‘Succession’ Star Brian Cox Thinks Logan Has ‘Endless Disappointment’ In His Scheming, Screwed-Up Children

Succession is back, after a long and understandable delay, and it’s like they haven’t missed a beat. The Roy family is still troubled, but in new and unexpected ways. Season 2 ended with Kendall (Jeremy Strong) effectively assassinating his dad, Logan (Brian Cox), to his proud bemusement. But over the five episodes that comprise Season 3 thus far, including the new one about a truly chaotic shareholders meeting, we’ve learned he wasn’t so much Machiavellian as making it up as he goes along. And while viewers are loving the new season, it’s clear Logan sees it all as a major letdown.

Cox spoke with IndieWire about the new season so far, and he opened up about Logan’s complicated emotions. He, of course, wears those feelings close to the vest, and when he speaks — even to seemingly praise Kendall, as he did during a trick pow-wow in episode four — it’s not clear how much of it is sincere. Cox calls Logan’s thoughts “paradoxical and conflicted,” and as an example he cites Kendall’s actions in the Season 2 finale mic drop.

“It does feel good. The boy is finally standing up for himself,” Cox says. But, he adds, “he’s also feeling, well, he’s only standing up for himself because two hours before I told him he had to be a killer. And what does he do He goes out and kills me. You go, well, that’s funny. And then you go, it’s a bit obvious as well.”

But Logan’s “paradoxical and conflicted” feelings aren’t only reserved for Kendall. It’s for Roman (Kieran Culkin), Shiv (Sarah Snook), even the older Connor (Alan Ruck):

At same time, there’s the endless disappointment that he has, that he tries to counteract because he tries to maintain his love — and it’s not difficult for him because he does love his kids — the endless disappointment is painful to the character of Logan. The fact that the boys and the girls, they can’t see the game. It’s a game, but like all games, even when it’s a matter of life and death, it’s still a game. And they can’t see it.

Where Logan is more reserved, Cox argues, the Roy kids are too bound up in their “egos,” and that while he knows how to navigate through their antics, “deep, deep, down there is the sense he’s sick of this endless betrayal and the endless treachery that he’s living around.”

Cox also sees Logan as “deeply loyal,” citing not only his close relationships with his children but also longtime employees like Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron), Karl (David Rasche), and Frank (Peter Friedman), even though he’s “fired and rehired and fired and rehired” them over their many years together.

Then there’s that Episode 4 pow-wow, during which he briefly praises Kendall in front of Adrien Brody’s Josh Aaronson only to give Kendall the silent treatment when he walks away. “Well, he also says, you’ll say anything to get f*cked on a date, so that’s a giveaway,” Cox says, before elaborating on his methods:

But he’s in tune that way. Of course, he does see Kendall’s gifts more than Kendall sees. He does see Kendall’s potential even and he has this ambition for his son, but his son doesn’t get it. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make the thing drink and this is what he’s constantly doing. He’s constantly leading his children to the pool and then they will not consume. And that’s understandable because they’ve lost trust. They don’t know who this man is. The real bugbear is they really don’t know who their father is. They don’t understand their father. They think they do, but they don’t. And I think that’s kind of the mystery. And the story really is who Logan is.

Yes, but how good would Logan be on the basketball court Perhaps better than you’d think.

Succession airs Sundays on HBO and HBO Max starting at 9pm.