The LIFE of BRIAN

Has being an OG in real life helped Brian Cox play one on TV? On the eve of Succession's new season, the Scottish actor describes the method to his madness.

- WILLIAM D. COHAN

It’s a bright, cold afternoon and I’m about 15 minutes early for my visit with Brian Cox, the Scottish actor who plays Logan Roy, the imperious family patriarch, on HBO’s Succession. We’re scheduled to meet at Cox’s row house, across the street from a low-income housing project on a hip Brooklyn block. I take a lap around the neighborhood, and then at the appointed hour I ring the bell. Cox’s wife, the actor Nicole Ansari, answers the door and looks at me blankly. “May I help you?”

Cox, who is standing inside, appears pained when he hears my name. They have just returned from Miami, he says, not 30 minutes earlier. Their luggage is still in the foyer. A cleaning lady is vacuuming away in the background.

Has Cox, perhaps, forgotten about my visit? It goes quiet, and suddenly it’s not at all clear what will happen. On the show Logan Roy tells people to fuck off with such regularity that now, when Cox walks the streets of New York, people regularly beg him to tell them to fuck off. He is more than happy to oblige. I realize that I haven’t a clue whether the real Brian Cox is anything like the character he plays on Succession.