‘Succession’ Stars Can’t Agree On Method Acting, But I Have A Theory

I have a theory. I think Succession star Jeremy Strong—who plays Kendall Roy in the hit HBO drama—might be tricking fellow star, Brian Cox, into method acting.

Cox, who plays Roy family patriarch and WayStar Royco boss Logan Roy on the show, is a vocal critic of Strong’s method acting, but could he be inadvertently practicing what he preaches against? Can you even be an accidental method actor? Before we go further, let’s get some definitions out of the way.

“My dear boy, why don’t you just try acting?”

Method acting, for those who don’t know, is a type of acting based on the teachings of Stanislavsky. Method actors become deeply invested in their characters, often trying to inhabit them entirely to create as authentic a performance as possible.

The quote above is attributed to Lawrence Olivier who made the quip to method actor Dustin Hoffman on the set of Marathon Man. According to the story (which is itself something of a tall tale) Hoffman had run around the block a few times to work up a sweat for a scene, since his character was supposed to be a runner and sweaty and out of breath. Classically trained Olivier, bemused and more than a little puzzled by this, leaned over to the younger actor said “My dear boy, why don’t you just try acting?” After all, the thinking goes, you don’t have to be the character in order to act the part. Just act!

Which leads us to Brian Cox’s irritation with his younger co-star. Think of Cox as Olivier equipped with an arsenal of F-bombs, and Strong as Hoffman. In several interviews now, Cox has expressed his frustration with method acting. “I don’t hold a lot of the American shit, having to have a religious experience every time you play a part. It’s crap,” Cox said during a Q&A at the Toronto Film Festival. “I don’t hang onto the characters I play. I let them go through me. The thing is to be ready to accept, as an actor. You stand there, you’re ready to accept whatever is thrown at you.”

In an interview with Town & Country Cox said of his co-star, “He’s a very good actor. And the rest of the ensemble is all OK with this. But knowing a character and what the character does is only part of the skill set.”

“It’s ****** annoying,” Cox said, punctuating his opinion. “Don’t get me going on it.”

Recently, the actor showed up on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon where he showed off a short clip of his acting Master Class video in a pretty funny bit. In the clip, he gives his first acting tip:

“Just ****** do it! Act! Say the ****** lines, and don’t bump into the ****** furniture.”

Now here’s my theory about all of this. In Succession, no two heads butt harder than Logan and Kendall Roy. No two characters clash more ferociously or more frequently. Indeed, Logan seems constantly on the verge of physically assaulting his son, who is always one step away from betraying his father (because hey, if you can’t get your dad’s approval you may as well try to kill him). There’s a lot of Oedipus stuff going on here, hooooboy.

Anyways, you can really feel Logan’s frustration in these moments. And my hunch is that Strong’s method acting has helped Cox’s performance in ways he’d never admit. He’s undoubtedly channeling all his irritation with Strong’s bleeping annoying method acting into his own performance as Logan Roy, which is exactly how method acting works! If Cox is annoyed with Strong on the set, it’s that much easier to portray his anger authentically onscreen.

Was this Jeremy Strong’s plan all along? Is this some wild game of six-dimensional thespian chess? Whatever the case, these are two extremely talented actors, no matter what school of acting they come from, and I’d take a Master Class in acting from either one of them.

And yes, I’m being more than a little tongue-in-cheek here. I’ve always found the debate between method acting and “traditional” acting a little silly on both sides. The fact of the matter is “just bleeping act” means different things to different actors. For some, that means going deep into the headspace of a character; for others, it’s just about how you say the lines. Usually, it’s a mixture of different styles and approaches. At the end of the day, it’s whatever gets results. Fortunately for Succession, everybody is getting results. Whatever they’re doing, it works.

Succession returns to HBO for its fourth and final season this Sunday, March 26th. I’ll be reviewing the show here on this blog.