"Brian Cox... Succession, not science," I repeat to my Nan for the 500th time while explaining that the former's new movie, Glenrothan, is coming to UK cinemas on April 17 (we can expect it to stream on Prime Video globally later in the year thanks to its partnership with Lionsgate).
Cox and the hit HBO Max show have basically become synonymous since 2018, with Cox playing the scathingly selfish patriarch, Logan Roy. Looking at him is shorthand for the most unhinged fictional family battle in modern history, as his children bid to be the successor of Roy's global conglomerate, Waystar Royco.
On the surface, Glenrothan seems a world away, and it is. As well as the new movie being his directorial debut, Cox stars as Sandy, a Scottish businessman trying to reunite with his estranged younger brother, Donal (Alan Cumming).
After Donal's jazz bar in Chicago burns down, he returns to his childhood home, meaning the two brothers hash things out in the most strained possible way. Remind you of anything?
We're returning to dysfunctional family dynamics, only in the polar opposite way. Speaking to Cox, it's clear that this is something he wants to get back to... though the Succession love has never left him.
'The business has always been great to me'
"It's good to get back to what family dynamics are about," Cox begins. "What the dynamics of families are about, the importance of that, and also the problems that grow with that. And that's why these two brothers are a very good new example of a family dynamic that went wrong."
Sandy and Donal aren't exactly Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Roman (Kieran Culkin). Instead of trying to bite each other's heads off, Donal will do anything other than directly speak to his brother.
"[Glenrothan] has genuine sentiment about it, and I think we need sentiment at this time. We're lacking it considerably. And we do need to understand, you know, what relationships are about, and I think David [Ashton] has done that beautifully in the script."
But will he be annoyed if people make a Succession comparison, or even that it's still what he is best remembered for three years on?
"The business has always been great to me," he replies. "I've loved the business. It is the business of communication, so you have to communicate. And that makes it a lot simpler for me, and also the survival mechanism that kicks in in one's life. You know how you survive the blows and the setbacks, just like with these sets of families."
Maybe I've created the perfect, yet most unexpected, double bill here. But regardless, Cox remains as magnificent as ever.
