Brian Cox on ‘Prisoner’s Daughter’ and How Often People Bring Up His ‘Succession’ Character:

From director Catherine Hardwicke and screenwriter Mark Bacci, the family drama Prisoner’s Daughter finds Max (Brian Cox) needing to reunite with his estranged daughter Maxine (Kate Beckinsale), in order to reside with her and her son Ezra (Christopher Convery) on compassionate release after 12 years in prison. Diagnosed with terminal cancer has put a ticking clock on their time together, and while he may never fully redeem himself, Max just wants to connect with his grandson and protect his family in the only way that he knows how.

During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Cox talked about having wanted to work with Beckinsale for many years, the very specific looking Las Vegas house that they worked in, why it’s important to have laughter on a shoot, and the father-daughter relationship. He also talked about how often people want to talk to him about his Succession character Logan Roy versus other characters he’s played, and his desire to keep acting for as long as possible.

Collider: With a project like this, where you know the beginning, middle and end of the story, what is the thing you look for when you’re reading a script? Is it the overall story and experience that you might have? Is it the specific character relationships? Do you look for scenes or moments that might be interesting to explore?

BRIAN COX: It’s all of that. It’s how it affects you. This was a very moving story, the story of a man trying to reclaim his life, or reclaim a part of his life, and it just resonated so strongly with me. I thought it was a great role. And it was wonderful to be able to work with Kate [Beckinsale], who I have known, on and off, for many years, but we’ve never worked together. We had a great time, and we’ve actually become close friends, as a result. I just think she’s tremendous. And also, young Christopher [Convery], who I thought was wonderful as Ezra. It was a joyous thing to do. The only thing that bothered me was that it was in Las Vegas, but it was a perfect set for this particular film.

Las Vegas is a very particular kind of town. I love seeing filming locations that we think we know, like Los Angeles or Las Vegas or New York City, but seeing aspects that feel unfamiliar. Even the house in this feels like a character in the film because it has such a distinct look to it.

COX: And that house is very much a character on that street because it’s the only house that hasn’t been touched and it’s owned by the son of a billionaire. I actually lived across the road from the house. I was in a house that was a beautiful house. They’re based on a Palm Springs design of the late fifties or sixties. I loved that aspect of it. It’s just the other stuff, when you get into Las Vegas proper, that you go, “Oh, God, this is too much.” There was a time, when I think back to [Frank] Sinatra and Dean Martin and the Rat Pack, where it must have been rather exciting and the place was relatively in its formative years. Now, it’s the setting for one of those TV programs where somebody gets killed and they have to find out who did it, with CSI: Las Vegas.

You’ve talked about the importance of having a lot of laughs on a shoot. Is that something that helps you to never take it all too seriously or get too caught up in the heaviness of it all, especially with something heavier like this?

COX: I believe that we are transmitters, actors. It comes through us, and we have to allow it to come through us. In essence, there’s a relative lightness behind it all, that makes you open to whatever is required. If you go too heavy, you limit your resources, I think. That’s why I don’t believe in method acting. I believe that we have to be more open and we have to turn on a dime. That’s a much more interesting challenge, really. I love it. I absolutely love it. I love keeping it light. I’ve worked with a lot of great actors, like Michael Gambon or Paul Scofield, who were great jokers, but they did the most incredible serious work. I think I’m in that tradition. As a kid watching the TV, I’d see someone and get really upset, and my mom would turn to me and say, “But Brian, it’s not real!”

Brian Cox as Max, Kate Beckinsale as Maxine and Christopher Convery as Ezra in Prisoner’s DaughterImage via Vertical
Taking that into account, do you also have fun doing these types of intense scenes, where you’re beating somebody up with a baseball bat, or you’re getting beaten up?

COX: Oh, yeah. I love stuff when I have to be physical because that’s my raison d’etre. I’ve done a lot of physical acting, over the years, so that’s fine. But for me, the great thing is the interior element of the character. You let the audience do the work. You don’t do too much. You give just enough to the audience. You don’t project it. You just have to be it, in a way.

I love the moment in this when your character is still in his cell and he’s getting ready to leave prison, and then he shares a hug and an “I love you” with this big man who’s his cellmate. What do you think it says about this character, that he can earn the respect of someone like his cellmate in prison, but it’s so much harder for him to get there with his own daughter?

COX: It’s because there’s more going on with his own daughter. And also, the cellmate understands the journey that they both made, and what the cost of that journey is, and how they’ve ended up where they’ve ended up, so that’s fairly straightforward. With his own daughter, he’s very nervous, but he knows that they need to come to some kind of conclusion, as father and daughter, and he needs to revisit that territory. It goes back to the memory of when his daughter was little. There was a very close relationship between them. You know what fathers and daughters are like. I have a daughter, and I still think of her from when she was two and she used to squeeze herself into the side [of the chair and sit next to me], and I would hold her. All of that comes to mind. It’s a double-edged sword. You want people to grow up, but then you’re sad about them growing up. I have [a cell phone], so I can see the pictures of my boys and my daughter. I always say to my students, when I’m teaching, to always have a photograph of yourself when you’re young, when you’re little, because that’s who you are. It’s only your body that grows up, but that little soul is still there. That wonderment of being a child is the greatest gift of all, that we have. That’s what I like to be in touch with that. I don’t want to lose that sense of wonder.

We know, from the beginning of this film, that your character is moving toward a very specific fate, but it also plays out in a way that we don’t really expect. How did you feel about the decision your character made, really taking his fate into his own hands?

COX: The point is that he knows he’s gonna die, but he has to save his daughter because he knows that relationship is poisonous and will continue to be poisonous, so he’s determined to turn that around. He resorts to his own self-sacrifice, in order to do that.

It’s the relationships in this that really make the story interesting, from the father-daughter relationship with Kate Beckinsale, to the grandson with Christopher Convery, to the friendship with Ernie Hudson. What did you enjoy about most about the relationship between Max and his grandson, especially with those moments where he does talk to him like an adult?

COX: That’s Ezra’s gift and his problem. He’s a little man, in many, many ways, and he’s had to be because of his mom. So, Max approaches him as that little man and treats him like that because he realizes that he’s quite intelligent, but he’s still a boy. He still has to remember that he’s affected by things. That’s what I felt really good about. Max is an extraordinary character, just the fact that he’s learned so much, so late in life. His life is over, so he’s just trying to put it in place now. That’s all.

You’ve done some really incredible and memorable work, over the years. What’s it like, at this stage in your career and so many years into being an actor, to do a TV series like Succession, where so many people want to talk to you about it and people probably stop you, everywhere you go? Are there other characters that people also want to regularly talk to you about?

COX: Some people try to be clever and go, “Oh, never mind Logan Roy, what about Manhunter?,” or “Never mind Logan Roy, what about Deadwood?” I get that, all the time. People become proprietorial about a particular performance that I’ve got. Of course, they know about the Logan Roy hype because it’s so out there now, so it’s quite funny. Somebody the other night said, “Don’t forget you played Daphne’s Dad on Frasier, and it was great.” I just thought, “Well, that’s the job. That’s what you do.” If you give somebody something like that and they have a memory of it, it’s humbling and pretty impressive.

Acting is really one of the only professions that you don’t ever have to retire from, if you don’t choose to. There’s no set cut-off date that they impose on you. Did you know, very early in your career, that you wanted to continue acting for as long as possible, or was there a specific project that made you realize it was something you were just always going to do?

COX: I knew that ths would be the thing I’ll do until Alzheimer’s or dementia gets me. Otherwise, I’ll continue. I love my job, I really do. I’ve had the best time. It’s one of the best things, ever. I’m really grateful for it.

Prisoner’s Daughter is now playing in theaters.

View this article at Collider.