Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Succession Season 3.
From creator Jesse Armstrong, the highly acclaimed and much-beloved HBO drama series Succession is further exploring the power dynamics in the Roy family in Season 3, which are shifting in a rather perilous way that feels like it could take down anyone in its path at any time. After Kendall’s (Jeremy Strong) decision to expose the depths of the company’s scandal, patriarch Logan Roy (Brian Cox) has pitted his other adult children – including Shiv (Sarah Snook), Roman (Kieran Culkin), and Connor (Alan Ruck) – against each other, wanting them to spy, snitch and claw their way into what could become a family civil war.
During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Strong talked about how linked he and his character are, the inspiration he got from Mary Poppins, the creative collaboration with Armstrong, Kendall’s over-the-top birthday party, whether he believes Logan loves his children, why he thinks it’s better to leave the party early when it comes to the length of the show, and Kendall’s mindset by the end of Season 3.
Collider: Did you miss Kendall at all, in the time between you finished filming Season 2 and started filming Season 3, or is he someone that you’re happy to pack away for a bit?
JEREMY STRONG: Did I miss him? Here’s the thing, he’s inextricably linked to a lot of parts of myself, so I never really left him. He haunts me and he never really leaves me. Certainly, when I’m working on the show, it awakens parts of myself that I would rather not look at or live with. Also, the class five whitewater emotional rapids that he has to go through, it’s difficult for me and it’s heavy. So, there’s an indescribable relief when I’m finished and I get to put the weight of it all down. But I will say that this season really started on an updraft. If things have been in a minor key, there’s a key change to a very major key. I felt that the press conference was, on the subtextual level for me, or at least the moments leading into the press conference, it’s as if I sat under the Bodhi tree and attained enlightenment and clarity and emancipation that I’d never achieved before. I slayed the dragon and so I’m free. These chains that have held me down, I’m unshackled.
I’ve got little kids, so I recently watched Mary Poppins. Remember the guy in Mary Poppins who, when he’s laughing, he floats up to the ceiling. That’s me, in Season 3. I feel like, as long as I keep it up and as long as I keep smiling and believing in this moral crusade that I’m on, that I’m doing the right thing, and that this is a righteous, virtuous crusade that I’m on, and in a way, I’m the savior of this company and the savior of the craven culture and toxic culture of this company, I’m gonna keep floating in the air like that guy in Mary Poppins, until such a time that I can’t anymore.
You’ve said that when Kendall went rogue, in that Season 2 finale, that you didn’t know where the story would go next, in Season 3. What were the biggest questions you had before you knew what came next, and do you feel like you got those answers by the end of Season 3?
STRONG: I had no idea what would happen after walking out of that room. That was a precipice moment, and I didn’t really think much about what would happen next because I know I’m in the hands of Jesse Armstrong, who is really just one of the greatest writers alive. He certainly is the greatest writer I think I’ve ever worked with, and we are quite aligned, in how we see this character. So, I trusted that whatever it would be, would be right, but I do think we sculpted it together, when he did share with me what his plan was. Living in the time of Corona, there was this sense of the false positive, which I really wanted to embed in the season and which I think he took on and wrote to. We saw this character in a state of an inner collapse in the second season and there’s an almost manic flight in this season. In terms of where it gets to, the tragedy is that this character comes closer and closer to getting what he ostensibly wants, and the more that doesn’t fill any void in him, or bring him any peace or ease, the more despair there is in that. Like any of us, if we think that a certain circumstance, like being free of my father, or taking over the company, the things that in a narrative of my life are the things that I want, then it becomes my kingdom for a horse.
Has there been anything for your character that you’ve disagreed with at all, or do you feel like there’s always a conversation that can be had to work it out, if there is something you’re not sure of?
STRONG: I wouldn’t say disagree, but there are certain things that don’t land on me and felt incongruent with what my instincts are. I believe that, as an actor, your job is to be an advocate and bodyguard for your character, and I have strong convictions. It’s not so much disagreement. But the door is always open and Jesse is a collaborator, bar none. We have always found the way for his intention and my instincts to be aligned. There are times where I feel like I need something that’s not in the writing, in order to get to where he needs to be. Those are wonderful times in the collaboration because often what happens is that there will be this quantum leap in the writing where, for me, at least, something gets laid in there that allows me to pole vault emotionally into the place where it needs to go. It’s an incredible thing, as an actor, to be working in real time, creating this character’s journey. I’m not talking about my work, but I think that this character is one of the great antiheroes that Jesse has written. It’s very exciting to be part of that and to be in the crucible of it, creating it with him.
Kendall’s birthday party was quite the lavish affair, but it was also very strange. What was that like to live in, that whole episode, and to have those sets, but also to live in that mind space?
STRONG: I spent months, like Kendall, pitching Jesse ideas of what the party should be. They were crazy ideas. I thought they were brilliant, visionary ideas. I had a DJ in L.A. make me my Kendall Birthday Playlist, which was on set, playing all the time . . . [Back to] the Mary Poppins floating guy, the birthday party is where that all comes crashing down, in a really devastating way.
Brian Cox has said that Logan loves his children. Do you personally believe that’s true? If he’s even capable of love, do you feel like there’s no way he could possibly love all of his children equally?
STRONG: No, I don’t think he loves his children. I don’t think he knows what that would mean. I don’t think that’s his fault, but I don’t think he knows what that would mean. I think he’s invested in his children’s lives, in so far as they impact his standing. They’re assets in a game and not living, sentient beings to him.
Apparently, Jesse Armstrong has said that Succession could be only one more season and that it could possibly be two more seasons, but that it likely isn’t a show that would go past five seasons. Have you heard anything, in that regard? Have you had any of those conversations? Do you feel like there could just be one season left of this show?
STRONG: Sure. I don’t know what Jesse has in his mind. Personally, I feel like we’ve gone as far as we can go, at the end of each season. I got to the end of Season 1 and I thought, “I don’t think we can possibly go any further than this,” in terms of deeply exploring these characters and these themes. Jesse has continued to surpass himself, in a way. I don’t know, but whatever it is, is okay with me. I would rather, as I know Jesse would, leave the party early.
Without spoilers and without telling me why, how would you describe Kendall’s mental state by the end of Season 3?
STRONG: It’s hard to talk about. I would say that it’s as far from where the season starts, as you can get. If the season starts with the character, in a sense, on top of the world, it’s as far down from that, as it could possibly be. At the same time, what’s so brilliant about the writing is that all of these experiences lead to what they call, in physics, a phase transition where there’s like a change from one state to another, and there continue to be these phase transitions, where there’s a change from one state to another. There continue to be these phase transitions, and there’s another one, at the end of Season 3. There’s a shedding of a layer of skin that leads to a molting that leads to something also new. This season, he starts to come out of an egg-shaped bathtub, so it is a rebirth, in a way. And then, I think there is a kind of death, and I don’t know what will happen after that.
Succession airs on Sunday nights on HBO.