The Best Man and Love & Basketball actress portrays a high-powered lawyer when the show returns for season 3.
Sanaa Lathanalmost turned down the opportunity to join the cast ofSuccessionfor its third season, which premieres Oct. 17.
“It was an offer.
Succession.Credit: Macall Polay/HBO
It was in the fall of 2020.
It was still that scary pandemic time and I hadn’t traveled.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Who do you play onSuccession?
SANAA LATHAN:I play Lisa Arthur, a high-powered, very well-connected star lawyer.
She’s one of those lawyers who takes up causes that get her in front of the camera.
She gets involved [with the Roy family].
How does that happen?
I don’t know, I don’t want to get in trouble!
Well, we wouldn’t want that.
The show features a lot of improvisation.
Is that something you wereencouraged to do?
That’s part of their whole system.
It’s scary-slash-thrilling, but sometimes really great stuff comes out of it.
The writing gives you a great springboard to come up with ideas.
I wouldn’t necessarily want to improvise if the writing was s—.
You starred in 2004’sAlien vs. Predatoras the extraterrestrial-battling heroine Lex.
Did that prepare you for dealing with the monstrous characters you encounter onSuccession?
[Laughs] Yes, it did.
Slaying that alien f—ing creature definitely gave me some skills to handle some of these characters.
See the new trailer forSuccessionand an exclusive image of Lathan on the show above.
