00:00Hi, it's Matthew McFadyen, and we are in studio with The Hollywood Reporter.
00:07Thank you so much for dropping by.
00:09Thanks for having me. Nice to be here.
00:10So excited to talk to you.
00:12Are you in town for a little bit?
00:14No, flying visit. In and out.
00:16Yeah, yeah, yeah. I go back home to London tonight.
00:19Okay.
00:19Yeah, in like two hours.
00:21Oh, well, hopefully you don't miss your flight.
00:23And I have to ask you, have you realized yet that you, in fact, play the funniest character in television right now?
00:28No.
00:29Has it hit you? No?
00:30I'm playing a very serious character. I don't know why everyone's laughing at me.
00:34It was never my intention to make it so funny.
00:37I mean, a lot of the comedy in the show is really driven by you and Tom, and Tom has a lot of funny one-liners.
00:42Do you have a favorite quote from him?
00:44There are some really excruciating ones, especially to, I think he says, I think he calls Shiv his honey badger.
00:50I want to dark myself inside you so much right now.
00:53So funny.
00:54Not good.
00:55Not sexy.
00:56Very Tom.
00:56Very Tom. Yeah, very Wom Scans.
00:58When first joining the series, what stood out to you most about the script and about Tom specifically?
01:03It was just the writing.
01:04It's always the writing.
01:06You get a script and it's just the pilot.
01:09It was such a thing to read.
01:11It was so thrilling.
01:11And then when we started working on it.
01:13And also, you're working with brilliant.
01:16The cast is amazing.
01:18They're just a supremely talented bunch of actors.
01:21So you're immediately working in an environment which is exciting and means that you can sort of take risks and improvise because everyone's so good.
01:32And everyone's, you know, there's no, there's no sort of bad behavior or, you know, it's just, it's lovely.
01:36It feels like a company.
01:37It feels like a sort of theater company, really.
01:39Going into it, what did you have in mind of kind of how you saw Tom?
01:42And how do you, how do you see him?
01:42I didn't really know.
01:43I sort of just, I sort of jumped.
01:45I mean, there was, there's that one scene in the pilot, pivotal scene with Greg at the end in the baseball game.
01:50And he sort of turns.
01:51And until then, you, you sort of think he's a sort of affable idiot who's trying to kind of suck up to his potential father-in-law.
02:02And then he really turns on this cousin from out of town who he perceives as a threat.
02:08Greg the Egg.
02:08Yeah, he's really, there's something that really threatens Tom.
02:10Going back to that first episode of season one, it really sets up the entire series and kind of shows, shows his family.
02:18And how would you say, I guess, the show kind of depicts the turbulence of wealth and by showing this family and the issues with this family?
02:29What do you think that says about today?
02:30The thing I, the thing that tickles me, the thing that is interesting is that it's a family.
02:36And HBO seems to be very good at making shows about families.
02:40And I think Succession's maybe no exception.
02:44And I think that even, even though they're squillionaires and they're sort of fairly unattractive people in the main,
02:51because it's a family, you think, oh, that's my, I can recognize my sister or my, my idiot brother or whatever dynamic.
03:01You sort of go, oh, yeah, yeah.
03:02You know, regardless of how many, you know, how much money there's in the bank account.
03:05Was there a character you particularly identified with, maybe not Tom?
03:09No, I think there's little bits you sort of see in everything.
03:12And I, I was fascinated by the way that the father, you know, the patriarch, Logan, who's played by Brian Cox,
03:19all the, all the children are sort of hamstrung by the father figure.
03:22You know, they're not really allowed to flourish properly.
03:25On paper, you know, it looks like they have everything and they, they can do what they want.
03:30And, you know, they have more money than God and, you know, but they're all sort of terrified of dad, you know,
03:37or want to please him or want him to notice them or so, you know.
03:41You've kind of talked about Tom kind of feeling this desperation of getting Logan's approval.
03:46Can you kind of talk about exploring that?
03:48That was just great fun.
03:49They had, in the pilot, they had a, they had me with a, I always wanted to buy him a present, a birthday present.
03:55The watch.
03:56The watch, yeah.
03:57And I sort of thought a lot about it.
03:59All the other children would have, you know, nothing you buy him will ever, well, it doesn't matter what you buy.
04:05Might as well buy him nothing or write him a card or, but I, Tom really possessed with this,
04:09sort of carried this watch around with me.
04:11But, yeah, he just, I think he just, you know, he wants, he's desperate to sort of,
04:15because he doesn't come from that kind of elite wealth, Tom.
04:19He's from St. Paul that we sort of decided he's a Minnesota boy.
04:24The show really shows off this opulence and wealth through this family,
04:27but it's also using New York City as a backdrop.
04:29Yeah.
04:30And the production really is larger than life.
04:32Can you kind of talk about the conversations on set of, about getting the story right
04:35and using that kind of to set the tone for what this film is about?
04:40Well, the first, the first scene I shot with Sarah Snook was in, was on Madison Avenue
04:44around the 70s.
04:46And it was a really cold, kind of bright, sunny New York day on Madison Avenue.
04:51And we were like, okay, this is, this is great.
04:54Like, even the, you know, even the New York actors who were sort of, they were like,
04:57okay, this is really good.
04:58Remember this.
04:59And we shot it in this very sort of free, almost improvised way.
05:04So I think that it's a lovely style that it feels like a very organic, natural show
05:09that's sort of made up on the hoof.
05:11But you've got, but we're filming in Manhattan with helicopters and, you know, private jets
05:17and, yeah.
05:18Now, viewers obviously love the relationship with Tom and Greg.
05:23And that really drives a lot of the funny moments.
05:26How do you see the relationship?
05:27And do you think Tom kind of sees a younger Greg in himself?
05:31Or is that far off or not?
05:33Yeah, maybe.
05:34He does this terrible thing of sort of taking him under his wing like he's a sort of mentor
05:37figure.
05:38In the sort of, in the restaurant scene as well.
05:43But I think, yeah, there's an element of that.
05:45I think Tom really likes Greg.
05:47I think Tom, I think he sort of can't help but sort of bully him now and again when he's
05:53feeling bad.
05:54I sort of almost doesn't know he's doing it.
05:55But I think he really genuinely feels a sort of affection for Greg and would like to be
06:01better friends with him, you know.
06:04And would like, and likes the idea of being a sort of father figure, being a sort of,
06:08mentor to Greg.
06:11Now, Tom's bachelor party.
06:12Was that the best bachelor party ever thrown or was that the worst?
06:15What happened to the Fly Guys?
06:17What happened to the Fly Guys?
06:19I felt so bad for them.
06:19Matt and Jonas.
06:20I know.
06:21Dudes, where did you go?
06:23I know.
06:25That was Roman's fault.
06:27Yeah.
06:28Because they, yeah.
06:29And I think they'd flown in from St. Paul.
06:32And they just waited in a diner the whole time.
06:34Um, yeah.
06:37And it was, I broke the Fly Guy code.
06:39Because you're not supposed to leave the Fly Guys behind.
06:41Yeah, yeah, yeah.
06:41Stop it.
06:42A lot of fun moments in that episode.
06:44Were there any favorite moments that you had personally?
06:47Yeah, the whole episode was good fun.
06:48That was really good fun.
06:50The whole thing of Tom explaining to Greg what happened with the girl he meets who turns
06:57out to be, subsequently becomes Roman's girlfriend, Tabitha.
07:01Does that continue in season two, by the way?
07:03It does.
07:04Interesting.
07:05Does Hans Tom?
07:05Much to Tom's horror.
07:07Yeah, yeah.
07:07It's terrible.
07:08So, I think it tickled me so much when Tom was trying to convince Greg and himself that
07:15it was a really sexy thing to have happened to him.
07:18That actually it was really hot.
07:20Whatever he might think.
07:22Sort of not really believing it himself.
07:25How do you view Tom and Shiv's relationship in that dynamic of?
07:29I believe it.
07:31I think it's a reflection of a lot of relationships out there.
07:33I do.
07:34I think it's because you could ask the question, why is she with him, maybe?
07:39You know, I think Tom is probably punching above his weight with Shiv.
07:42But the idea was perhaps that Shiv had been in lots of sort of difficult relationships.
07:50And when she met Tom, she was having a rough patch.
07:54And in him, she found a very happy, almost goofy, but very safe guy who was never going
08:00to let her down or leave her.
08:02Well, in the wedding night, we kind of see this internal struggle.
08:05Because throughout the show, he's been this happy-go-lucky guy.
08:08But with you, we see this internal struggle of finding out about the affair and kind of
08:11handling that.
08:12Can you talk about exploring that?
08:14That was just a really beautifully written scene.
08:17So, it was just a pleasure to play.
08:19It was really...
08:21And when you have really wonderful writing like that and you're working with an actress
08:24who's as brilliant as Sarah, it's just a joy to do, you know.
08:29And so, yeah, it was just really good fun.
08:32There's this moment when Tom obviously confronts Nate about the affair.
08:36Yeah.
08:37And he makes him pour the wine back in the glass.
08:38Yeah.
08:38Did that take a while to film or is that a quick take?
08:40That was pretty quick.
08:41It was.
08:42Yeah, yeah.
08:43Yeah, he put it back.
08:44He spilled a bit and I told him off.
08:45Yeah.
08:46That's so funny.
08:46Yeah.
08:47The wine.
08:47Because my mom and dad bought the wine.
08:48Bought all the wine.
08:49This is it.
08:49Yeah, yeah.
08:51What were some of the other standout scenes you had from the wine?
08:55Um, there's a scene where, there's a really wonderful scene where Greg, I'm going, I'm
09:00out jogging before the wedding, one of the mornings before the wedding and Greg sort
09:05of stops me and tries to tell me that he thinks Shiv's having an affair with Nate and I don't
09:10want to hear it.
09:12And we end up having a sort of fight.
09:14I think I slap him.
09:15Yeah, you did.
09:15And we sort of, it's a really terrible fight, but it's sort of ugly and funny.
09:20But I found that scene quite touching because actually probably Tom subconsciously deep down
09:25does know that that, you know.
09:27You see it in his.
09:28I think you see, yeah, you just don't want to know.
09:30You don't want to hear it, you know.
09:31And there's a lovely sort of resolution at the end, after the scene with Nate and the
09:36wine, where he turns and sees Greg and they have a look, as if to say, thank you, maybe,
09:43or, you know, I know what you did.
09:44I know what you were trying to do and I appreciate that.
09:47It's such an ensemble cast.
09:49Do you have scenes with other people in season two that maybe you didn't have as much with
09:53in season one?
09:54Obviously, you have a lot with Sarah and Nicholas, but.
09:56Mainly it's Sarah and Nick and what's wonderful about the show is that if you don't, sometimes
10:03just the way the narrative flows, you don't sort of come into anyone's orbit very much.
10:09But you sort of always do, you always do because there are these great big set piece scenes
10:14like a big, great big, like a Thanksgiving dinner or, you know, a party or some kind
10:19of thing.
10:19So you inevitably, you feel like you've, you feel like you've sort of touched base with
10:23all the characters.
10:24It's great.
10:25Where we see season one leave off with Kendall and kind of grappling with what had happened
10:30at the wedding, the murder.
10:32Yeah, yeah, yeah.
10:33Or the, yeah, that sort of manslaughter.
10:35Yeah, yeah, yeah.
10:35Do we see that kind of haunt him in season two?
10:37Yeah.
10:38Yeah.
10:38That sort of character, I think we pick up, we pick up just where we left off.
10:43So it's exciting.
10:44Yeah.
10:45Now the series hails from Adam McKay and Will Ferrell.
10:47Did they ever have a specific note from you, for you about Tom and about the show that
10:52stuck with you throughout?
10:53It was all there in the writing, really.
10:56And Adam and Jesse Armstrong, the creator, and we, they were just sort of very interested
11:05and interesting and funny and generous and allowed us to play and improvise a little bit.
11:11And I think it's, when it works well, you sort of discover stuff in the process of acting
11:17it and then the writers pick up on it and feed back into the, the later scripts and you
11:22sort of pick that up and run with it.
11:23So it's a sort of lovely process if it was working in the right way.
11:27And HBO is really known to give kind of a lot of freedom with these drama series.
11:30Yeah.
11:31Was there anything they thought was too far, too much or?
11:34I don't know.
11:34Not to my knowledge.
11:35They may have, but yeah.
11:37Was there anything you thought of being too far, too much?
11:40No, most of the stuff, I kind of, I think we all of us, we sort of do a few takes where
11:44we really push it just so they've got it.
11:46You never know.
11:47I don't think you know until you're in the edit what's, you know, sometimes you wish you'd,
11:51you'd, you'd sort of ramped it up a little bit.
11:55Often I'd look at it and think, oh, I wish I'd made it smaller.
11:56Anything in particular that was the, not that I can think of, no, no.
12:01Thanks so much for being here.
12:02It was seriously a pleasure talking to you.
12:03You're welcome.
12:03Make sure to catch Succession when it returns in August.
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