew in order to sacrifice himself, he would have to do it through his family. He figured that the one chance he had was to make Kendall into the killer. That’s why, at the end, he smiles. He’s achieved what he was after. “My son has come of age. He’s now officially a killer.” [Laughs.]
Vulture.com/via GIPHY
Tell me more about that smile in the final shot.
It was gratifying to play because once Logan received the death sentence, it was important to him who’d deliver the death. He wanted to keep it within the family, as opposed to it coming from outside of the family. The smile is him saying, “Finally, my son is stepping up to the plate, doing what he needs to do to run a business. Finally, he’s the heir apparent to Waystar Royco.” In a way, it’s a completion. But there’s life in the old dog yet! We’ve got quite a journey now. Logan has to reclaim himself. He needs to even the odds.
But why Kendall? Why do you think Logan trusted Kendall to deliver that death sentence over Shiv or Roman?
Roman’s not such a — excuse the expression — fuck knuckle as people make him out to be. There’s more to Roman than meets the eye. He’s actually compassionate. It’s wonderful to see him defend Gerri in that episode. The way he questions what has just happened to him in Turkey, the way he sees through that [bad deal]. Roman has a particular vision, which Logan acknowledges.
He’s certainly not going to set up Siobhan to do it, because she’s in a fragile state in terms of her own marriage. Logan’s eldest son, Connor, God bless him, is far too much of a flake! [Laughs.] He would’ve taken the hit only for the money. It’s very, very thought through, very carefully done.
Do you see Logan as the malignant presence the shareholders seem to think he is?
Of course I don’t. They’ve had good times, the shareholders have. They’ve done very well off of Logan Roy. His fault was that he turned a blind eye. It was also a fault of the time. These assaults, this whole cruises thing, happened many years before, but he overlooked it. That’s what’s undone him. He himself is actually quite Puritan. He says it’s hard for him to take his own shirt off with his wife! He has not attended to what was vile within his firm, with Mo Lester and all of that. Logan’s a bastard, but he’s not an indecent bastard.
Tell me this: How many times did Matthew Macfadyen have to snatch that chicken from your plate and take a bite from it?
[Laughs] He had to only do it a couple of times. They cut a wonderful bit, which quite rightly was edited out, where Matthew walks away and has a moment of panic. He says, “Is he looking? What’s he doing? What’s the old boy doing?” They cut those lines, but it was quite good.
Do you think Marcia will come back to Logan?
I hope it will happen. He clearly loves Marcia. There’s this idea that he had this affair with Rhea, but I’m not sure that happened. Both Holly [Hunter] and I felt that hadn’t actually happened, that it was more in the minds of the kids. He does ask her to stay the night, but that was because he had plenty of rooms. His sell-by date on that sort of thing is near. The kids thinking they were having an affair was more them projecting.
That’s fascinating. The general consensus seems to be that Rhea and Logan were having an affair.
Of course people think that! That tells you more about those people than what actually happened. [Laughs.] That’s the giveaway. That’s frailty in human nature, I’m afraid.
Logan makes Kendall kick Naomi off the yacht. Was that Pierce-family resentment, or does something about her specifically set him off?
There was a scene where I actually talk to her. I hated the scene, it never made any sense [because] he would never talk to her directly. It was a family affair, and she was intruding. There wasn’t a reason for her to be there. The problem with her and Kendall, to Logan, is that they’re both addicts. He doesn’t necessarily think that will add up to a good relationship. I’m sure he understands that Kendall may love her, but given the fact that Kendall has to go into a new life, Naomi Pierce is not going to help.
Would Logan ever see Willa’s Broadway play, Sands?
Absolutely not. Absolutely not!
I’ll admit Sands was my favorite subplot this season. I want to see it!
I think his theatrical interests are at a minimum. He’d wish her well and good luck, but that’s it. I’m really curious about it, though. I want to know how good the play is. It may not be as bad as people have made out. I think there’s something quite considerable about Willa. She can’t be counted out. This is a girl who has tried to be a writer, she was forced to become an escort to [subsidize] her talent. In a way, I’m understanding of that. She might be a talent, but it’s a first-time play. She might be an extraordinary playwright for all we know!
You should never believe critics. They’re the last people you should believe. They’ve always got their own agenda. The problem with critics is that they’re [either] a force for good or they’re frustrated in their own lives. They’re naysayers. I think theatrical criticism has completely evaporated in the last years without Brooks Atkinson, Ken Tynan, [Harold] Hobson. I’m old enough to realize how great theater criticism was.
You have to tell me how luxurious that yacht was in real life.
Oh, ridiculously luxurious. I don’t know where it came from, but it was ridiculously luxurious.
I was talking to your Succession co-star Arian Moayed on opening night of The Great Society, and he said that you told him about the play right before you guys jumped into the Adriatic Sea together. Is that true?
Yeah, right before jumping into the Adriatic Sea, it was mentioned to me that this play was happening. At that time, it was going to be a dramatized reading. And then it ended up as what you saw.
What makes LBJ and this period of time interesting to you?
America has a checkered history, and it doesn’t ever quite own up to it. That’s what I loved about about Deadwood, the use of that lawlessness in terms of the Indian Wars. What I love about [Great Society playwright] Robert Schenkkan is that he really looked at Johnson, he really wanted to evaluate Johnson, to clear the debris that surrounded Johnson. Johnson did something that no other president could do. Great visionaries have a sense of the world at the grassroots, and Johnson certainly had that.
Do you think all powerful men have something in common? You’ve played a lot of them.
It’s a weird thing. As I get older — I’m still surviving, I’m still here — those parts become the key roles. I’ve been lucky enough to play them. I think it’s actually a reflection of my classical background, really, that’s allowed me the entry into those roles. They’re fascinating guys. The other thing now, especially in this age of diversity, they are like the white dinosaurs. There’s something fascinating and curious about that, dramatically.
Logan really bristles at that dinosaur label, and LBJ consciously made an effort to not be seen that way, no?
Exactly. Nobody thinks of themselves as dinosaurs. I’m talking about the objective view, but increasingly, it’s a world where the white male is past his sell-by date.
There’s an element of premonition about [The Great Society]. Robert has really tried to say, “You have to look at this guy.” Joseph Califano, who was domestic adviser to Johnson, came to see the show last night. He was raving about it and said, “My God, you’ve got him, you understand the guy.” He told me this wonderful story — and this is so typical of Johnson! — Califano had this son, Joe III. When Joe III was a little boy, he swallowed a whole bottle of aspirin. It was a panic within the household, and they had to pump it out. Johnson said, [uses Texas accent] “Where you been? I’ve been tryin’ to find you all mornin’!” Califano said, “I’m sorry, Mr. President, my son just swallowed a whole bottle of aspirin.” Johnson said, “He swallowed a whole bottle of — oh, I gotta deal with that now!” [Laughs.] So Johnson drafted up a bill. When you see a safety cap on a medicine bottle, that was Johnson.
I didn’t know that.
There’s certain things that really get me about Johnson. I love the fact that he was a schoolteacher. That’s how he started out. He would’ve been horrified by what’s going on at the border, because that’s where he was! That’s where his schoolkids were, that’s where his school was.
My personal favorite is how he looked. He looked like my dad. My dad wasn’t tall, but they [both] had the dark-brown eyes, dark-brown hair. They could’ve been brothers. I was always predisposed to Johnson because he looked like my dad. [Laughs.]
When you’re about to go onstage, do you see your dad in yourself?
Yeah, I can see the old man. My dad was slightly better looking than I was, but yeah. [Laughs.]
How did you do get the southern accent down?
I got it from the tapes. When you listen to the tapes, he talks to people differently. There’s a wonderful conversation between him and Jackie Kennedy about a month after the assassination. Jackie, she wasn’t a boo-hooer. She was in a state of shock after, as you see clearly in that famous picture of Johnson being sworn in and Jackie still standing there with a blood-stained outfit. A month afterward, he’s talking to Jackie and he’s very warm and she completely melts with him. It’s extraordinary when you hear it. She does this very revealing thing; she says, “I just want to thank you. You’ve written to me more than Jack ever wrote to me!’ That was who Johnson was. And he was a bit of a lady’s man, as history has revealed.
Succession is a show about the superrich. What’s your biggest extravagance?
My biggest extravagance? My biggest extravagance is probably having an ice cream. [Laughs.] I like vanilla. You know what a brown cow is?
No, what’s that?
A brown cow is ice cream and Coca-Cola. I have it with Coke Zero — I can’t take it any other way because I’m diabetic.
The Roys were barely in New York this season. Which location was your favorite?
It was wonderful going back home to my hometown, which was completely unexpected. To have an episode called “Dundee” is pretty amazing. I’m very fond of my hometown. It’s been a tough town, and it was a tough town. Winston Churchill was our MP, and we threw him out! Quite rightly, because he did a lot of strange things. I love going back to Dundee. But I do have to say, swimming in the Adriatic was pretty unbeatable. [Laughs.]
This interview has been edited and condensed from two conversations.
Correction: This interview initially referred to Joseph Califano as Joseph Campanello.
Anyone still watching the show?
Season 3 is not yet out... Production halted due to the virus.
I'm just on ep 4 of season 1
Succession Adds HBO’s Favorite Son Alexander Skarsgård to Season 3
By Zoe Haylock@zoe_alliyah
Alexander Skarsgård Photo: Rich Fury/Getty Images
Succession has added Alexander Skarsgård to the cast of season three. The eldest Skarsgård kid and HBO regular following in his father’s footsteps is familiar with family drama. Per Variety, he will play Lukas Matsson, a successful, confrontational tech founder and CEO. He joins Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin, Sarah Snook, Hiam Abbass, Nicholas Braun, Peter Friedman, Matthew Macfadyen, Alan Ruck, Rob Yang, and more in the Emmy Award–winning series. Skarsgård previously won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his role in season one of Big Little Lies, after starring in True Blood for the network. In the last update from Waystar Royco, Kendall Roy escalated the family power struggle to nuclear levels. Lorene Scafaria of Hustlers and Cathy Yan of Birds of Prey are both directing episodes this season. Production on Succession is currently underway in New York after being delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic last year. If you see Roman Roy on the streets of Manhattan doing a weird sit, you know where to report it. (Okay, Deux Moi and us!)
By Zoe Haylock@zoe_alliyah
Alexander Skarsgård Photo: Rich Fury/Getty Images
Succession has added Alexander Skarsgård to the cast of season three. The eldest Skarsgård kid and HBO regular following in his father’s footsteps is familiar with family drama. Per Variety, he will play Lukas Matsson, a successful, confrontational tech founder and CEO. He joins Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin, Sarah Snook, Hiam Abbass, Nicholas Braun, Peter Friedman, Matthew Macfadyen, Alan Ruck, Rob Yang, and more in the Emmy Award–winning series. Skarsgård previously won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his role in season one of Big Little Lies, after starring in True Blood for the network. In the last update from Waystar Royco, Kendall Roy escalated the family power struggle to nuclear levels. Lorene Scafaria of Hustlers and Cathy Yan of Birds of Prey are both directing episodes this season. Production on Succession is currently underway in New York after being delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic last year. If you see Roman Roy on the streets of Manhattan doing a weird sit, you know where to report it. (Okay, Deux Moi and us!)
Who taking bets, she'll have a cac bf
I was keeping my fingers crossed that wouldn't be the case
It's an all white show, so...
Maybe the dude in the post B4 will be her boyfriend/husband on the show.
Ehh, don't matter, I love the show, some great writing and acting, like Ozark
I just wanted to say that chicks pant suits just do something for a brotha.
Introducing the ‘Succession’ Season 3 Power Rankings
Through nine episodes, The Ringer will chart the weekly rise and fall of the Roy family and associates’ spheres of influence
www.theringer.com
‘Succession’ Season 3 Entrance Survey
Chris and Wosny reflect on their favorite aspects of ‘Succession’ ahead of the new season
www.theringer.com
‘Succession’ Returns, As Bleak and Brilliant As You Remember
At last, after an extended production delay, Season 3 delves into the brutal aftermath of Kendall Roy’s betrayal of his father
www.theringer.com
I fixed it for you