Brian Cox Calls Succession Cast 'Phenomenal' — Even Jeremy Strong — as He Reflects on HBO Hit and New Lord of the Rings Role

Brian Cox has built a career on towering, complicated men — and his latest role is no exception. The legendary Scottish actor voices Helm Hammerhand, the doomed King of Rohan, in The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. But in the same breath, he’s looking back at the role that defined a generation of television: Logan Roy on HBO’s Succession.

In the interview documented in Screenshot (550).png, Cox gets candid about his Tolkien journey, his thoughts on kingship, and why his Succession co-stars — yes, even Jeremy Strong — left him in awe.

Brian Cox Was Never a Tolkien Fan — Until Peter Jackson Changed Everything

Cox is front and center in The War of the Rohirrim, an anime epic that tells the story of Helm Hammerhand, the King of Rohan whose name would forever be etched into Middle-earth legend as Helm’s Deep. But he’s refreshingly honest about his fantasy pedigree: he wasn’t a Tolkien devotee before taking the role.

“I’m afraid it’s just another job, but it’s a magnificent job,” Cox told Collider in the Screenshot (550).png interview. “I don’t knock the job, but it is another job. I didn’t know anything about Lord of the Rings. I had never read Tolkien. I did after I saw the Peter Jackson series. I read The Hobbit, so I got into it then, but I wasn’t a Tolkien fan. That wasn’t my thing.”

Still, once he dove into Tolkien’s world, he found surprising connections to his own Scottish roots. “Having read it, I realized how Celtic a lot of it is, and I recognize the physicality of the land, which is very key. And of course, Scotland, being a Scot, we have a beautiful country. So, I could see how New Zealand and Scotland and Ireland have a thing in common, which is very Tolkien-like.”

Cox also points to the ancient mythological currents running through Tolkien’s work. “I think there’s a lot of crossover, and of course, that did happen a lot at that time. With Dublin, the Norse raided and lived there for a long time. The redheaded Irishman comes directly from the Viking invasions; that’s why you get your redheaded Irish men and women. That’s from the Vikings.”

Kings, Presidents, and Brian Cox’s Complicated Respect for Power

Cox has played more than his share of rulers — Logan Roy, King Lear, and now Helm Hammerhand. When asked if there’s still a role he desperately wants, he shrugs off the future and embraces the present.

“I’ve been very lucky in the range of work I’ve got, so I can’t complain. I tend not to think too much in the future,” he says. “I really tend to deal with what’s happening immediately. A lot of human beings spend their lives living in the future, and they just get more and more disappointed because the future gets more and more disappointing, whereas I’ve never really gone down that road. It has to be the here and now. It has to be this moment.”

But he does have a philosophical take on the nature of kingship. “Because I’ve played a lot of those guys, you know? I know that territory pretty well. Those guys who essentially make a lonely life for themselves because of, I think, the nature of being a king. I don’t believe in kings, I don’t believe in them at all, but I have a lot of respect for people who are kings.”

That respect extends to King Charles III, who waited decades for the throne. “I’ve got a lot of respect for Charles, who had to wait until the age of 76 to become a king, and that sort of legitimized himself in some way. I thank fuck I didn't have that problem that they have. So, I have a great respect. I think it's a tragic thing that you can waste your life on that. But there are good kings, and there are bad kings, just in the way there are good presidents, and there are bad presidents. We see that all the time. That's a fact of life.”

The Succession Cast: ‘They Were Great — Even Jeremy Strong’

No conversation about Brian Cox is complete without Succession, and in Screenshot (550).png he opens up about what made the HBO juggernaut so special. It wasn’t the awards, the critical acclaim, or the cultural dominance — it was the ensemble.

“I think it was the group. I think it was a phenomenal group of actors to work with. They were great — even Jeremy Strong,” Cox jokes, before pivoting to real praise. “Jeremy's a great actor. He was wonderful to act with. I loved acting with Jeremy. There was a lot of other stuff I didn't particularly care for, but that was neither here nor there. As long as we could do the acting, that was it.”

Cox also singled out Matthew MacFadyen, who played Tom Wambsgans with scene-stealing perfection. “And then, of course, [Matthew] MacFadyen, the great MacFadyen. He is good. And Greg.”

One of the most rewarding parts of the experience, Cox says, was watching Kieran Culkin evolve over five seasons. “When we started, they would give him five alts, and he would panic. But by the end of it, he was doing five pages of alts and doing it like just falling off a rock. It was amazing. He's an extraordinary young man, and he's getting a great deal of success. Because he was in a very strange situation, having been a child actor and making that very difficult bridge, and now he's emerged superbly, I think.”

Key Takeaways From Brian Cox’s Screenshot (550).png Interview

• Cox never read Tolkien until after Peter Jackson’s films, then started with The Hobbit.
• He sees Celtic and Norse mythology woven deeply into Tolkien’s world.
• He doesn’t believe in kings but respects the individuals who carry the burden, including King Charles III.
• His proudest Succession memory is working with the cast, including Jeremy Strong, Matthew MacFadyen, and Kieran Culkin.
• Culkin transformed from panicking with five alternate lines to delivering five pages of alternates with ease.
• The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is now playing in theaters.

For Cox, the magic of a project like Succession or The War of the Rohirrim isn’t in the hype — it’s in the craft. “As long as we could do the acting, that was it.” And with a career spanning Shakespeare, superheroes, and Middle-earth, Brian Cox has proven there’s almost nothing he can’t conquer.

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