Brian Cox is promoting his voice work in The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim right now, which is why he agreed to chat with the Hollywood Reporter. Cox’s interviews are legendary for their grumpiness and tea-spilling. Cox has been around for long and worked with so many people, and he’s fine with talking sh-t about most of them. He has a well-documented dislike of Method acting, and he still seems pretty jazzed that Succession changed his career so profoundly when he was in his 70s. Some highlights from THR:
The moment he knew he was famous: “It was 2019, and I was playing LBJ [in Robert Schenkkan’s The Great Society] at Lincoln Center. One of the first nights I came out of the theater, this couple who couldn’t have been older than 17 and had their devices with them said, “Could you tell us to f–k off?” And then subsequently, there were more people coming throughout the week, saying, “Tell us to f–k off.” And I realized, “Oh, I’m well known now.” I realized at my late age just how much I thrived on my anonymity. I can’t do public transport anymore. I can’t do things which I did in the past. So it’s a little tough in that sense.
His most valuable lesson about show business: “Treat it with all the suspicion it deserves.”
Whether Kevin Spacey should be allowed to work again: “I just think Kevin had certain things which he couldn’t or didn’t admit to, and I think it was a strain on him in many ways. And for me, that was Kevin’s only difficulty. But he’s a very fine actor, and I like Kevin a lot. He’s very funny. I met with him recently. I think he’s been through it. He’s had the kicking that some people think he deserved. He’s ready to get back in the saddle again, and people are trying to stop him from doing that. And I really do go back to, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” Maybe he got too out of hand, but I don’t think he should be punished endlessly for it. There should be a case of forgive and forget. Let’s move on. I think he should be given the opportunity to come back to work.
Working with Daniel Day-Lewis: “Dan’s a very nice man, but his method of preparation is entirely different from mine. I don’t believe in getting that absorbed in a character because I believe it’s an ensemble art form, not an art form for one person. It was difficult for Emily Watson, because Dan would speak in the Northern Irish accent offscreen. She didn’t know if she had to respond in a Northern Irish accent offscreen. She said, “So how do I talk?” And I said, “Just be normal. This is Dan’s thing. Just be who you are.” That’s his method. It’s sometimes a little off-putting, but it’s different horses for different courses.
He played Winston Churchill in a film in 2017, the same year Gary Oldman played a fatsuited Churchill & won the Oscar: “Our film came out in the summer, and it was a relatively independent film, so you haven’t got the power of the studios behind it. The Oscars are absolute nonsense because everything that’s judged in the Oscars, it’s not a year’s work. It’s just the work that comes out between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I think it makes those awards a fallacy quite honestly because there’s a lot of other good work that goes on outside of what they call Oscar season. So my film never even got a look, and I still think my performance is a better performance.”
Working with Jeremy Strong after dissing his Method: “We just got on with our job. We get on with what we’re doing. We’re not going to buy into that thing with Jeremy. Jeremy was Daniel Day-Lewis’ assistant. So that is where you can see a massive influence on how Jeremy prepares for his work. But to act with Jeremy is extraordinary. He’s a great actor. I just think the way he works is not the way I work, in the way that [how] Dan Day-Lewis works is not the way I work. Again, it’s horses for courses.
Which one of his Succession children he would like to be saddled with for the holidays: “It would have to be Kieran Culkin [Roman Roy]. That boy has been through so much with his family situation. And he’s a consummate actor. He really is. And he showed it. He was so nervous when we started the show. I have just watched him grow over the time, and I have such enormous respect for him. He’s a very fine actor, he’s funny and he’s very sweet. And Sarah Snook [Siobhan “Shiv” Roy] would be a close second.
I hate the way people talk around what Kevin Spacey actually did and what he was accused of. This wasn’t “cancel culture run amok,” it wasn’t like Spacey made one mistake years and years ago. That man was preying on very young men and BOYS for decades across several countries. He was a serial sexual predator who hurt many people, including actor Anthony Rapp when Rapp was just 14 years old. I hate everything about Spacey’s attempted comeback and all of these high-profile celebrities trying to make it happen.
As for what Cox says about the Oscars and Oldman’s win… lol. I hated that Gary Oldman won the Oscar for THAT performance (which was awful) and Cox absolutely has a point about which films are considered for awards (films that are released in November and December).
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
