It is clear that Succession is one of the series of the moment. The fiction that ended in 2023 said goodbye in a big way, winning dozens of awards along the way and with an ending that left fans stunned. And, among other farewells, we had the farewell of Logan Roy, the character played by Brian Cox throughout the series.
In the series, Cox made it very clear why he is one of the most highly regarded actors in the industry, and not only that, but he has also turned down major roles along the way until he came across the good old Roy. In his recently released memoir Putting the Rabbit in the Hat, he has made some interesting statements about it.
Money rules
“It was going to be King Robert Baratheon, who apparently dies when he is gored by a boar in the first season“, explains Brian Cox about his possible participation in Game of Thrones. “Game of Thrones ended up being a great success and everyone involved made a fortune, of course. But when they offered it to me, let’s just say it wasn’t much money. Besides, I was going to be killed relatively soon, so I wouldn’t have had any of the long-term benefits of the series’ success, where your salary would increase with each new season. So I passed, and the boar gored Mark Addy instead of me”.
But not only that. He was also going to appear in Pirates of the Caribbean, where he was going to play the Governor that Jonathan Pryce eventually brought to life: “It would have been a money-making machine, but out of all the characters in the movie, it was the most ungrateful, and I would have ended up doing one movie after another and losing all the good things I’ve done.”
Although, in reality, the rejection of their offer was more due to Johnny Depp’s involvement in the project: “Another thing about Pirates of the Caribbean is that it’s basically the Johnny Depp show as Jack Sparrow, and personally I’m sure he’s very exaggerated, he’s very overrated. Think about Edward Scissorhands. Let’s face it, if you come with hands like that, pale, face makeup with scars… you don’t have to do anything. And he didn’t. And subsequently he did even less. But people love it. Or loved it. Now they don’t like it as much, of course.”
