He is the eldest son but that status didn’t afford Connor Roy very much in terms of his father Logan’s love and affection. So when Connor was finally told during Sunday’s instant classic episode of “Succession” that Logan (Brian Cox) had died, the Roy family afterthought could only be honest. “He never even liked me,” Connor said before batting away that feeling of despair.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly this week about the episode and his performance, Connor actor Alan Ruck said he wasn’t initially sure how to play the scene.
“I thought, I don’t think I would have burst into tears immediately, and been inconsolable, and a big puddle on the ground. I just think it was a moment of shock,” Ruck said. “This is the thing that has been foremost in Connor’s mind, I’ve got to get the old man to be proud of me, I’ve got to get the old man to admire me, to say ‘well done,’ to put his arm around me and tell me that he loves me. That’s what he’s desperate [for]. They all do, they all want that. But this is what he’s wanted forever, and it wasn’t going to happen in the business world, because Connor has no aptitude for that, and that’s the only thing that mattered to the old man, right? I just think it was a moment of being stunned and he just kind of blurted out a naked truth.”
Thus far, Ruck is the only Roy sibling without an Emmy nomination for “Succession.” But that could change with the show’s final season. Ruck currently sits in 10th place in the combined odds, which puts him behind Kieran Culkin, Matthew Macfadyen, and Nicholas Braun in terms of his own fellow castmates but ahead of many other major contenders such as Stellan Skarsgard (“Andor”) and Tom Hollander, Michael Imperioli, and Theo James (“The White Lotus: Sicily”). Ruck has been praised in reviews this season so far for his performance on “Succession” and has one major fan in the show’s top director, Mark Mylod. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Mylod praised Ruck for his choices as Connor in the big Logan death episode.
“He took my legs out, figuratively, shooting that. I didn’t expect to be so moved,” Mylod said. “It’s beautiful writing for a start, obviously, but, man, he chomped into that in the best way, he really did, both in that extraordinary, almost blankness of the reaction, which felt incredibly emotionally honest.”
The third episode, “Connor’s Wedding,” didn’t just include Logan’s death but also the title nuptials. The wedding gave Ruck another opportunity to flex his muscles as Connor – particularly in a tragic-sweet moment with Connor’s future wife, Willa (Justine Lupe), where the two were completely honest about the transactional nature of their relationship but also their legitimate emotional connection.
“I thought they were both exquisite in that, I really did,” Mylod said.
Added Ruck, “Well, Justine and I, for a long time, had wanted a scene like that. We had a couple of scenes in the early going, when we were at my ranch, and I was telling her how I felt about her, and I wanted this exclusive thing to really work. But it was fairly one-sided, it was me basically telling her how crazy I was about her. And in this one [we were] partners, the characters were partners in that moment. Who knows what will happen? But in that moment, they really were together. He asked her a point blank question, she answered it honestly, and she said, ‘I’m not leaving, at least not today.’ [Laughs] Very funny and sweet.”
Ruck also praised Lupe: “She’s so easy to act with, I trust her completely, and I know whatever’s going to happen is going to be true.”
The final season of “Succession” continues with new episodes every Sunday until May 28.
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