PUTTING THE RABBIT IN THE HAT by Brian Cox

“Logan Roy is more interesting because he’s a darker character, but he’s got other elements which are surprising too.
That’s the great reward of him.
He does villainous things but he’s not really a villain.

And another thing that interested me about him is that we have this in common: we’re both disappointed in how the human experiment has turned out.
We share a certain disgust, which in his case manifests itself in his attitude to his kids, in whom he’s trying to instil a sense of self-worth.
He’s saying, “I want my kids to be themselves, instead of these bottle-feed individuals.”

“It’s an interesting dilemma of our times, the whole thing of entitlement and how that destroys people.
Logan’s never had that, there’s never a sense of entitlement to him because he’s earned everything he has, and he sees the tragedy of his children not having that foundation in their lives.”

I bought Brian Cox’s memoirs because I really like “Succession.”
My whole family watches the show but with entirely different feelings. My boys are terrified that a family could behave like that. My husband is physically ill at the thought that a listed company could be run by that kind of top management. I am the only one fascinated by the relations between the brothers and their lack of relationship with their father.

Even though the actor himself was an absentee father for his own children (like the character he plays in “Succession”), he had the fortune of having good wives.
Brian admitted that his first wife took all the decisions for their children, born in 1970 respectively in 1977:

“I was busy ploughing other furrows at the time, so I wasn’t being particularly domestic (translation: I was busy being a crap dad), and so I agreed — being in no position not to, frankly — that the kids should have the best possible opportunities.”

While for the children from his actual marriage, born in 2002 respectively in 2004, he’s giving credits to his second wife:

 “I hate the fact that while I had a hand in creating them, I seem to have absolutely nothing in common with them.
Which is all a long and roundabout way of saying that while I consider my children to be wonderful miracles — I have little affinity with the process of fathering them.”

Brian Cox was born in 1946 in a tiny Scottish village, the fifth child in the family.
All seven members of the family lived in a two-bedroom apartment.
Brian Cox left the school at 15 years old to work.
And he is the renowned actor he is today only because he was willing to learn all the time.

“It was a piece of wisdom that had stuck with me, and as someone who had decided their future lay as a supporting actor, it lit the way for me from that moment on.
It freed me, in fact.
It removed ego from the equation and allowed me to disregard the size of the role, the star wattage of my co-performers, even, to a certain extent, the quality of the film I was in, and concentrate solely on what I was able to contribute to my character and what my character could contribute to the film.
Actor, character, text.
That’s all it is.”

Kindle, 2022