How did Tom and Greg become a pop culture sensation?
The two actors behind TV’s most deranged friendship tell us the “s–tifying” truth.
“It’s going really well.
Matthew Macfadyen and Nicholas Braun photographed for EW on Oct. 10, 2021 in New York.Victoria Stevens for EW
“It was like, where should we go now?
it’s possible for you to always go to Ray’s!”
“I did go once and it ended badly,” continues Macfadyen, 47.
“So I’m not allowed anymore.
That’s okay.”
“That was weird,” says Braun, continuing the riff.
Matthew Macfadyen and Nicholas Braun photographed for EW on Oct. 10, 2021 in New York.Victoria Stevens for EW
“You were doing alotof weird stuff.”
“Cousin Greg,” who is both Logan’s great-nephew and Tom’s much-abused corporate underling.
“I’d castrate you and marry you in a heartbeat,” Tom informed a flabbergasted Greg.
There will be no furniture rearrangement nor threats of emasculation at lunch today.
“We’ve totally monopolized these dips.
I’m sorry!”
‘Succession’ stars Matthew Macfadyen and Nicholas Braun.Victoria Stevens for EW
he apologizes to me.
“I was panicky with hunger.”
“It wass–tifying,” says the actor.
Prior toSuccession, Macfadyen’s and Braun’s acting careers had very little in common.
“Wambsgans is just a glorious name,” he says.
“It’s ‘womb’ and ‘glands’ all mixed together.
It sort of told me everything I needed to know about the character.”
Prior to auditioning forSuccession, he was taking an extended break.
“I was living in San Francisco at the time with my little brother,” he says.
“I didn’t really understand the show,” says the actor.
“I’d never read anything like this script.
But then everything else is all kind of intense.
So I guess I have to ride that line.”
Braun later auditioned again for McKay, creator/showrunner Jesse Armstrong, and executive producer Kevin Messick.
I was like, ‘Go harder, harder, harder!’
It just felt like a fun time.”
“[I was] talking absolute rubbish in a bad American accent,” says Macfadyen.
and I didn’t know what I did.
I didn’t know what my job was!
And then Jeremy asked me a question about NetJets.
They’re like the Uber of private jets.
I remember thinking,should have researched!"
While Macfadyen had butterflies about improvising, Sarah Snook recalls being nervous playing Shiv opposite the British thespian.
“But he’s so lovely.
He’s a good proper British gent.
Matthew’s so brilliant and Tom’s just so Tom.
Shiv and Tom, it’s enormously enjoyable to play.”
Like Macfadyen, Braun had an intense experience shooting the pilot.
“He was like, ‘Okay, the meter is at 15 bucks and you only have 10 dollars.
How do you get to your destination?
How do you convince the cab driver to get there?’
It was a new way of working.”
“There was instant animosity [between Tom and Greg,]” says Macfayden.
“My character’s thinking,who’s this guy?
It’s just unsettling [for Tom].
Braun recalls thinking the same about Macfadyen.
When somebody makes you want to laugh while you’re working, you know there’s a connection there.
“We struggle, Nick and I, because the scenes are so funny,” says Macfadyen.
“Sometimes I’d beat myself up after days where I broke too much,” adds Braun.
“I would tell Matthew, ‘I hate that I just laughed.
“It didn’t start [with], you know, tits and teeth,” says Macfadyen.
“You had to pay attention.”
There’s a chemistry or there isn’t,” says Macfadyen.
“And if there is, then so much the better and it develops.”
The British actor turns towards his costar with an expression of genuine interest.
“Do you think Greg would be happy to never see Tom again?”
“Sort of,” Braun replies with a laugh.
“Yeah, there’s nothing you might do really,” Macfadyen acknowledges.
“That becomes who you are.
“We get together for a coffee or dinner,” says Braun.
“We went and sawOthelloat the New York Theatre Workshop together back pre-COVID.
You know, nothing crazy!”
“That was November,” says Macfadyen.
“Freezing cold and we walked around with masks.”
“It was really nice,” says Braun, looking fondly at Macfadyen.
As Tom told Shiv in Sunday’s episode, “There are no fine wines in prison.
You don’t get to choose what you eat, you don’t get to say what you do.
How late can I read?
When is lights out?
I’m f—ing terrified, Shiv.”
“I was thinking Greg might join a gang,” offers Braun.
“If he can join the Roy gang, he can join a prison gang, you know?
‘What do you guys need?
Who do you want me to shank today?
I’ll shank somebody.
I mean, I’m not going to kill them, but I’ll shank them.
I just want to help.'”
“I was talking about [Greg’s] lawyer,” says the actor.
“I said, ‘I can’t say it,'” says Macfadyen.
“‘I can’t do it!'”
Successionactors have become experts in not offering up details about upcoming episodes.
But Braun does let slip one small spoilery morsel about the future of Tom-and-Greg.
“Tom and Greg’s relationship takes a nice turn.
I shouldn’t saynice.
It takes abigturn.”
Braun has been a little more active in creating headlines over the last couple of years.
“I’ve loved singing and playing piano my whole life,” he says.
I think I have to do things where I rewire my brain differently.”
Braun’s costar Brian Cox agrees that the actor is an all-around sharper tool than he appears on screen.
“He’s a very fine actor, Nick.
People kind of get Nick and Greg a little confused.
Well, it’s not Nick.
Nick is much cannier than that, much smarter than that, not as gauche as that.
He’s a very smart lad.”
“I’m really excited.”
“Absolutely, yeah, totally,” he says.
But this is, ‘Oh, I wish it was longer and it will be!’
It will be years and years of this hopefully.”
“I cherish our friendship and working with him.
I shouldn’t talk too much about it, because it will make me emotional.
But I really do, I love him a lot.”
“It’s a real joy,” Macfadyen responds.
“Everything in life, but certainly everything in an actor’s life is sort of transient.
Jobs come and go and we’re back in the wilderness, so to speak.
When something works, it’s really precious, it’s really wonderful.
And you may not get it again.
It’s been a real pleasure.”
The pair’s words hang in the air, waiting for one of them to deliver a punchline.
Directed and produced by Kristen Harding & Alison Wild.
