Macfadyen says tipping over Greg’s desk was “very therapeutic.”
Warning: This article contains spoilers for Sunday night’s episode ofSuccession.
The sequence was a subject of discussion for days before filming.
Matthew Macfadyen in season 3 of ‘Succession’.HBO
“We were all probably talking about it too much,” shares Scafaria.
“Like, ‘Hey, that scene next week!
Can’t wait!'”
But on the big day, the director did not confer much with Macfadyen prior to the first take.
“It was like not wanting to talk to your pitcher during a no-hitter,” she explains.
“It was so fun to turn it up to a 10 in one second,” she says.
“The desk was ridiculously heavy,” says Scafaria.
“It was one of those with huge file cabinets on either side.
It was truly one of the heavier desks I’ve ever seen.”
“We had four or five takes,” says Macfadyen.
“It was very therapeutic.”
And I get to respond to this?’
Yeah, it was fun every time.
Didn’t take a lot of takes.
He came out of the gate with perfect behavior for it," he says.
Then there’s the kiss.
Scafaria describes Tom smooching Greg as reminiscent of something fromThe Godfather.
“That felt like a big moment for both of them,” she says.
“That’s Greg, right?”
“There’s always a little bit of punishment!”
Watch the cast ofSuccessiontalk about Sunday’s episode in the video above.
A version of this story appears inEntertainment Weekly’s January issue.
