Brian Cox and Emily Blunt — Actors on Actors (Full Conversation)

Brian Cox and Emily Blunt have come together to discuss “Succession” and “The English,” two character-driven projects that examine the brutality of American culture. Both shows deal with wealth: Cox’s brooding media mogul Logan Roy met a shocking demise on the HBO series that had us bawling in its fourth and final season, while Blunt’s Lady Cornelia is an 1890s aristocrat seeking answers about the death of her son in the Amazon Prime Video limited series. In person, the two New York transplants have too much in common to capture in one interview. They begin chatting well before cameras roll, and keep going for 20 minutes after the shoot wraps. The two make plans for Blunt to show Cox “the best croissant in Brooklyn” as their handlers wait patiently in the wings.

BRIAN COX: What’s so nice about English girls is they’re so direct, and they’re not full of nonsense. You’re just direct and straight to the humor. I love that about the English girls.

EMILY BLUNT: I miss that, living in America. I miss the directness and the irreverence and the attitude.

COX: They’re a bit Christian here. They do everything by the so-called Christian book, which I question. I think it’s a bit hypocritical, quite honestly.

BLUNT: I’ve found my little pocket of Brits in and around Brooklyn.

COX: You can rent a Brit. Rent-a-Brit is a very good service.

BLUNT: They’re actually very cheap. You just give them a bottle of wine, and they’ll come and be your friend. Do you love living in Brooklyn?

COX: Brooklyn is finally the place where I’ve felt at home. It’s taken me a long time to feel at home in this country. I used to live in Los Angeles, but as I say, I ran out of farmers markets. What am I going to do in Los Angeles? Everybody’s so miserable. They pretend they’re happy, but they’re deeply miserable.

BLUNT: As you are now known as this terrifying “fuck off” guy, do people come up to you? Do you find people are different with you now after playing this part?

COX: It’s a problem. I’ve been doing this for 60 years, but now I am the “fuck off” man. It has its charm. But it’s not easy to be a cultural icon. As they say in Scotland, it’s an awfully big job for an ordinary boy.

BLUNT: It blew my hair back when Logan dies. Startling and tragic.

COX: I actually pretend that he’s not dead, that he just disappeared. I never watched that, by the way. I haven’t seen that episode. I don’t see very many of them, to be honest with you. It’s bad enough doing it, without having to watch it.

BLUNT: Do you not like watching yourself because you’re self-critical or because you’re just bored with watching it?

COX: Bored. Bored.

BLUNT: I feel like the whole experience of doing a film is that you’re from the inside looking out. And then to see it reflected back at you is a completely different experience.

COX: You’ve just hit on it. I prefer the doing of it. Because once you’ve done it, it’s up to the audience to make their decision. And especially playing somebody like Logan; he’s so misunderstood. They just see this anger and rage.

BLUNT: No one does typhoon anger better than you. It’s incredible, watching you pop off on that show. Because some people are unconvincing when they act angry, and you do it so well.

COX: Well, that’s because anger is always very close to me.

BLUNT: But what I see is fear also. When there’s distance between him and his children, he becomes more untethered. When he gets back with them, there’s a reclamation of his identity. My stomach is in knots as these kids are desperate for you to give them a crumb of something, and then, weirdly, when you do give them a crumb, I’m terrified for them, because they’re going to be disappointed.

COX: That’s the problem with children. Children are always endlessly disappointed in their parents. And it’s not just the Roys. I mean, my eldest is 52, and he still sometimes gives me a hard time.

BLUNT: Are they proud of you?

COX: I don’t know. It’s very hard, because my eldest son is an actor. I think it’s difficult. Especially now, this whole icon thing, it’s tough. But it’s OK.

Listen, I want to talk to you about your show, “The English.” I thought it was exceptional. It must have been a great journey.

BLUNT: They sent it to me as a pilot, and I signed on after the first page. It was such singular writing and certainly wasn’t conforming to the damsel-in-distress-tied-to-a-tree thing.

COX: And then to have wonderful actors like Ciarán Hinds and Toby Jones in the first episode, and then they’re dead. That’s bold.

BLUNT: It was a beast to take on. I, of course, knew where she was heading. But it’s what you reveal and what you think you see and don’t see of her. I don’t know if I’ve played anyone I’ve wanted to be more like. I found her so brave and fearless and still empathetic in the face of brutality that had been done to her.

COX: “The English” was such a tantalizing title, because it was where she came from, and how much of that is in her, and how it motivates her.

BLUNT: She says early on, “It didn’t matter where we came from, Europe or Russia. To you, we were all just the same. To you, we were just ‘the English.’” It’s that perspective of Native Americans, of what the invasion was, and that they all were just the same.

COX: And that doesn’t shift, even though people become American and not English anymore.

Tell me about your start, because the Devil Prada film — what’s it called?

BLUNT: “The Devil Wears Prada”! It was just an extraordinary overnight shift in my life when that came out.

COX: I loved it. And to work with one of the greatest screen actresses of all time, I so envy you. One of my ambitions, before I snuff it, is to work with Meryl.

BLUNT: Oh, don’t say “snuff it”! You will. She’s amazing and was slightly terrifying on that film. She said it was one of the first times she’s tried Method acting. But it made her so miserable, playing Miranda.

COX: I met her once, and I said, “I never liked you.” And she went, “What?” I said, “I never liked you because I was jealous.” How can anybody be that good?

BLUNT: I think that about you. You do keep us guessing, from that caustic, fiery writer in “Adaptation,” and then what you did with Abbott in “Bourne Supremacy.” You just feel this sense of foreboding.

COX: What’s important is really what’s underneath. There’s this whole debate about Method acting and all that. I’m all for whatever gets you through the day. But the great thing is how you transmit energy. If you hit it right, it just works. That’s the most important thing that we have as actors, that ability to go into something very quickly and come out of it. Not to dwell.

BLUNT: When it comes to people’s methods, it’s whatever floats your boat as long as you don’t sink mine. Because mine’s quite simple and quite straightforward and not easy for me to talk about. It’s rather ethereal. I don’t know how it all happens. It just does.

COX: There’s a mystery about it. And I think you have to acknowledge the mystery.

BLUNT: The scene in the karaoke bar, it’s a cap-in-hand-but-olive-branch moment. Did you feel it was authentic for Logan? Is he really wanting unity back with his children?

COX: That was the first thing I asked Jesse Armstrong: “Does he love his children?” He said, “Yeah, he really loves his children.” It’s about trying to reclaim that love. You will always remember them when they’re little. He remembers their awkwardness and their sweetness. And then he finally has to admit, “I love you, but you’re not serious people.”

BLUNT: What does he mean by that?

COX: Well, he means they’re not serious people. That they’re so keen on success, keen on all the elements that are not rooted in anything. They’ve never learned how to deal with their entitlement. Unfortunately, I’ve played a lot of very not pleasant people. I don’t know why. I think I’m perfectly pleasant.

BLUNT: The socks say it, right?

COX: [Shows off his white socks with black block letters.] The socks say that I’m allergic to idiots.

---

Set Design: Lucy Holt; Production: Alexey Galetskiy/AGPNYC