Succession star Brian Cox’s weird fan request: ‘Can you tell us to f*** off?’

Ahead of the final season of Emmy-winning drama Succession, Brian Cox reveals the weird request he has received from fans – particularly, women.

When Brian Cox attended a reading by Pulitzer Prize- winning #MeToo journalist Ronan Farrow in early January 2020, the actor – his profile heightened by his portrayal of media mogul Logan Roy in the acclaimed drama Succession – stood at the back of the room, aware that was the last place a self-described “white dinosaur” would want to be seen doing, or saying, anything disrespectful.

But as soon as a group of women spotted Cox, they approached him with their phones held aloft and made a peculiar request. “They asked, ‘Can you tell us to f*ck off?’” he tells The Binge Guide in his thick Scottish brogue.

Brian Cox: ‘These writers – though they are comedy writers – are quite political.’ Picture: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

Playing the straight-shooting Roy has seen Cox, 76, swear more than he’s ever done before in his career. In the first two seasons alone, fans estimated that he snarled “f*ck off” around 75 times, prompting the actor to wear a face mask adorned with his catchphrase to the season three premiere party held in New York in October 2021.

But to be fair, Succession, now headed into its fourth and final season, gives Roy and the rest of his privileged clan free. rein to curse with impunity.

The head of the vast Waystar Royco empire had opened up the path to power for his four spoiled children – Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook), Roman (Kieran Culkin), and Connor (Alan Ruck) – but has only engaged them in an ever-increasing series of deliciously cringe-inducing power games.

At the centre of the familial drama is the strained relationship between Logan and his second-eldest son Kendall, and the tension between the pair echoed behind the scenes in their different approaches to their craft.

The pragmatic Cox worries about the long-term effects that Strong’s method acting will have on his wellbeing, given that he immerses himself so fully into playing the emotionally fragile Kendall.

“I love working with Jeremy. Whenever we do a scene it’s always top-notch human. He’s always prepared,” Cox explains.

I just worry about what it does to him. And the effect it has on him because it’s a hard call to do [method acting]. If I looked at my career and the roles I’ve played – Winston Churchill, [Hermann] Göring, Hannibal Lecter – you could go nuts because of the extremities of these characters. You have to have discipline [to separate them]. You have to be able to say at the end of the day, ‘I’m Brian Cox. I’m not Winston Churchill, or Göring or Lecter.’”

Brian Cox features in this Sunday’s Stellar. Picture: Daniel Nadel for Stellar.

As for the Roys, Cox laughs at the notion that people find it reassuring to watch a family more dysfunctional than their own, especially one that proves money doesn’t buy happiness.

“That’s the cautionary element of it. That’s the morality tale,” he says.

“These writers – though they are comedy writers – are quite political. And it’s a critique of these values. And unfortunately, more and more people have become hostage to these values.”

Such is the power of Succession’s razor-sharp writing that it makes toxic behaviour intoxicating viewing.

“It’s quite anti-cancel culture,” Cox says of the series.

“It shows the hypocrisy of human beings. It’s the whole cancel thing [that] is totally hypocritical. I’m not a religious person by any stretch, but go back to the Bible and it says, ‘Let those without sin cast the first stone.’ And this is the climate we’re living in.

“It’s getting more confused because suddenly a whole bunch of young people are coming along to say [stories, films and TV shows] can’t exist anymore. And they are eradicating history.”

Season 4 of Succession streams from Monday 27 on Binge

Originally published as Succession star Brian Cox’s weird fan request: ‘Can you tell us to f*** off?’