Brian Cox says Rupert Murdoch watched too much ‘Succession’
Brian Cox had some good words for the now-former Fox Corp. boss. and News Corp., Rupert Murdoch – the real-life counterpart to Cox’s “Succession” character Logan Roy.
For four seasons, Cox portrayed Roy, the nefarious and conniving leader of the conservative company Waystar Royco, which ran its own Fox News-inspired television network. In May, it was reported that “Succession” creator Jesse Armstrong originally conceived the series as a drama about the Murdoch family and was appropriately titled “The Murdochs.” He later swapped the family name for Roy, and the rest is television history.
After Murdoch announced last week that he would be stepping down as CEO of Fox, it was announced that Lachlan Murdoch would be doing so successor to his father.
On Sunday, Cox revealed what he thinks about the media tycoon’s recent transition from leadership and his decision to hand over the reins to him oldest boy. (Murdoch, who has been married four times, has another son and four daughters.)
“I think he’s definitely been watching too much ‘Succession,'” Cox told the BBC. “I mean, you can’t predict these things, but the fact that he chose one over the other is actually pretty funny. And it just seems to me… there are all sorts of rumors about how [Murdoch] should have told it [his ex-wife] Jerry Hall please Don’t talk to the authors of “Succession.”.”‘ This could all be heresy, so I don’t know.”
Speaking about the 92-year-old Murdoch’s disposition, Cox said: “He is probably the most stubborn person on God’s earth. He just kept going, but I think there comes a point where he has to stop and it had to happen and it happened.”
The Emmy winner then responded directly to Murdoch’s farewell message to his employees, in which the mogul wrote: “The fight for freedom of expression and ultimately freedom of thought has never been more intense.” My father [founder of the Murdoch media empire, Keith Murdoch] believed in freedom and Lachlan is absolutely committed to the cause. Self-serving bureaucracies seek to silence those who question their origins and purpose.”
Cox scoffed at the sentiment of the statement and replied: “Freedom? Freedom for what? The freedom to impose your ideas on other people, the freedom to manipulate certain things in certain directions? I mean, he certainly did a lot of that in his life.”
The 77-year-old actor also told a story about how the husband of Elisabeth Murdoch – a daughter of the now-emeritus Fox chairman – once met him in a coffee shop and remarked that “Succession” was “an interesting show.” Murdoch’s in-laws also pleaded: “Do you think the writers might be a little nicer to us next season?”
