Succession stars Matthew Macfadyen, Nicholas Braun reflect on HBO hit ahead of final season - Action News
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Succession stars Matthew Macfadyen, Nicholas Braun reflect on HBO hit ahead of final season

Succession stars Matthew Macfadyen (Tom Wambsgans) and Nicholas Braun (Greg Hirsch) discuss the HBO show's final season, Tom and Greg's delightfully bizarre bond and why they can't get through a scene together.

'Its full of humanity and interest and wit and pathos'

Two men, one wearing a gray suit and the other a navy suit, stand in a newsroom.
Characters Greg Hirsch, left, and TomWambsgans roam the newsroom, inseparable as always, in this scene from Succession. (HBO)

Looking back on the early days of filming, Succession star Nicholas Braun couldn't have predicted that the hit series would have found the rapturous audience that it has.

But four seasons and nearly seven years later, it's a jewel in HBO's crown a piercing satire about the power struggle between a withholding father and his entitled children for control of the family media empire. The final season will premiere on Sunday.

"When you're making something and it's that early on and no one's seen it and none of us have seen it we don't know what the episodes are like, we haven't heard the theme song, we don't know the vibe of it it's tough to think anything but, like, 'that was fun,'" Braun told Qhost Tom Power in an interview that will air on April 13.

Braun plays Greg Hirsch, a bumbling, blank-slate cousin of the main Roy family father Logan (Brian Cox), sons Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman (Kieran Culkin), Connor (Alan Ruck), and daughter Shiv (Sarah Snook) who finds himself on the payroll of their conglomerate and is quickly corrupted by the lifestyle of the ultra-rich.

A redheaded woman in her 30s stands flanked by two men of approximately the same age, one has dark hair and blue shirt, the other wears a baseball cap
Three of the Roy children appear in this scene from Succession, from the left, Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Siobhan 'Shiv' (Sarah Snook) and Roman (Kieran Culkin). The fourth season begins with the siblings attempting to start a new business venture together then shifting gears to get back at their father. (HBO)

Braun's main scene partner is British actor Matthew Macfadyen, playing Shiv's husband TomWambsgans, a nouveau riche sleazebag who's thrilled to have Greg beneath him on the familial food chain. During the new season, the two continue to be inseparable and Greg dives headfirst into full evil doofus mode, eager to be taken in by Tom's influence.

"On paper, you think they're all so revolting, they're so venal and just shallow and awful," said Macfadyen during a February interview on CBC'sQ. "But of course, if the writing's good and in our case it is it's full of humanity and interest and wit and pathos and all the rest of it."

Listen: Matthew Macfadyen talks to CBC's Q about the success of Succession:
Matthew Macfadyen has made a name for himself playing the opportunistic Tom Wambsgans on the hit show Succession. Now, he stars in Stonehouse, a new series about the disgraced British MP John Stonehouse who faked his own death. Matthew talks to Tom about the show and shares a few stories from Succession.

'It was a big chapter of our lives'

Part prestige drama, part family soap opera, Succession is also bitingly funny (though it's the incumbent Emmy award winner for outstanding drama series). Macfadyen and Braun in particular form one of the series most delightfully awful pairings: two people who will do just about anything to stay in proximity to power.

Their scenes are dialed-up to the point that neither can get through a line reading together without laughing: One memorable scene has Tom testifying in front of the U.S. Congress, Greg sitting just behind him, when a senator reads out a beautifully menacing subpoenaed text that Tom has sent to Greg: "You can't make a Tomelette without breaking some Greggs."

Another scene forced Macfadyen and Braun to take desperate measures. "When we got the script we were like, 'We have to meet before this to rehearse this privately because we'll just waste everyone's time.' I couldn't even read it without sort of weeping of laughter on my own. Because I just imagined his face oh, God," said Macfadyen of his co-star.

Two men wearing suits face an older man whose back is towards the camera.
Matthew Macfadyen and Nicholas Braun act in a scene across from Brian Cox, who plays Succession's domineering patriarch, Logan Roy. (HBO)

The cast of Succession found out that the show would be ending with its fourth season after creator Jesse Armstrong, the man behind British shows Peep Show and Fresh Meat, delivered the news over Zoom. Armstrong felt that the story would be best served by ending it early, with "10 monster episodes to bring us out," Braun said.

"It was sad," added Braun. "The last day was really hard. And there were some times during the season that felt like, OK, that's the last time we'll be on this set. Last time I'll work with that actor, last time I'll do a scene with Matthew."

"You know, those are tough moments. But I do think we did a great job and we did it for 6years from the start of the pilot till now, so it was a big chapter of our lives."

With files from Kaitlyn Swan