SmartLess - "Brian Cox"

Episode Date: March 2, 2026

We’re living in a wonder-world with the great Brian Cox. Tempura salad, resting bewildered face, and doing it like a goose. Is it the AC? Nope. It’s an all-new SmartLess. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of SmartLess ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You know, Will, I'd love to do a podcast with you today, but I'm a little sore about something. You know, I've noticed in the past, you know, you do like a fake countdown for stuff. And you will stop after three and you won't go all the way. We've been through this before. We did it on a previous cold open. I don't think I've ever mentioned this to you before. Five. It may have come up on a cold open once.

Welcome to Smartless. Now I'm, no, I'm going silent from four down. Welcome to Smart. How did everybody sleep? We just saw each other 10 hours ago. Really well. Good. Oh, good.

Why? Do you have a story about your sleep? No, I was good. It was okay. It was okay. No, but I... Wait, wait, did you have the mask on last night? No, I don't sleep with a mask.

Oh, you don't do the hose and the... No, I stopped that. It didn't really work. Don't cover your mouth when you sneeze. No, I... By myself. I know. Just practice.

No, because then I just get myself. Oh, because you're going to be on camera. It gets all over the Lorapiana. A beautiful, beautiful Casual. Beautiful Corpiana. Your friends of Lorapiana sent me this beautiful jacket. I like them, actually. I, uh, or him or whatever.

Do you? I, um, I did take a valiant to sleep like a cup. Look at him go. I don't know. He was sneezing. Will, did you get into the bottom of a bag last night? Are you all out? You have somebody on their way over?

It's, I don't even know. It must be the AC in this room or the something. Is it the AC? Is it the AC? No. We got a whole junk What was the last time you guys saw Dawn in New York City? I tell you, it's amazing.

It's just so full of promise this year. John and his van? Yeah. I love going out for beers for breakfast. Oh, my God. Sean, what did you do last night? Scotty and I... Oh, I ran the show.

I have to run the line, so that took a couple hours. And then he did about a pound and a half of sloppy Joe's. By the way, I totally had a sloppy Joe. Higher. At 10 o'clock. That's crazy you just said that. It's not much of a stretch or a leap for me to go to. I really did have a sloppy job.

Did you put it together yourself or was it left over from the kitchen help you have? It was left over. But it's funny that you say that because I remember yesterday when I was like I'm eating lunch at 2.30, 2 o'clock or 2.30. So that's why I had a sloppy Joe at 10 o'clock. But then what did you have at your 2.30 late lunch? I had a fried chicken salad. You had a chicken salad? No, no, fried chicken salad.

Oh, fried chicken salad. So they took what? They took the lettuce and the chicken. They threw it all in the friar? What happened? Everything gets fried in that scenario, even the bowl or... And then... How we call it tempura.

So you had the fried chicken salad. Tempora salad. Right, Sean? You had this snickerdoodle at 1130. Yeah, right? the big one. You kept going in and out of the bag to keep it fresh with your logic.

That's exactly right. And the fried chicken at 2.30. So then at 2.30 you have the fried chicken salad with what did you drink. What was your beverage at that lunch? Milk with every meal. At the lunch? Yeah.

At the restaurant. No, no. Did they look at you? Did they say, did they say, is there a child coming to this lunch? No? It was here at home. We don't offer stuff.

We don't have a kids menu. Yeah, but here are the crayons. But you have that at 2.30. And then you're, You're trying to tell us, you're trying to tell us that you have the fried chicken lunch, fried chicken salad, and that nothing, you had nothing else until you had the sloppy jump. At 1030. Yeah, that's true. No dinner.

Nothing. Nothing. No snack. No, no, no candy. You didn't graze, go by the candy jar? The candy bowl. I don't think I did. I don't think I did is a real soft way.

It's an entry into, you know, actually, what was? it. Just be honest. Just a milky way. I maybe had a couple of starbursts. A couple of starbursts. There we go. So you wanted to get some plastic in there.

He needs some binding. Something to bind up that sloppy Joe. Yeah, forget about rice. Wow. Oh, man. Anyway, anyway, what? And you're like, I can't, I can't figure it out. I don't find it.

I'm so tired all that. I don't know. My sleep's fucked up. It's so weird. No, no. What'd you have? Let me run you through it. None of it adds up.

Let me run you through it. I'll tell you what, though, Sean, I tell you what does that up. Oh, yeah. The acclaim for our guest. He has been nominated for four Golden Globes. Is that right? And he's won one. Oh, okay.

And he's been nominated for countless SAG Awards. I think like seven, won a couple of those. She won an Emmy nominated five times. Bafda's been nominated like seven, eight times, one two of those. This is the volified guest. This is a very qualified guess. This is a guy who his list of performances, is one of those guys that has its own page,

and has nothing to do with the length of time he's been on this planet, but just about the amount that people want him to be in their projects. I love that. I love him from everything. He is... It's one of the guys you're going to say, we'll guess it if we... You're going to guess if I say, he is the original Dr. Hannibal Lecter.

He's got a brave heart. He knows a little bit about the... Brian Cox. And he's also in line for succession. It is the one and only, Mr. Brian Cox. No way. Good Lord. This is a guest.

Hello, sir. Good morning. Hello, Jason. Hello, Sean. Well done, Will. Nice to see you all. Yeah, great to see you. Plus, I should mention also, Brian, that your new film that you've directed,

Glenn Rothen releases on April 17th. What's the name of it again? Glenn Rothen? It's called Glenn Rothen. It's about a... It's about a Scottish, it's about two brothers who are, they own this distillery. But one, the younger brother, who's played by, brilliantly, by Alan Cumming, he's the one that was the real talent in the family. And I also play Sandy, the oldest brother, who is just a plodder.

You know, he's just a manager, that's what he does. And the other brother has had a bad relationship with our father. I actually cast my own son as my father because I wanted him to see what it was like being a father. Oh, that's wild. That's wild. So we did that. And he was very good.

He was very tough and very scary as well. Brian, this can't be the first time you've directed something, is it? No, I directed in the theater, but this was my debut as a film director. Wow. How did it go? What were you surprised with? I was surprised that I made it.

I don't mean I made the film. that I made it through the whole shoot. It was a bit scary. And it was a very odd situation to be in, you know, because I came from an egalitarian viewpoint. I wanted everybody to do their best work. You know, we've all suffered at the hands of various directors over the years and their conceptions that they wanted to include us.

And I just want them to fuck off, really, basically. You know, fuck me about with all that shit that you're in all your ego stuff. control. And I just, I really, I'm, I, some directors I really like, I've worked with some really good ones. Yeah. But a lot of the time you go, the best director I've ever, I ever work with, unquestionably on film was Lindsay Anderson.

You know, the director, Lindsay Anderson? I don't. No. No, no. I should get to know it. God almighty, it's just appalling, you young people, what you don't know. Click, and then you just hang up. You live in a wonder world.

I don't know. Man or woman? A man, Lindsay's a man. He directed a very famous, well, he directed a series of films. The first film I ever saw was a thing called This Sporting Life. Oh, sure, I heard of that. With Richard Harris. Okay.

It's about a rugby team set up north, written by wonderful David Story, who's a great, well, he's passed away, a great writer. And, yeah, I mean, he was just... What made him great? What did you like about his style? Because he just gave you the right note. He gave you the right note. I mean, he would come up with Stey, we would do his scene,

and the play I did was with Alan Bates. Do you remember Alan Bates? To have a good name. Alan Bates, the actor Alan Bates. Yep. Sure. Sean, you know who the actor of Alan Bates. Yes, my God, you guys need some training.

You really do. Anyway, Alan Bates, who was famous in Zorba, the Greek, and he did a lot of movies, Alan. and he played my elder brother and I played the younger brother and Lindsay would come up with he said he would come and and we'd go it's good, it's good

but there's a little bit of attitude andizing in the scenes can we kind of remove the attitude inizing and just play the scene? I mean that simple thing, the simple note where you go ah, I see what you mean I'm striking an attitude that I try to hold on

to throughout the scene but actually the scene reveals itself and the attitude reveals itself and he was the first director to understand. Now, most directors wouldn't know what the fuck he was talking about. Right, right.

You know, they just don't have a fucking clue, you know. Sorry, I mustn't be too much. Had Lindsay ever done any acting, do you know? No, he started a magazine with a guy called Gavin Lambert called Sight and Sound, which was the big first film magazine

that was made really after the war because he was a war, you know, he was at university post-war. Yeah. And he was just extraordinary. I mean, the other thing he did was a film called If. I don't know if you saw that.

That was a film with Malcolm McDowell, which is set in a public school boy. It was a public school. And then he did a film called Oh Lucky Man, which was the follow-up to that. So catch-up buys. Yeah, yeah. I know.

I know. I feel like I've seen If. Wait, Brian. You're thinking of the Ryan Reynolds' junk, Rizinski vehicle. I was just going to say that. You're right, maybe an imaginary friend. That was a lot of fun.

That was a lot of fun. Brian, did you have, so when you ended up making your feature film debut, directorial debut, did you find that it shifted, did you sort of retroactively, like go back and kind of shift your opinion of directors and did it sort of even anything out? Well, I had more sympathy for them, but I still think a bunch of them are twats. Yeah, sure. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I must be too. It's great.

But I think you all agree with me. I think you've all been through that as well, you know, those guys. Yeah, it's always interesting. You know, a director definitely needs to have a plan and pardon the term, a vision and all that stuff. But when it comes to performance, you realize that they think they can control it, but it is like one of the few lanes in making something that you can't control. You can't control performance.

You can't control music. Like, everything. else you can kind of get in there and make a decision on. But performance and music, there's stuff that happens in between action and cut that you just can't micromanage. It's got to live, it's got to breathe. And that character is the actor's character. It's not the director's character or the writer's correct character.

Like, you have to own it. And to be able to give the actor the kind of latitude to really feel like it's theirs, I think that frees up a really exciting performance as opposed to trying to get them to do the version of the character you always saw in your head. Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, you know, I've suffered under that for the last 50 years or even 60 years.

Well, you've pushed through it very, very successfully. My God, the performances I've been able to watch you do, Brian. It's just, thank you. Let me just say thank you. Yeah, you have done so many. And, you know, these guys know I've gone on and on about some of my favorite films. And you have one of one of Will's favorite quotes, too. about what is it i'm going to paraphrase it here um i'm too old too rich and too famous to give a fuck

yeah it's something like that i'm too old too tired and too talented to give a fuck it's so good right i love that so fucking much i just fucking love it i love how you don't and i'm in the best way you don't give a shit uh but i know you do about the things you do give a shit about Just the silly stuff. Exactly. Exactly. Well, the thing I was determined to do with the movie was to get everybody give their talent. You know, the costume department, the wardrobe department, the, I mean, that's the same.

And the design of the film and the DP. And, you know, you just want people to do their best work, not to say, do it this way. Right. Because once you say, do it this way, you've immediately put a block up for them to go, oh, I've got to do it this way. I can't do it. So I didn't do any of that. I just said, give me what you're giving me. Tell me what you want me to do.

Tell me what you want to. In the design department, tell me what you want to achieve. And therefore, one had an incredibly happy crew. It's probably a terrible film, but we had a happy crew. No, but it's a true collaboration. I mean, you hired those people for a reason because you like what they do. You provide an environment where they feel like they can. That's exactly right, Will.

That's exactly right. And not enough of that goes on. We don't trust. We really don't trust. We don't trust nearly enough. And if somebody comes on and says, this is the design, you just say, well, let's see what you do.

And do what you want to do. Do what you feel is right. And of course, you can modify and all that. But at least you're not impending them. You're not stopping them from being creative. Yeah. Wait, so for Glenn Roth, and is it, did you find the project or did the project find you?

How did that happen? Well, it was a, it was, I didn't find the project. It's written by a guy called, David Ashton. I do, you know, we still do radio back, would you believe, I don't, you know what the radio is? Sure, sure. Yeah, sure. Anyway, we still, I still do radio back in the old country. And I've been doing a series for 20 years, which I'd go off and do for three days. And it's a series about an Edinburgh detective called McClevee. And it's been very popular. We get about a million listeners. Wow. And David wrote this. And they came to me, a guy called Neil Ziger, who's also a pal.

And Neil said, you're going to be directing this film. And I've never directed a film. And I said, what? He said, you're going to direct the film. And they said, and you could be in it. I said, oh, that's kind. And thank you for letting me be in it. You can cast yourself.

Yeah. Well, you know, you know, it's a wonderful, wonderful. There's a great comedian in Scotland called Stanley Baxter, and there's a great scene which he used to do when he played a little boy. And also his grandfather's dying, and his grandfather's looking at the window and saying, son, one day, all this will be yours, from the hills to the river and all that land out there.

And he goes on and on and on. And the wee boy says, you know, grandpa, that's an awfully big job for one wee boy in his own. So that's what I was reminded of How an awfully big job it is for one wee boy on his own Well, it's funny it's funny you mention that one wee boy on his own Because I was thinking about you're you grew up in Dundee Scott Born and raised in Dundee Scalling

Yeah And and now you're a sort of Forgive me as sort of a world famous actor Reclaimed actor how did you go from that to that What was that leap from what I've read of very, very humble beginnings? Oh, yeah. Well, my dad died when I was age. And my mom had a, he was only 51, he had pancreatic cancer, and he died when I was eight.

And I had three elder sisters. I was the youngest and a kind of crazy brother who used to go off and disappear. And he was nine years older than me. And I was the baby. And my dad died. And then my mom had a series of terrible nervous breakdowns which resulted in her having electric shock treatment, which, I mean, she lost about 60 pounds in weight.

I mean, she was unrecognized. I mean, she was a little overweight to start with, but she was underweight. So I had no parents for most of my... I had my sisters, and I didn't realize it, but it was the best thing that ever happened to me. It's a tragedy, in one sense, losing your mom and losing your dad.

Certainly, it was heartbroken. But I was liberated. it. No fucker was telling me what to do. No fucker was getting, no parent was giving... How old did you? You were eight years old when your dad passed? And then your mom, and how old were you when your mom? Well, she died much later, but my mom went into almost

immediately. She had a huge breakdown and she was just hopeless. And also, we were sending my youngest sister, actually my youngest of my oldest sisters, you know, she's 12 years older than me. And there were my two older sisters who were married, had children, I mean, I was, they were amazing. They were just amazing what they did, but they did, they didn't look after me, but they looked out for me, which was better than being looked after.

They made sure that I was okay. Did you find that you were making a lot of really good decisions, or did you make some bad ones and learn from those? Well, you just learn, you know, you learn, you know, I mean, I made good decisions and I made bad decisions, you know, but I made, but at least I could get the lie of the land, you know, what was going on. But I imagine that Dundee's, Scotland, at that, time was a tough place to grow up yeah yeah it wasn't easy you know and uh it's a lot tougher now

because we have the you know don't get me started but they we have um sorry i wanted to be more humorful on this but i mean no no it's you fitting right in no what what happened is that we have the highest heroin addiction in europe in my own town oh wow wow wow wow wow wow yeah yeah because of the poverty and it's all about poverty And it's what makes me a socialist. Socialists, I mean, what I can't stand about this country, we're in, is how they confuse communism with socialism. Socialism is not communism.

Socialism is social welfare, taking care of the people. Communism is a dictate. So, you know, and I wish Americans would understand that, what the difference is. Good luck. What a socialist is. As a Canadian, let me say, good luck to you trying to explain it to them, Brian. Well, they've figured it out in New York.

And Aiding seemed to understand it rather well. Yeah. We've got a pretty good understanding. I don't disrespect to either Jason or Sean, but, you know, Americans don't get it. They just don't get it. Well, they don't understand. And I'm not, I don't consider myself really anything, but I do understand that we have to take care. We're only as strong, the idea, we're only as strong as our weakest link.

And that there has to be a net, because once you, if there is not a sort of a social net, then the whole thing falls apart. and it sort of decays from underneath, if you have extreme poverty, which we do in this country, then the entire thing is resting, the foundation of our society is rotted from underneath, you know? So, anyway.

So, Brian, growing up there, you said it wasn't as bad, but what gave you the hope or the courage to seek something better? Well, I had two teachers. I mean, my education was a disaster. It was a technical education. I was supposed to be,

I was trained to be a bricklayer, really, I was trained to be. I mean, I never laid a brick in my life, but either, you know, but that's supposed to be my destiny. And I thought, fuck that for a game of soldiers. I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that.

I'm not very in that way. And I just wanted to be an actor. I wanted to be an actor since I was three, you know, and that was my desire just to act. Where did that come from? Did you watch a lot of TV or? Oh, I, we had 21 cinemas in my hometown. Wow.

Wow. That's a ton. Before the war, we had 42 cinemas. But after the world, we had 21, and now there's about four. And I visited every single cinema. And where I lived, there was right angles to where I lived up from up the street. There was a thing called Darcy's Stone Terrace. And there was my church, the library, the Broadway cinema,

and opposite that was the Royal. And it was double features. So you'd go in at 6 o'clock and you would get out 11. So I used to go there all the time. In fact, I'm surprised that when they were alive, that they even noticed I existed in my parents because I was in the cinema most of the time. Was it a form of escapism?

Is that what brought you into the theater initially? No, I don't think it's escapism. It's just joy. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I just got so much joy out of it, you know. You live in Dundee, which was pretty heavy going, you know, in those days. I mean, it's a great community. I mean, that view, but the city father,

always make a ball's up. You know, they took people out of the town and they put them in these schemes, which is why they're still paying for it now. In fact, the Lord Provost said to me, you know, we're trying to get people back into the city. I said, you should never have taken them out the city in the first fucking place.

I said, that's so important. That's who they are. They're from that, and then you put them, you isolate them without any proper conditions, you know. And therefore, the heroin, the drunks, the whole thing just spirals out of, you know. this is something that really gets me more and more and more. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We'll be right back. And now, back to the show. So then you have this love of cinema. You're going to the theater all the time. And then you went to, if I'm right, you went to theater school in Scotland. I went to Lambda. Oh, you went to Lambda. Okay.

Yeah, what was wonderful was I was, there was a guy called Bill Davis, there was a series of directors at Dundee Rep. And the last guy was a Canadian called Bill Dave. Now, Bill is a director and a writer in his own mind. He lives in Vancouver. And also, he's part of that Davis, you know, the famous Davis family who run a lot of theaters in Canada. And Bill was great. And he said, he invited me. I was, I think I was just 16, if that, anyway. Yeah, I was just 16. And he invited me to a voice class. And I'd never been to a voice class. I didn't even know what a voice class was. What's a voice class? He said, come along to voice class. and I went along and there was this he said we've got this young woman who's coming up from London she's just taken over now

because the previous voice teacher who was a genius died and this lady's taken on and I said who is this she says she's called Kristen Linklater have you heard of Kristen Linklater no you see so we don't know anything yeah I'm smart I'm surprised how

really ignorant you both are except the Canadian I find the Canadian isn't ignorant at all but you two guys are really You're right on, you're right on the money, you're right on the money. You know, you sit there and wonder going, oh. Yeah, yeah, we're here to learn. Like a little baby boy. So anyway, she was, look up Kristen Laker because she was, she's sadly possible.

Her son is an actor called Hamish Linklater. I don't know if you've come across him. And she, no, yeah, no, you don't know. What about like Taylor Smith? Oh, wow. Anyway. They think that you're making these names up. I know, I know.

Oh, wait, yes. I know Hamish-Linclair. They're actors that resonate. Pardon? You guys know Hamish-Link later. I know who, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. God, the Canadian, he's so sensible.

What is wrong with you two others? My Google's faster, but I know exactly who Hamish-link later. So anyway, so that happens. So I go to Dundee. My first day in Dundee was a very funny day because I went up for my interview and I went up to the front of the theatre and this woman in a very broad Dundonio.

I said, you want you, son? I said, I'm here for an interview first. I said, you can kind of get into the front for the front. You've got to go to the back to get to the front. You can get to the front for the front. So go to the back and then you can get to the front. I said, okay, so I went round the back. And as I walked in, there was an almighty row

a fight going on between an actor Now, I'm going to say an actor's name, and you probably don't even know who the fuck he is, but anyway, he was very well known. We've been pretty good so far. You've scored brilliantly. Anyway, this actor was called Nickel Williamson. Oh, yes.

Nichol. If I had a nickel. It's great. We've struck gold at last. Anyway, so I'm, this, Nicol Williams, and he's not going to use him, I'm making money. And that is a great impression of him. Stop it.

You, you, make him. and I'm trying to get past them to get off of my interview. And I'm 15, and I've never been in a backstage before. So I'm getting up and I'm planning up the stairs. I get past them, finally. And I'm standing on the landing, and there's a wonderful article Gone Granger's smoking a cigarette. And he looked at me and he said,

Are you all right, darling? And I went, that man just called me darling. Right. I have never been called darling before in my life. This is clearly where I must be. I have to be in this place. Right, that's great. Well, I have to ask you, because I'm the person that always asked this,

what's your favorite stage show you've ever done, and what's the worst thing that's ever happened on stage in the Love Theater? Well, the worst thing ever happened, and actually one of my favorite shows I did was I did a show by, do you know who Connor McPherson is? No, there you go. He's a very famous Irish playwright, and he's had a few plays on Broadway,

and I did a play of his called St. Nicholas, in which I played a theatre critic. It was a one-man show. It was a wonderful show, really very, very funny, very inventive. And it's about this theatre critic who becomes obsessed by this actress, and he becomes obsessed by, and he follows her. And he follows it. The play she's in, he gives a bad review to in Dublin

and his persona non-grata because of his terrible review, having flirted with this actress. And finally he goes, he follows them to London, and he follows them to their home. And he nearly rapes the girl, but he doesn't. So he ends up being kicked out. And he eventually goes to work for vampires. He meets a vampire on Crystal Palace Hill,

and this vampire says, if you could bring people to our house, and, you know, we like to suck blood, but we never kill. We just only suck. We don't kill. It seems reasonable. And I said, that seems reasonable to me.

But the idea was he would allow me a space so I could write. And the whole point of his, is the fact that he's wanting something to write this story. So I did this play, which was a really good play. So I one night had come on, and I start the play, and I look to my right, and there's my ex-girlfriend. Oh, my God. I think, what is she doing here?

And then I'd carry on, and then I turn over, and there on my other side was my ex-ex-girlfriend, and they're literally sitting opposite one another. Oh, yeah. And I'm completely thrown. And I just say to the audience, I said, I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, but I'm going to have to start again.

No way. Yeah. I said, I'm going to have to start again because this is, I can't explain what it is, but really just please trust me, I will be better second time. That is so. Did you see them after the show?

I did. Oh, my God. I did. What happened was after the show, they came on and they said, oh, that was lovely. We enjoyed it. Oh, and tremendous.

And I said, why were you sitting, to one of the girls, I said, why were you sitting opposite Arena? And she said, I wasn't. I said, you were. She said, well, I'd never notice. I said, what I noticed? You were sitting opposite her, and you're literally sitting right opposite. And I said, do you know, no, I'd never notice.

And so I went through agony for no reason. And they have no sense. Yeah. And that was it. But that's the, Sean, it makes me think, Sean, you're about to do a one-man show. Oh, right. Sean is, Sean opens what it'll be on now,

I think, uh, by the time this air is. But Sean's doing a one-man show off Broadway. What's it called, Shawnee and what theater will it be in? It's called the, thanks you guys.

It's called the unknown and it's at Studio C-view, which is, um, 43rd and 8th Avenue. It's a, yeah, it's, but Brian, you'll understand,

having to explain like doing a one-man show. And I was talking to Sean as he's been preparing for it this fall. And just getting off book. Yeah. Just learning. the fucking, the weight of... It's another story. I'm still not off book totally, and it's been three months.

You're pretty good. Yeah, decent, yeah. He runs the show every day. You have to, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm scared shitless. I mean, we're recording this, and I haven't opened yet by the time this comes out, I haven't opened.

So if I, if I'm alive, I'll let you know. But isn't it? Send the post God. Yeah, but Brian, I mean, like the one-man show thing, it's just, it's colossal, isn't it? Yeah, it is. It is. I mean, I remember I came on one night

and a guy, I walked on and a guy, he said, I came on he opened his program and he went, and I took the program out of his hand. Through it? I walked past him. I just took the program out of his own. But isn't it, I mean, did you ever go off,

like go up on the line? I said in rehearsal, I was like, can I please have the script just off stage for emergencies if I can't remember where I'm at, I just have to, I'm just going to, there's nothing you can do. You just got to walk off. So you're just going to dip off stage and take a look?

What are you going to do? I mean, you know, I don't know what else to do. Well, I tell you what's great now. I mean, because I'm a considerable old age now. Well, I don't really think about that, but other people tell me I am. No, no, no. You wear it well. You wear it well.

Yeah. Earpiece. I know. I know. But I don't know. I can't imagine somebody talking to you while you're talking. But only if you go up. Maybe if you, only if you go up, do they then talk?

So the earpiece, I've done the earpiece a few times. And the thing about the earpiece is don't think about it as learning lines. Think about it as volition in the play. That you want to keep it moving. So you want to keep it moving in a certain way. So this, because when you get to my age and you know, your brain isn't working in the same way, it's a little slower. So by the way, by the way, I saw your show in London, by the way. Oh, I didn't know that.

Thank you. Yeah, I did. I just saw it. And you were absolutely brilliant. That was just an amazing show. But I do have a funny story about it, and please don't be offended by the funny story. But anyway, so I'm sitting there,

and I'm watching this amazing evening. And I stood up and, you know, I kind of went, oh, Christ, because it was so extraordinary. Thank you. And the guy later on, the guy said, that was a wonderful mind. I said, what do you mean? I said, the guy, the way he mounted the piano.

I said, that was him for real, you fucking idiot. You know, people have said that, And it's like, if I were to mime it or like, I'd have to imitate it perfectly with all the notes. So why not just play it? By the way, by the way, it would almost be more impressive if it was the mime. Right. That's almost harder than playing it. Was there ever that discussion, Sean, to turn the piano such that the audience,

some of the audience could see the keys? Yeah, well, oh, I thought you'd say the other thing that they couldn't so that, because I did, I panicked before we opened, talking about a good night Oscar. Yeah. And talk before, I panicked. I was like, if something, if I hurt my hand or I can't do it or like, or I get scared and I've been playing it too many times, can we just run a tape and I'll just fake it with the keys facing a wave, you know?

Yeah. And the director's like, you're going to be fine. I'm like, but you don't understand. No, but you did record it though. You did have it recorded. Yeah, yeah, just in case. I never used it. Just in case, right?

But you never had to use it. No, I mean, I clearly your command was just dazzling. I mean, I said, I said, you know, what have I been doing for the last thing? I'll be fucking about. Well, Will and I went, Will and I were crying at the end of it. Jason and I were crying and we were crying. Oh, yeah, I was crying too.

I mean, A, and how beautiful was and how talented he was and B, how talentless we are compared to a few. Yes, I felt distinctly talentless after having watched it. Did you see Black Rabbit? Did you see Black Rabbit? No. That's okay. Pushing through.

Fantastic. Pretty fantastic. And, or is this thing on with Will or not and Lord? No. He'll get around to it all. So, wait, Brian, I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to get it before because this is one of my favorite films in film series, and I love the character of Ward Abbott

from the Born movies. I don't know. I think people thought I was going to mention playing Hannibal Lecter, which, again, you are the original Hannibal Lecter in Manhunter, which I saw in the theaters. Great movie. In the 80s. I fucking loved that movie, and you were brilliant in that, really brilliant.

And I'm not just saying that But I'm such a born fan And I loved Ward Abbott And because there's a scene that you There's so many great scenes You're so great in those movies But there's a scene where the kid finds out That it's you that's you that's done it

And he takes you down and he says I figured it out And then what they did was they have a light switch And blah blah And the guy and you go Okay yeah you go okay Run it for me again And he does it again

And then you kill him In the most brutal way And it's one of my I remember the first The first time I watched it, I was like, oh, my, it was so shocking. So walk me through the BORN movies, if you can, just a little bit. Did you have a great experience? Was it a fun experience?

Did you like that? Yeah, it was great. I mean, Doug Lyman is probably the most eccentric director you could have a meet. You know, he flies a plane like this. Right, yeah. He's extraordinary eccentric. But gifted, you know, just like he's got these flashes. Like, there's a, you know, I can't remember which film, I think it's the first one.

There's a sequences where Jason Bourne falls, it's set in Paris, and he falls off, and it looks as if he's going to kill himself. But he falls onto another actor who goes down, and that breaks his fall. You remember that? Yeah, of course. That was Doug's idea.

That was Doug said, why do we do that? That was the first one, in that stairwell, in that huge stairwell in the middle of the... Exactly, exactly. And it was amazing. I just couldn't believe it when I saw it. And I thought, my God, because it was very bright. brave of Matt to do it, but it worked like a dream, and it was wonderful.

Yeah, there's such a great series of films. I just had to bring those up because I love them. So, so much. And of course, because I don't want to run out of time, and I know that people, because this is a big area, and people are going to, we'd be remiss if we didn't mention it, and so forgive us for, hopefully, bringing up succession, which has been so beloved around the world.

and talk a little, I mean, first of all, how did that come into your orbit, the success? I just got a call one day to say that Jesse Armstrong was thinking about this piece, and he would like to talk to me. So I got on a phone with Adam McKay, and who was one of the executive producers. Sure, yeah.

And, I mean, Jesse always wanted me to play the role. And I knew that I thought This is going to be a hit. I just knew it was really good. You know, it's so funny to hear you say that because we ask everybody, did you know it was going to be a hit? And people are like, you never know.

But I love that you just said, I knew. I knew. I knew this was going to be one of the biggest shows of all time. Because the material was so strong? Yeah. And also, you know, just the part, I thought, wow, this is a great part

because it's so, it's a received part. You know, he's not, he just comes in at the right moment and then you've got this kind of real kind of intellectual kind of bandit that he is you know and it was just an extraordinary but the cast i mean the cast was amazing i mean and to watch all the actors grow through the whole show and uh and see the lovely serious snook you know uh roman you know i can never remember the names of the actors but they're also good. How did you like the

schedule of that? Was it, was it, did it seem just sort of relentless? Or was that, since it was an ensemble, the workload was all shared and no one ever really got gassed? No, no one really, it didn't become heavy in any way. And when it was a heavy episode, usually you weren't in it, you know, which is what was quite good, you know, like Kendall's birthday party. I wasn't in that episode at all.

And no, it was very, it was very. it was very relaxed and such great players like Matthew McFadion, you know, who's just a wonderful actor, you know. And all of them, they were all great, even Jeremy Strong. Yeah, sure, sure. And you were... Stop it now, Sean. Behave yourself.

Please. I have a reputation, you know, I've got to think about it. Wait, so you find... So you get this material and you're like, okay, I think this is going to be hit. You like the party is a great part. It's a great, great part. and then you, what, you shoot the pilot, do you guys shoot a pilot, or do you go straight to series?

You know, that's a very good question. I can't remember. I think we went straight to, yeah. Adam McKay directed the pilot, yes? Yeah, yeah, he did. I think we went straight to series. Yeah. We did, I mean, no, I think we did the pilot,

and then it was literally like, I don't know, a month, and then we went on and did the series. But we kind of knew we were going to be doing the series. Right, right, right. I think so I may have got that wrong. Were you living in New York the whole time? Well, no, I was living in London to start with. And then I, yeah, I was, oh, I was cross-living.

Yeah, because I live between London and New York. How do you like living in the States versus London? What's the pluses and the minuses? Oh, God. Where to start? Where to start? Be careful because we don't want you to get stopped at the border. No, no, no, no.

We live in funny times. I don't want any ice agents suddenly appearing on my hotel door. It's difficult. It's very difficult. I feel very sympathetic towards. Americans and where they're finding themselves at this time. Yeah. And in many ways it's a very exciting time, but it's also in many ways an acutely depressing

time, you know. And I find that I go more to the depressing side than the exciting side. Yeah. And I just find it extraordinary because I love this. When I was a kid, you know, when I was 15, I, and I so wanted to be an actor. but I realized I wanted to be an American actor because I never wanted to be Kenneth Moore or Bougard or any of those English actors

and that just had nothing No connection Oh God, I'm saying You're being pernicious, Jason, absolutely pernicious And we will be right back And now back to the show I understand that too though Brian

As a Canadian, I also have the same And I'm very proud of being from Canada and I love it. But as a sort of a newer American of almost 20 years, I always wanted to come here too. I always had that thing like this was the place. It's such a great country, the

U.S. And there's so many incredible talents and there's so much opportunity to do so many different things. I think that was it. Do you know what I mean? And also the history of cinema. I mean, cinema's an American invention. You know, you can't deny it. Because my great passion is, in fact, my wife is

so pissed off at me. Because I spend my days. I've been working really hard. I've done four plays. I played Bach. I've done a play about the financial crisis of 2008, which I played Adam Smith, you know, the history of... Do you know who Adam Smith was?

No problem. Oh, yeah. Because he's a good education. Anyway, so... And I did that. I did that. And, no, it was great. But I...

And I realized that I wasn't... American. And it was very depressing when I realized what was I going to do? Well, I would say this. To us, you had a leg up being British, or Scottish, whatever. Yeah, no, yeah, it did. But just in terms of where you were going to go with your work, and it was just a very odd feeling. And then I was walking down the hilltown of my hometown, and there was a film on called Saturday night and Sunday morning. You probably haven't heard of that. Phil Mike. Sean's favorite.

It's a question last thing. It's Albert Finney. Love him. And when I saw Albert Finney, I thought I'm saved. If he can do it, I can do it. That guy from Salford, Manchester, I can do it, I can do it.

And also, Albert and I, subsequently, he was a bit older than me, but we worked together a couple of times, and I remember we did a play at the Royal Court, The Royal Court's a very famous theatre in London. Yes, yes. Oh, yeah, of course. Oh, God, sometimes it's really hard.

Anyway. I look at these, you can't see, audience can't see it, I look at these bewildered faces, particularly the two on the bottom here. That's just their resting face. They have resting, bewildered face. But Alba Finney, he changed my life.

He just realized, I said, I can, I can, that's my path. And of course, it was the time of, which was an amazing time in the UK, of the beginning of what they called the free cinema. And it was Tony Richardson, Lindsay Anderson, who you didn't know, John Schlesinger, who you probably have heard of. Well, I put him in the same category as Lindsay Anderson, to be honest. But, Brian, you know, you have such an incredible,

you're very funny, you're very charismatic, you remind me of another Scottish, one of my closest friends, Patrick Doyle. Do you know this composer of Patrick Doyle? The composer. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He composed Harry Potter and Cinderella. Yeah, he's a great friend of the Irishman, what you call. Jesus.

Ken Brana. Oh, yeah, he does all Cambrana. You remind me of him a lot. I just didn't know if you knew each other. No, we've never met, actually, ironically. I've never met. You know what I want to ask you about? I want to ask you about, you know, Will and I moonlight a little bit with voiceover work sometimes.

And I love the stuff that you do for McDonald's. McDonald's. I know. And I want to, how did, how did that come your way? Is that something that you, is that something that you enjoy? I mean, I love it. It gives you some very handy pocket change. He's loving it.

It pays for a lot of stuff. It pays for a lot of stuff. I'm not complaining. Oh, yeah. How often do you find yourself in the booth recording new stuff? Well, it took a while, you know, because I've been here for, I mean, I've been here for nearly 30 years on and off, you know. Yeah. And I had a huge voiceover career back in the UK,

which I couldn't keep up. And that was before they'd do things down the line, which they didn't do in the early days because it was too expensive. So I had a great voice career. And when I came here, it stopped. I lost my voice career. And then I had this agent guy called Steve Arcieri, who I would recommend to anybody.

He is a brilliant, brilliant agent. He's in New York. And he'd been watching up for me for a few years. and he just came at me at the right point and it was McDonald's and that was it. And then I did Uber Eats, you know, have you seen my Uber Eats commercial? I don't know.

I think I did. Oh, you've got to watch that. You've got to watch the Uber Eats. That's very funny. Is that on camera or is that voice open? Yeah, it's on camera. It's about, it's about a, it's about a sort of belligerent character who's going back to university

in order to get Uber Eats because it's free. It's just price. Yeah, it's so good. is a series of vignettes. And it won an Emmy that whole so I've got that as well. I love ads. I love them.

Well, we do too, but I kind of want to sort of piggyback on what Jason was saying is because we do, as Jason said, we both have sort of moonlight sometimes and get to do these voice gigs. But you have such great command of your voice.

That was Christian Linklater. Was it? There you go. That was Christian Linklater. That's when I found out that's why I went to Lambda. And then blow me, but six weeks after I got to Lambda, she left and came to America. She taught at Columbia for a long time.

Oh, wow. But it's just, like even in something like the McDonald's ads, you understand such a way of bringing something to the voice in a way that is outside the norm. You know, with no disrespect to anybody else who does voiceovers, I've done it for a long time, and there's so many talented people out there. You mean like me?

Because you've never said that to me. I'm just saying that Jason's never done that. I mean, Jason sounds like, talk about phoning it in. I mean... He does it on his phone. He does it on my phone. It's like leaving a voicemail message. And did they say do it in a higher octave?

I don't understand. Buy a Hyundai. It's a great car. There it is. There it is. I just speak it, you know. But do you, and do you sense... I wonder also if you have that thing,

which after years of doing voice servers where you understand, where you can look at a script. I have this thing where I can look at copy that they send me, and I'll go, and I'll go, see the timing, it'll go seven, seven seconds, and then I'll go like, yeah, I can probably do that in, I can probably do that in six and a half seconds. Yeah. Like, do you have that thing? Similar, similar thing.

I mean, usually the scripts are so good and so tight. That's the great thing with McDonald's. They've timed it out already, but. They've already timed it all, I have to worry. all I have to worry about is the performance, you know, just getting the, getting, well, can't you just like say if you did it took too long, if it took too long, you can't you just, wouldn't they just say, can you read it faster? Oh, yeah, yeah, they would tell me to hurry up, but I like to get out.

We have a great expression in Scotland, which is get on and get off, which means get on and get off. And with voiceovers, I like to get on and get off and not hang about on them. Because that's the other thing, if you hang about too much, they don't, their density doesn't, it doesn't support you. And with voice of it is you have to drive them through, you have to do them, you know, and just be abandoned to them rather than sort of, because otherwise, you know,

you lose the job because you've only got an hour to do. I find myself getting kind of ordinary where I'll go, and I'll be doing something, and they'll say, you'll do a take and you'll go through and you'll get a perfect take, it's really good, you'll go, you'll lay it down and blah, blah, blah, and then they'll go, that's great. And they'll say, let's get one more for a safety, I go, safety, it's digital, right?

What are you worried about a hair in the gate? What are you talking about? You got it. Now, if you want me to do it differently or you have a thought, great. But otherwise, we're good. Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more, Will. I mean, but again, we have director problems. Now, Brian, was it a gentle pitch that they made to you

when they asked you to do the iconic little jingle at the end there? The ba-da-da-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba. Yeah. Did that, but was that, I always, like, if I had to pitch Brian Cox, hey, listen, we'd like for you to do this. I'd be scared shitless to ask you to do that. Or was that your idea? Was it in the copy?

No, no, they just wanted me to do it and I did it. It's so good. If I know Jason, Jason would be like, you know what? That's a different pay rate. Yeah, that's going to be to sing it. Yeah, sing is a different rate. Sean, am I right? Would J.B. hold them up for weeks on that?

Sure, yeah. I don't know. I'll call you back. I'm not going to show up to you up to you after. No, but what about, I auditioned for the voice of Affleck for that duck that goes, Affleck, right? Yeah, perfect. Didn't get it, huh?

It was between me and Gilbert Godfrey, who got it. And I go, I remember the audition, and I go in there, and I had no idea what it was for. And through the glass, you know, I have my headphones on. And they were just read the copy there, and I'm like, Aflack? Like, I don't understand. And they're like, it's all it says. I'm like, that's all it says. Like, yeah, just do it.

And I'm like... Do it like a goose. Like a goose. And I'm like, aflac. I don't understand. I don't understand what you want me to... And I'm like, great thanks. And I'm like, well, I didn't know

I was supposed to sound like an actual animal. Do you feel like your lack of intellect has held you back in other ways? Or creative impulse? Yeah. Oh, my God. It could be tyrannous, these situations. But you go to...

It's a question of just moving it. You know, I love it. I love it. I love the discipline. I love the discipline of the voiceover. You know, and it's just a great thing to practice your craft, you know. I agree. And I like that it's a tight space.

I like that you only have a finite amount of space in order to get this point across. Often it's not a lot of time. And there's something about that that I find really... GMC Sierra. Are you talking about professional grade? Professional grade GMCC. We are professional. But, Will, you're blessed with a very fine voice.

Thank you. I remember when I saw you in that wonderful film, which you did with Brad, and I thought, your voice is very strong. It's a very, very good voice. That's a compliment coming from you, so I appreciate it. Thank you very much. You've got great clarity,

and that was what was so wonderful about that part you were playing, because he was on the run, but the clarity was so strong, and I was very, very impressed. If he ever wins an award, he's the first person he's going to thank is cigarettes. Yeah. They're the only ones who have never let me down, Sheld.

They've never let me down. They've never not returned to call. They've always been there for me. So, Brian, you've done, it's so funny, you go back, and you've done theater, you've won Olivier Awards, you won Bafters and Emmys and Golden Globes and all of it and film and television. Now you've directed your film.

It is one of these, You know, we ask people all the time, like, what is the thing that you'd like to do? You've seemingly done, again, at risk of embarrassing you at all. So what could, what gets you up in the morning of, like, now that you've directed this film, what's the next thing that kind of you're excited to get out of bed to do, sort of creative?

The next job. Okay. The next job. Do you have anything left that you're curious to see if you can handle? Yeah. It only comes when it comes. You know, I can't. You know, you can't do over-contemplation.

What have I, what do I, would I do how, you know, you just do it. But like you guys were talking about a one-man show, like I literally turned down one a couple of months ago because I just didn't think that's something that I could really enjoy doing. No, because you're not one man. You're not a full man, that's why. That's it. That's.

If they said a half-man, if they said a half-man show. Half-man show, you could do. You could do a half-man. show for sure well like i gotta i gotta get some theater under my belt before i take something like that you should why don't you no no i'm dying to do that but like there are things that i am brilliant jason i would i would love to challenge myself that that's one of them i can't imagine there's a whole lot left on your list to challenge yourself with it's there it's i don't even see as a challenge i just see as the work you know it's part of the work it's part of the job and jason

you're a very fine actor i mean you know no thank you you are and i'm i mean you are and i mean you you've done the Ozarks, the work you've done. I think sometimes you don't trust yourself nearly enough, Jason. Wow. I think that's your problem. I think that's your problem. I think you really, you're very contained. And you're contained in a way it says,

if I move too fast, I'll fall over. Ah. Look at this guy. Great note. And I think that that's, you're, just let yourself go. You'd like to see me cut it loose. You'd sound like my wife. Yeah, she wants me to.

Cut it loose. Yeah, because you're not. You're so gifted. You're so talented. And you should trust your talent more than you do. He did a very fine performance in this program, The Black Rabbit. Brilliant.

He's brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. And he is much more... He's a wonderful actor. He's a wonderful actor. I've had the misfortune... Sorry, fortune of working with him many times. But I will say, Jason has... And I always say this to Jason, too,

and this is the great thing. He's so funny. Sean Yulintested. funniest person. Ever. His timing is absolutely impeccable that you cannot teach.

And I say to you, Jason, all the time, I wish you to get back and do a couple straight comedies. You're so fucking good at comedy. Well, if they're still made, am I doing them?

But you're denying us of comedy. Why are you denying us? They just don't make them anymore. Yeah, well, make a show. Do his eight-episode comedy show. Yeah. I'd love to.

If they made those. They do. But you said that you wanted to do some more theater, is that right? Yeah, yeah, I'd love to do that. And I would love, and I would love to do some more sort of acting. I just haven't, I just haven't felt like, I don't know, it's a whole different subject about, I've enjoyed playing characters that aren't that charactery, for lack of a better term.

I kind of got turned off to watching actors act, so I kind of like playing the straight man and the talent in doing less. But now I'm starting to think. I might want to take on some other characters and sort of do bigger, broader acting swings. I think you've earned the right to risk it. Yes. It's not a question of risk or trusting talent.

It's just a question of not. The roles that I've been attracted to, I would be overplaying them if I did, if I ran instead of walked. Jason, I can't see you overplaying anything. To be honest with you. Thank you. Because your taste,

is exquisite. Well, you are very kind. Oh, you guys have got that. Thank you. And that is what is so good about you. So trust yourself a bit more than you do. Maybe we should have a private session. Yeah, you know.

I would fuck, I'd pay handsomely just to be a little bit of it and be a part of it. I'd love to have a session with Brian and Jason. Oh my God, Sean, how fun with that. We're kind of halfway there. I know we're going to figure it out. God, Jason, this is what you need. You need a mentor.

You didn't even fucking know. know it. Yeah. Brian, you have, you've mentored us all with your talent for so many years. We are so grateful for you coming on here. We're so, we wish you just continued success and a lot of success with Glenn Roth in your film that you've directed. Congratulations.

I can't wait to see it. Brian Cox, you are an absolute legend in Icon and thank you for being part of our show today. Well, this was an absolute, I mean, this is an honor, to be honest, to talk to you three guys of such incredible and talent. It's an honor. It's been an honor. So thank you, darling. There we go. Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Brian. Thank you, buddy. Thanks, Brian. Thank you, Brian. The great Brian Cox. See you, bye, pal. Amazing. Have a good day. Take care. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye. Wait, you know what? First of all, he's an absolute delight. Like, I had no idea. He was so funny and, like, breezy, you know, like light and breezy. I had the opportunity. I said this to Brian. He came to a, uh, uh, he came to a, uh, a screening of our film a few months ago, and I got to talk to him afterwards, and he went out, like 30 years ago, he was friends with somebody I knew, and I was out here as one of my first times in California,

and he said, we're going to go by Brian Cox's renting house in the Hollywood Hills, and we're going to go watch the Oscars. At his house? At his house? Okay. That he was renting. So I went up, it was like one of my first time ever,

like, doing that thing, you know, you've come from not here, and you go up into the Hollywood Hills, to a house and you're like, oh my God, look at the lights and everything. And then you go in and here's this guy who's this working actor, acclaimed working actor, and going to his house, and I was about, you know, 25, and going into his house and just being, and he was, you know, just sort of blown away,

not knowing what to say and, you know, and all you want to do is get a job. And he was so kind and so gracious. I was just some stupid-ass kid. I'm not much different now, but he was, I'm some stupid-ass kid. And he was so welcoming and generous and made me feel. And I was like, what a fucking great dude.

Yeah, you can tell. Yeah. Why don't you, you should have told him that story? Because I didn't want to cry. Oh, Will. Yeah. Okay. Or have him say, no recollection.

Yeah, I don't. Turn the tables on us. Did I? No, it doesn't sound like me. Doesn't sound like me. Willie, you need to do, what about you doing theater too? I think Jason would be fucking brilliant. to play, and so with you.

I don't know if I have the character for it. Or the voice. Or the voice. You've got to reach the back row with your pipes. Yeah, you got to reach the Italian guy in the back. You know, you always want you're like, oh, whatever you do, do not take the Lessington bus and then go across out and then cross back, like a Neil Simon play, you know what I mean? Well, he was delightful.

I love that guy. He is a delight. He really, really was. What a great, great actor. What a great career. My God. And it doesn't sound like he's going to slow down at all. No.

Waiting for the next gig. Yeah. And I love that he's doing like radio plays and it's just, ah, God, he just does. Kind of does it all. The good way, Sean is just making us hang here, making us come up with a buy. You know, Sean is coming. I got one. I got one that may or may not have just popped up.

Oh. Yeah. Oh, you know, wait, Sean, I have one. Wait, no, sorry, I have one. Oh, okay. What's yours? What's yours? Well, you know, it was great.

And what a great simple name to remember. You know, if you can't remember his name, you could always recall. Oh, yeah. What's his name? What's his name? Bye in Cox. Bye. Wait, I don't get that.

I still don't get it. Because Bennett said it to all of us and it said, buy in Cox. It says Bayern Cox. I still don't get it. What is it? Instead of Brian, Bayern, Bayern. Oh. So dumb.

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