Brian Cox's anti-millennial comments last week have critics confused about the Scottish actor's politics.
The "Succession" star seemed to take a page out of a conservative playbook, bashing "woke culture" and calling out millennials as the "arbiters of this shaming" during an "Uncensored" interview with Piers Morgan on July 11.
"The whole woke culture is truly awful," Cox told Morgan during an exchange on the Fox Nation show about how social media shapes the way we view the world. Morgan criticized "shaming culture" and its "incessant need to shame and bury people." Cox agreed and concluded that millennials are often behind such "shaming." (Morgan himself quit his previous role on "Good Morning Britain" after receiving a wave of criticism for disparaging comments about the duchess of Sussex.)
"Well I mean I suppose in a way they're probably saying, 'Well you've all screwed it up, so we may as well do something about it," Cox added, taking a more conciliatory tone. Then he was back to criticism, saying, "But it's from the wrong principle ... it comes from their wrong place."
The remarks went viral online and drew the attention of right-wing pundits on Fox News' "The Five," who praised Cox for his "refreshing" takes. The show's panelists went on to call millennials overly sensitive people who "complain to HR" too much. They drew comparisons between Cox and his onscreen character of Logan Roy, a media magnate and fictional version of Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch.
"In real life he seems like he's his character he plays on ['Succession']," co-host Dana Perino said, praising Roy's lack of a filter and penchant for offensive comments.
However, as the Daily Beast pointed out, the co-hosts started to soften their kudos once they remembered Cox dislikes Fox News and has spoken negatively about the channel before. In 2021, Cox spoke to CNBC about the role of network news in America's partisan politics, sharing that he regularly watches CNN and describing himself as "fairly left wing." When mentioning Fox News, he said, "I don't even go there," calling the network "the devil" while making the sign of the cross with his fingers.
"I think that if you were to Google, he might not be as conservative as you might think he might be," Perino said last week, recalling the 2021 interview while laughing.
"He's not a fan of Fox," co-host Greg Gutfeld added, also laughing, before Perino redirected from the awkward revelation by thanking Cox for appearing on Morgan's Fox Nation show.
Further blurring the line of his politics, Cox also went on TV last week to voice his support of the SAG-AFTRA and WGA double strikes. In an interview with Sky News, Cox decried the use of generative artificial intelligence in film and TV production and praised writers for shows such as "The White Lotus" and "Succession." He then gave a grim prognosis of things to come in Hollywood.
"It's a situation that could get very, very unpleasant," Cox said. "It could go on for quite some time. They'll take us to the brink and we'll probably have to go to the brink."
"So it may not be solved ... until towards the end of the year," he added.
Actors joined the picket lines last week after talks for a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers failed. The last time writers and performers went on strike at the same time was in 1960. That strike lasted 148 days. The last actors' strike, in 1980, lasted more than three months, as did the writers' strike in 2007-08.
Similar to screenwriters already on picket lines, actors have been battling studios for a contract that would deliver better pay and residuals from streaming projects and address other issues, including the use of artificial intelligence, that have been roiling the entertainment landscape.
