Actor Brian Cox talks about his life, career and Succession as he brings his one man show to Yorkshire
One of the greatest actors of his generation, Brian Cox is now a household name due to his embodiment of the infamous character Logan Roy from the international hit Succession, which won him a Golden Globe. But even more extraordinary than any of the characters he has played, is his own life story. In his first ever one man show, It’s All About Me!, Cox takes us from the backstreets of Dundee to starring in Hollywood blockbusters.
“I think Logan was at one time quite a socialist. I don’t think that’s how he ended up,” says Cox. “He ended up creating a paper which was quite right wing. And he was concerned about his creation being passed on to one of his children and none of them could step up. It’s about entitlement. We’re seeing it now with oligarchies, with Elon Musk, with that clown who calls himself the President of the United States. We see it so evidently in these people who behave in this vigilante way. They think they can do anything. And Trump, well I won’t even go there, it’s just beyond the pale,” he says, words failing him before he rallies.
“It’s interesting we live in a time where we want to embrace stupidity on a mass level. And we’re seeing stupidity all the time. I mean what’s happened in Gaza, what’s happening in the Ukraine. The Ukraine’s really worrying and we’re not doing nearly enough about that to protect it. What we’re doing in Gaza is becoming a genocide. There’s no question about it. And I feel for it. I mean, I know what Hamas did on October 7 is beyond the pale. It’s unforgivable and they should be punished severely. But it’s the kids, the bairns, I worry about. All these bairns that are being murdered. In the process of achieving what? And then you get the clown from Washington saying, oh well, it could be a big riviera resort. We’ve all gone totally crazy, you know?”
Cox is always forthright about his opinions and shoots from the hip. “My job is to get to the root of who people are and why. Because nobody is intrinsically bad. Go into a baby unit and they’re all gorgeous. I love babies, toddlers. I think what we do to them is monstrous. We change them, make them into what they shouldn’t be. Because it’s conditioning that makes you the way you are, and how we condition our children is what’s important, teaching them about love, relationships, sharing.
“That’s what the children from Succession suffer from, a belligerent, strong father who never really gave them love, so they’ve never been given a perspective on who they are. It’s not Logan’s fault, because he’s also had demons to deal with. There’s one scene where he goes swimming and we see scars on his back and it’s never explained but shows he’s been through something horrific, been brutalised, and that’s what makes him behave in an off-hand and brutal manner. Brutalised children do not make good men because they carry that with them.
"That’s what’s fascinating about my job, which is to look at why we’re not evolved. Why do we make these decisions about what we should do with our lives.” For his part, Cox’s own credo is “live your life and understand and appreciate what’s coming at you’. “That’s what I think the theatre is. For me, it’s the one true church and its belief system is about human beings. How do we tick? What are our influences? What takes us down the wrong or right path?”
Cox has been treading the boards again recently in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night and The Score to rave reviews since Succession, which he describes as his “TV show, the one that has given me mixed blessings, shall we say.
“When I finished Succession I thought, I’ve got to go back to the theatre while I still can. I mean, I’m so grateful for the show and loved it. It’s one of the best things I have ever done, but at the same time I lost my anonymity. It was always, ‘Brian Cox, oh weren’t you in…?”
Unlike the brutalised men Cox talks about, in his autobiography Putting The Rabbit in the Hat he says after therapy as an adult he realised that despite a traumatic childhood where the death of his father through pancreatic cancer when he was eight plunged the family into poverty and his mother into illness, he was very much loved by his mother and the sisters and brother who cared for him. Does he think being loved is key to how we turn out?
“Yes. I do think care and love is the key. And we’re so ignorant. We really don’t know how to father or mother our kids. Or maybe we get a wee bit enlightened, but at the same time it’s a massive improvisation because no two children are the same. I’m very lucky. My kids are pretty good, they’re pretty special,” he says, referring to his adult children from his second marriage and younger sons from his third to actor Nicole Ansari-Cox, with whom he lives in Brooklyn, New York and London.
How do his offspring feel about having a dad who is famous? Are they used to it? “They are. My oldest son, who will be 55 on his birthday, and my daughter’s going to be 48, they had it tough because I was a struggling actor. But I was married to a woman who was very smart with money. I mean that’s why…” he says and falters. It’s noticeable it’s only when talking about his own wealth that Cox’s customary eloquence fails him. “I’ve always been like that about money,” he says. “I don’t want to know, because of what it did to my mum and dad.” So it’s an emotionally fraught subject for him? “Yeah. It immediately puts me into a kind of… So the idea that I’m rich. I can’t deal with that. I’ve always had a problem with it and money as a sign of success. I’m deeply suspicious of it.”
Aged 79, Cox is looking forward to making what he does in the years ahead count. Of all the films, TV, theatre, radio he’s done, of which is he most proud? “I suppose I’m proudest of a film I did with Lindsay Anderson in the Seventies, [1975] an adaptation of a David Storey play called In Celebration, and Alan Bates and Jimmy Bolam played my brothers. It was a beautiful script. And Titus Andronicus at Stratford in the Eighties was really important for me. And I enjoyed playing Churchill, because I thought I got that right. It’s a character performance. The other thing I’m very proud of is a film called The Escapist, which I did in 2008 and produced as well, with Rupert Wyatt.
“I’ve enjoyed myself, you know. There’s nothing I’ve regretted doing. Je ne regrette rien. I don’t go in for regrets. When I commit, I commit.” Looking ahead, there’s the release of his directorial debut with Glenrothan, a film set in Scotland, in which he also stars with Alan Cumming as his brother. There’s also the third Super Troopers film, US comedies about a highway patrol unit in which he steals the show as an exasperated police boss.
“I did the first in 1999 and had a great time and they’re very gifted and I think it’s very important to help young directors so I said I’d do that. And maybe another couple of movies. And I’ve got the tour.”
“The tour” is All About Me!, a UK and Ireland 18-date talking tour in October where Cox shares memories and anecdotes and takes audience questions, which includes York. “It should be a lot of fun.” Cox shows no sign of letting up, despite all his success, awards, financial and emotional security. So what is it that motivates him to keep going? “Well, you know, I just like the job!”
Brian Cox – It's All About Me! UK & Ireland Tour 2025 will be the York Barbican, October 28, tickets from Briancoxontour.com