Considering how much control America’s wealthiest families have over the country’s media and mainstream entertainment (not to mention politics), there have been noticeably few films or television depictions of the inner workings of these powerful empires. This Sunday though, HBO introduces the masses to the interior lives of the .01 percent with Succession—a satirical drama about a self-made media mogul Logan Roy (Brian Cox) who finds himself at retirement age and surrounded by monstrously entitled, insecurity-addled sons—and a daughter—of his own creation.
For Cox and executive producer Adam McKay, the Jesse Armstrong-created series is a timely morality tale considering the new generation of America’s dynastic empires currently coming into power—most visibly, the offspring President Donald Trump employs at the White House, including daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
“The show very much reflects our time—this whole idea of a generation of rich kids who have this sense of entitlement. We see examples of it every day in the press, particularly in relation to our POTUS. . . . A wonderful example is what happened in the Gaza Strip quite recently,” Cox said, referencing Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s triumphant appearance at the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem while, 40 miles away, Israeli forces killed 52 Palestinian protesters and wounded at least 2,400 others, in the deadliest day in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 2014. “There’s something pernicious about it that, I think, comes from the privilege of money, and the danger of money. And I think our show really does look at that in kind of sharp focus.”
Cox, a classically trained Scottish actor who calls himself an “old socialist at heart,” is appalled by the growing chasm between the rich and poor, and the way the media fuels it. The opening episode of the series examines the divide in a powerful scene featuring one of Logan’s children, Roman (Kieran Culkin), brazenly offering a staff member’s son $1 million if he hits a home run during a family baseball game. Afterward, an embarrassed Logan attempts to right the egregious wrong—but the difference between the have and have nots, especially after such flamboyant arrogance, is too great to bridge.
“The media almost—not deliberately, but kind of—exploits these differences. We see it with Kim Kardashian going to see the president and pleading [Alice Johnson’s] case to be pardoned, which is very, very nice and good,” said Cox. “But you go, well, ‘Who’s Kim Kardashian?!’ In reality, what is she? She’s a reality star. We look at the lack in what people have and . . . it’s created that want, that need. There’s something lacking, and of course it’s gotten to: ‘God is dead, long live reality shows.’”
Cox’s criticism wasn’t reserved for American royalty: “I mean, fine, I’m very happy for [Prince Harry and Meghan Markle]. They got married and all of that. But the kind of side issue of it is, that I find slightly repellent, is that the [pomp of a royal wedding] projects this notion of the haves and the have-nots. Now maybe that’s the case of life—that there are haves and have-nots. But at the same time in an egalitarian society, like this society, that shouldn’t be the case. Everybody should have a fair crack of the whip and nobody should be disenfranchised. Unfortunately, I think the whole Trump election, like what happened in Brexit, was that Trump was elected by people who feel disenfranchised. King Lear says it wonderfully well in the play—he says, ’I’ve taken too little care of this.’”
Asked whether he has encountered Rupert Murdoch, one of the templates for his character, or any of Murdoch’s ilk, Cox laughed, “Thank god, no”
“The link for me is that it’s about kingdoms, fiefdoms, and territories that you own. Shakespeare dealt with those families. If you look at Lear, Julius, Titus Andronicus, and you look at these powerful figures, there’s a lot of Lear-like qualities in Logan Roy, who has given away his empire and is taking it all back. . . . There’s something ill at ease about him. He’s a very private man. He doesn’t like fuss. The thing he wants is the security of his family, but they’ll never be secure in themselves and he can’t make that happen. That’s his tragedy, if you like. He cannot do it for his children.”
“I think the title Succession should have a question mark . . . Succession? . . . Who takes over, who runs the show, who’s fit? Who’s got the qualifications, the dignity? . . . What did we succeed to? What are we getting out of our creation? Are we getting any peace of mind? Are we getting any real security, because these people are massively insecure. They have all the money in the world but they have no real security.”
For McKay, the project was a natural follow-up to 2015’s The Big Short, which grappled with wealth and greed and earned him an adapted-screenplay Academy Award. “We’re in a kind of second gilded age and income equality is at historic highs,” he said. “This is the story to tell one way or the other.” McKay grew up with a single mother who worked as a waitress outside of Philadelphia. When he got a job in the Saturday Night Live writers’ room in New York City—alongside Harvard graduates with connections to powerful circles—he suddenly began getting glimpses of how the other half lived.
“Friends of mine, even now, who are maybe a person or two removed [from elite families], have spent time at social gatherings with some of these people. . . . I have heard stories for years, and then you read something like Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right, and you hear stories about the Koch brothers, and the battles they’ve had in their family—or Jared Kushner’s father being arrested, and the way that family operates—and it is just jaw-dropping.” But these are just glimpses. “If you look at Charles and David Koch, Sheldon Adelson, Art Pope, any of these billionaire dynastic families that are having an out-sized influence on our government and the way we perceive things and the law, it does amaze me that we don’t know more about them considering what an influence they have on our world.”
Succession writer Jesse Armstrong sweeps audiences into the security-protected penthouse of the Roy family. (Though Armstrong wrote a feature screenplay about the mogul titled Murdoch, the project was never made. And in discussions about Succession earlier this year, the cast and crew were quick to draw focus from the Murdochs and said that Logan Roy and his dynastic struggles are inspired by everyone from Sumner Redstone to William Randolph Hearst to British press baron Robert Maxwell to Queen Elizabeth.
“People are going to look at this show like it’s a hyped-up power battle,” said McKay of the series, which has its characters exorcising their dysfunction by depraved means. “But in some ways the show isn’t as crazy as the Kushners, or these more extreme families, like the Kochs. If you did the story of the Koch brothers being raised by a Nazi nanny who then went back to support Adolf Hitler, you would just never believe that in a show. With Kushner, didn’t his father hire an escort to sleep with his brother-in-law? And then send the tape to the sister? I mean, if Jesse wrote that, I would be like, ‘Jesse, this is crazy. What are you doing?’ It’s so far off the rails I couldn’t even comprehend it.”
Succession began pre-production before Trump was elected president, and working on the series after Trump took office “definitely helped with our sanity,” said McKay, “knowing we were doing something that would harmonize with the world.” Now that the series is finished, McKay has heard from a few of his friends with elite connections who have happened upon the trailer or premiere.
“A lot of people who are maybe a person or two removed from these families have said it’s so unbelievably accurate.” As for what Jared Kushner would take from the series: “Would they watch it and be like, ‘Oh cool, it’s us.’ Or would they watch it and be like, ‘Those sons of bitches, how dare they?’ My guess is they don’t watch it. I would love to hear a reaction from one of these families.”
McKay said that, several years ago, while watching Rupert Murdoch’s son and heir apparent James face repercussions in 2011 for a phone-hacking scandal, he was surprised by his complicated reactions.
“In the moment, watching [James], one of my feelings was, ‘Well, he should go to jail.’ The second was, ‘Well, screw him.’ But then the third was, I felt bad for him. I felt like he’s a son in this family. In a weird way it’s like being a Mafia don’s son. You really don’t have a choice. You kind of have to live this life, and I was surprised that I felt a little bad for him. That’s what surprised me about Jesse’s work and the writing staff, and the actors on this show: that you occasionally feel bad for these people—that they have to live in this kind of hellish, dark world where everything’s a transaction. And everything’s about power.”
Cox is hopeful that if Succession gets a second season, the characters might be willing to repent.
“The characters are brilliant and mysterious because they’re all so capable of change,” he said. “If we do get another season, it’s going to be interesting to see what’s going to happen to them in terms of transformation.”
