Succession takes a hard look at family legacy

Told in an unflinching manner, the HBO series (set to premiere globally on June 3) unravels the saga of the Roy family who controls one of the biggest media and entertainment conglomerates in the world.

NEW YORK CITY — At the very heart of HBO’s brand-new drama series Succession is a serious look at family relationships and the legacy a parent inevitably leaves behind to his children.

Told in an unflinching manner, the 10-episode Succession (set to premiere globally on June 3 exclusively on HBO) unravels the saga of the Roy family who controls one of the biggest media and entertainment conglomerates in the world. The series tracks their lives as they contemplate what the future will hold for them once their aging father Logan begins to step back from the company.

The show is created by Oscar and WGA nominee Jesse Armstrong (In The Loop), who also wrote the pilot episode directed by Oscar winner Adam Mckay (The Big Short). Together, Armstrong and McKay are joined in the executive production team by actor Will Ferrel, Frank Rich (HBO’s Veep), Kevin Messick, Jane Tranter (HBO’s The Night Of) and Mark Mylod (HBO’s Entourage).

Ruck and Culkin in another scene from the series

Succession boasts of a powerhouse cast led by Brian Cox (The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, X2, Braveheart, Rushmore, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Troy, Doctor Who, etc.) as Logan Roy, the tough, powerful and aging patriarch of the Roy family and head of a family-controlled media conglomerate.

In an interview with select cast members of the show at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel here, Cox (the Shakespearean actor who gained much recognition for his portrayal of King Lear), after delving into the psyche and culture of Logan, recognizes that the crux of the matter of succession is rooted in the manner by which you have reared your children. He says, “It’s a problem when you have dysfunctional children. They are your responsibility. You’re the roots of it.”

He calls the show as some sort of a Chauncerian morality tale, inspired by the character of Peter Sellers in the 1979 movie Being There as simple-minded Chauncey Gardiner. Chauncey has resided in the Washington DC townhouse of his wealthy employer as a gardener his entire life and been educated only by television. He is forced to vacate his home when his boss dies and is swept into high society by a strange twist of fate. Cox says that’s about what happens when you have kids who feel entitled.

He continues, “It is so evident today that this is what is happening to families. These children are not prepared. They don’t have any experience apart from the experience that money gave them. Tragically and wrongly for some reason, it was like King Lear all over again, ‘He’s taken too little care of us,’ to quote this famous line from the play. So, it is the same as dealing with these children. He hasn’t attended to what he should have attended to. How he has educated his children, how he has parented these children.

His children are played by Jeremy Strong (Zero Dark Thirty, Lincoln, Selma, Parkland, The Big Short) as Kendall Roy, eldest son of Logan’s second marriage, currently a division president at the family firm and heir apparent; Kieran Culkin (Home Alone, Father of the Bride, She’s All That, The Cider House Rules, Scott Pilgrim and the Rest of the World, among others) as Roman Roy, the outspoken, fun-loving son and Kendall’s younger brother who; Sarah Snook (Predestination, The Dressmaker, Steve Jobs) as Siobhan “Shiv” Roy, the only daughter and younger sister to Kendall and Roman; and Alan Ruck (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Spin City, Bad Boys, Three Fugitives, Young Guns, Speed, Twister, etc.) as Connor Roy, the eldest son and only child from Logan’s first marriage.

Cox as Logan Roy, the tough, powerful and aging patriarch of the Roy family

Film, television and stage actor Jeremy Strong finds the role assigned to him as Kendall a bit intimidating as it was “a little close to the bone.”

He says, “I felt that the kind of shadow that his character struggles with might be my own shadow. His ambition, his desire for validation and approval is something I can relate to. There are elements in this character that I certainly see alive in me.”

Strong also says that Kendall tries very hard to appear as this tough alpha businessman, the way he sees his father and the way he thinks his father wants him to be. “There is a performative aspect in it. He is trying to project an image of confidence. While I think he is very capable and smart and I do actually think that he knows what he is doing and his insight is that his father’s methods are kind of outdated and backward-looking, truth is, Kendall is yet to find his authentic way about who he is as a mogul. Kendall is trying to figure out who he is and can he get out from under the shadow of his father and become his own man.”

The parts played by Culkin and Ruck as Roman and Connor, respectively, sort of provide the caricature needed to embellish the colorful Roy family.

Kieran, who began his career as a child actor alongside his brother Macaulay, says he was originally offered a different role but when he read the script, he began to click with the character of Roman right away and so he asked to read for that part instead of that of Greg’s.

Ruck, for his part, knew he should be in for the part of Connor when he read a specific line in the script where the character talks to his father and tells him, “Dad, I want to be president of the United States” and said it in earnest.

Others in the periphery of the Logan family are cast members Hiam Abbass as Marcia “Marcy” Roy, current wife of Logan, a loving, formidable partner; Nicholas Braun as Greg, Logan’s less than competent nephew; Matthew Macfadyenas Tom, Shiv’s ambitious fiancé and a senior executive at the firm; Rob Yang as Lawrence, founder and CEO of a digital media outfit who is the target of a buyout; Peter Friedman as Frank, COO of the firm, old family friend and a mentor figure to Kendall and Natalie Gold as Rava Roy, Kendall’s wife and mother of his two kids.

Jeremy Strong as Kendall Roy, eldest son of Logan’s second marriage and heir apparent

Arab-Israeli actress Hiam Abbass is fascinated with the character that she plays in the series.

She says, “Marcia, my character is mysterious. You don’t doubt her love for her husband Logan. Being his wife is being in the business. Being his wife is being the business. That doesn’t cancel love and trust but it means as well that we evolve together because we have a new journey together. I don’t know my motivations in the story. I don’t know if I will ever know my motivations but they go with this relationship. They go by this relationship being drawn surrounding these kids and what they come up with every time.”

So, if by chance, you see in the show any semblance of the controversies, intrigues and familial conflicts that besiege prominent families in the world, that is because this fictional work of critically-acclaimed British comedy writer Jesse Armstrong, in actuality, is a product of his passionate research of the fascinating lives of real-life subjects.

Armstrong said, “I knew about the area, some parts of my career I have written about power and politics, I was particularly in the loop. I wanted to do a show in the US and for HBO, but there are a lot of restrictions and responsibilities when you are doing a story about a real family. You have to be careful in lots of ways.”

He was, in fact, part of a shelved project called Murdoch a drama featuring the most powerful media tycoon Rupert Murdoch in 2010. Aside from that, Armstrong is also working on a biopic on Republican Party strategist Lee Atwater.

“I started to read good books in this area because there are lots of it If you are intrigued by these kinds of family. And I was thinking there are certain commonalities within them or there might be. And so from there I started thinking about my fictional work and we would like to see and feature it on HBO,” he said.

And the rest, they say, is history.

HBO premieres Succession on June 3. The series will also be available on HBO Now, HBO Go, HBO On Demand and partners’ streaming platforms.