Behind-The-Scenes Facts That Will Astonish Succession‘s Die-Hard Fans
While some TV shows need a little time to find their footing, others take the world by storm right out of the gate. And even among those rare few, the show that can keep their impressive momentum up until the finale is even rarer. And judging by the way people have talked about its explosive ending, Succession is one of those shows.
But of course, even a bad show tends to have a complicated filming process behind it. So when an instant classic like this comes out, it's hard not to wonder what lies under the surface. Audiences only see the tip of the iceberg when they watch a series, which is what makes behind-the-scenes facts like these so compelling.
Connor Roy's injury was real
At one point in Succession's third season, Connor is shown wearing an arm sling and refusing to take off his coat at Kendall's birthday party as a result. Although Alan Ruck didn't exactly break his arm as Connor did, he told Jimmy Kimmel that he did tear his shoulder while shoveling snow and needed surgery.
In his words, "I called up Jesse Armstrong, and I said, 'Jesse, the guy says I have to do it now, or I'm gonna be messed up for the rest of my life,’ and he said, ‘We’ll write it in!'"
Succession made Brian Cox a superstar against his will
As he told The Irish Times while promoting his memoir, Brian Cox mentioned that one of his favorite things about his successful, decade-spanning career as a character actor was his relative anonymity. But that changed when Succession became a smash hit.
As he said, "It's a global success. And I am now recognized wherever I go. I’ve lost my anonymity, which I had for… um… Well, I’ve been in the business for 60 years, and certainly, for more than 50 years of that, I had anonymity."
Kieran Culkin wasn't supposed to be Roman
Kieran Culkin explained to The Hollywood Reporter that he was initially supposed to read for Greg Hirsch but recalled not connecting with the character very much. But something happened when he read further in the script and saw Roman's entrance.
In Culkin's words, "There was something that clicked with me and this character that's something I still don't understand and probably don't want to understand, considering the kind of guy he is."
Sarah Snook almost turned down Succession entirely
As she explained to Variety, Snook initially had some concerns about her character, given the nature of the show's setting. As she said, "If the world is going to be interested in a bunch of white dudes talking about business, and if I'm the only woman in that, then I’m likely to get sidelined and be like some sort of prop."
But eventually, the details of the show were of substantial enough quality to compel her to trust the showrunners. And as a result, she made her mark as one of Succession's most important characters.
Logan Roy was originally supposed to be French Canadian
In an interview with CBC Radio's Tom Power, Brian Cox mentioned that Logan Roy was originally supposed to be from Quebec. But by the end of Season 1, the writers changed the character's background to Cox's actual Scottish heritage as a surprise for the actor.
As Cox put it, "When I first was approached about the job, I suggested playing him [as a Scot]. And [Jesse Armstrong] didn't want that. He said, 'No, no, he has to be American."
Jeremy Strong brought his career frustrations to Kendall
By the time Jeremy Strong was cast as Kendall Roy in Succession, he had not only lost out on a big part from The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow but also the role of Roman Roy. And he described how those unlucky breaks and his overall career frustrations at the time informed his portrayal of Kendall.
He told The New Yorker, "I've always felt like an outsider with a fire in my belly. And so the disappointment and the feeling of being thwarted—it only sharpened my need and hunger. I went in with a vengeance."
Even the characters' phone backgrounds matter
Sharp-eyed viewers may notice that even the details on some of the characters' phone screens give subtle hints as to their relationships.
A couple of significant examples of this are the fact that Roman's lock screen is a photo of himself flipping Shiv off, while Shiv substituted her father's photo in his contact ID with one of Saddam Hussein's.
A chance sighting made Greg the way he was
While sitting down with Jimmy Kimmel, Nicholas Braun revealed that the inspiration for his portrayal of Greg Hirsch came from a dancing guest at a friend's wedding.
As he said, "He was just dancing recklessly. Just like freely. Just like a pure soul. Not to the beat. And so I was like, 'That's so Greg.'"
Brian Cox and Alan Ruck's ages are not far off
Although they play father and son, the age gap between Brian Cox and Alan Ruck isn't as wide as it may seem.
In fact, Cox is only ten years older than Ruck. Although Ruck at least gets to be Logan Roy's eldest son, there's a limit to how early people can father children in life.
Jeremy Strong didn't want to do "L To The OG"
As Jeremy Strong told Variety, Kendall's rapping tribute to his dad wasn't originally scripted as it turned out. Although Kendall was always supposed to do an awkward rap, the initial plan didn't appeal to Strong any more than the other characters.
In his words, "And there was a lyric that sounded like it was from a bad Bar Mitzvah. I lobbied hard to cut it. I thought it was going to be stupid, and let's think of something else." But after Nick Britell came up with lyrics he liked better, Strong decided to go for it.
"L To The OG" earned Jeremy Strong a Frank Ocean text
Although Jeremy Strong had his initial reservations about "L To The OG," he fully put himself into the rap tribute once the idea what fleshed out a little better. And the results were awkward and hilarious enough that R&B luminary Frank Ocean texted him a crying emoji.
As Strong told Variety, "I took it as the highest possible compliment because he's one of my heroes. It was small props, but it meant the world."
Technically, Brian Cox has played this role before
When Adam McKay first approached Jeremy Strong about Succession, he described it as Shakespeare's King Lear but for the media-industrial complex.
However, this wasn't the first time Brian Cox had played Lear as a modern media mogul, albeit in a vastly different context. In a biography for Amanda Holden, Jim Maloney wrote that she and Cox did a skit on the British sketch comedy series French & Saunders that crossed King Lear into the then-popular reality show Footballers' Wives.
Shiv Roy's likely inspiration watched the show
According to Town & Country, the family at the heart of Succession was a composite of many different people, but the production has long been dogged by rumors that the Roys are supposed to represent the Murdochs, whose patriarch owns News Corp. In particular, Siobhan Roy has been considered a fictionalized representation of Rupert Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth.
Sarah Snook told the magazine, "I have it on good information that she's actually watching the show." And as far as she could tell, Murdoch enjoyed it.
Shooting in Tuscany was too hot to handle
According to The Guardian, the Tuscany location shots in Season 3 occurred during a heat wave so sweltering that J. Smith-Cameron suffered heatstroke. For his part, Brian Cox refused to get out of a car to face the brunt of it.
He said, "They asked, 'Why not?' and I replied, 'Logan Roy wouldn't get out of the car in this heat.'"
A distinct filming style was used
When The Big Short director Adam McKay shot Succession's pilot, he committed the show to its distinct visual style. And that style was achieved by breaking from the modern-day pack and shooting on film.
As he told Kodak, "I think the result of that decision, to use 35mm, helped to give Succession a special visual platform that is markedly different – dirtier, with more texture and feeling – than most audiences have been used to with modern digital-originated shows."
If the show didn't birth a fashion trend, it popularized it
Although there's much about Succession to discuss, Glamor UK has noted that the "quiet luxury" fashion trend likely owes its time in the sun to the show's wardrobe department.
That's because each member of the wealthy Roy family dresses in neutral tones and plain-looking outfits that the magazine noted tend to cost a lot more than their aesthetics would suggest. This is how one defines the term "quiet luxury," which runs opposed to the flashy, designer-label-reliant approach to high fashion.
Cherry Jones was scared of one of the executive producers
During an interview with NPR's Terry Gross, Cherry Jones mentioned that she had lived in fear of one of Succession's executive producers, Frank Rich before she was ever in a position to play Nan Pierce. That's because she started as a theatre actress, and Rich was known as "The Butcher of Broadway" because his word as a critic was often powerful enough to close a show.
She said to Gross, "We lived in fear and terror of Frank Rich in the theater. And, of course, he was absolutely delightful. So I'd gotten to know him a little bit."
Two Succession actors once played the same character
When Succession Season 2 aired, Danny Huston joined the cast as Jamie Laird. Once he did, the cast would feature two actors who had played the same character at different ages in the X-Men movies.
Huston played the ruthless Colonel William Stryker while he birthed the infamous Weapon X program that birthed Wolverine and Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, while Cox played him decades after any of that happened in X2: X-Men United.
Brian Cox singlehandedly kept a big spoiler under wraps
Succession's final season has a big, shocking twist in its third episode. And as he told Stephen Colbert, one scene filmed at a church would have given it away if Brian Cox hadn't gone against the showrunners' wishes and showed up to set. Since he did, the photojournalists watching the production were stymied.
In Cox's words, "I'm hopeless at keeping secrets. It was a triumph, an absolute triumph. I was very proud of myself. I used to check myself in the mirror and say, 'Well done, Cox.'"
Succession was originally supposed to be a movie
While Succession's producers have long denied that it's about the Murdoch family, such a denial would have been impossible if Jesse Armstrong had followed his original vision.
According to The Guardian, Succession was originally supposed to be a movie called Murdoch that followed the family on Rupert Murdoch's 78th birthday in the midst of the News Of The World phone-tapping scandal.
Much of Succession was improvised
Although only one scene featured in Logan Roy's birthday dinner was entirely improvised, Adam McKay famously encouraged the cast to improvise throughout the series. And for the more classically-trained actors he was working with, this policy didn't go down easily.
As McKay told The Hollywood Reporter, "I would yell out, 'Hey, try this,' and they would go, 'No.' The whole crew gets still for a second, and I would just say, 'We're rolling. You might as well,' and then they would start to do it, and of course, they would fall in love with it. I mean, every actor does."
Pusha T remixed the theme song
Back in October 2019, HBO released an official remix of Succession's theme song, and composer Nicholas Britell told Vulture that the only person he had in mind to rap over it was former Clipse member Pusha T. Fortunately, the Virginia rapper was already a fan of the show, having been introduced to it after his manager compared him to Logan Roy.
Interestingly, his verse ended up spoiling details for the then-unaired Season 2 by pure coincidence, so HBO asked him to rewrite it. In Pusha T's words, "Ordinarily, I probably wouldn't have. But, I mean, the show is dope."
Much of the show was filmed at the World Trade Center
According to The Guardian, any scenes inside the Waystar Royco offices in Succession were filmed at either Tower 4 or Tower 7 of the new World Trade Center.
The newspaper further reported that these locations were used partially because they offered exquisite views of Manhattan.
Creator Jesse Armstrong has an Oscar nod under his belt
Although he's likely even more famous for creation Succession, Jesse Armstrong has shown his penchant for creating managerial chaos in the British series The Thick Of It, starring Peter Capaldi as foul-mouthed government minister Malcolm Tucker.
Capaldi would reprise this role in the political satire In The Loop, earning Armstrong an Oscar nomination for best-adapted screenplay.
Logan was supposed to die in Season 1
According to Town & Country, the show's writers had originally planned to kill Logan Roy off before the end of the first season. However, they soon realized that he was too central to the story and especially to how his children interact with the world to leave Succession so soon.
As Brian Cox put it, "Everything has to spin off him, and the kids' vices are all about their father and relating to their father. Do they love their father, and if so, how do they show that love?"
Larry David was important to Succession without being in it
To ensure that none of Succession's most important plot details leaked, the writers used to talk about certain events they had planned ahead in code. According to writer Georgia Pritchett, the biggest plot twist of the final season was code-named "Larry David."
To figure out why that name was chosen, all fans have to do is go back to the episode "Connor's Wedding" and realize what sudden event has the same initials as the Curb Your Enthusiasm creator.
Real-life relationships influenced the characters
Without revealing too much, Roman Roy gets a lot closer with Wayster Royco's general counsel Gerri Kellman as Succession goes on. Although their actors have been close friends in real life for years, Deadline reported one moment they shared off-set during the second season influenced the development of their chemistry.
In J. Smith-Cameron's words, "I left, and he looked back at me, and then I looked back at him. We missed each other."
Succession had wealth consultants on-set
According to The Guardian, the production hired wealth consultants to accurately convey how an old-money family treats the trappings of their wealth. These consultants worked with the wardrobe and set design departments, but they also coached the actors on dining and social etiquette, as well as how to get out of a helicopter.
Kieran Culkin said, "They told us, 'You would've been doing this your whole lives. You know where the propeller is. You wouldn't duck your head.'"
Some characters slipped into each other's accents
During a virtual appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Sarah Snook mentioned that both she and her on-screen husband, Matthew Macfadyen, had to maintain American accents for their performances. But while Snook didn't always succeed at her attempts to do this off-set, she didn't expect to slip into the accent she did.
As she put it, "I try and stay in it a little bit when I'm not doing the scene, as much as I can, at least, but when we're off, he's British, and I'm Australian, so I slip into his accent by accident, not even my own."
The Roys have meaningful names
Although the most obvious aspect of the Roys' themed naming draws on the fact that "Roy" is a variation of the French word for "king," specific characters also have meaningful names.
As The Guardian noted, Siobhan's nickname is "Shiv," which is a sharp and sneaky prison weapon. Roman is essentially Logan's prodigal son, so he's always roaming. Meanwhile, Connor is named after the term "con artist," while Kendall's name comes from "Ken doll."
