‘Succession’ Season 3, Episode 4 Interview: Adrien Brody as Josh

Warning: This publish incorporates spoilers from Season 3, Episode 4 of Succession.

When Adrien Brody was given a possibility to look on HBO’s Succession, he obtained robust encouragement from somebody near house.

“When my girlfriend came upon that I used to be supplied a task in it,” Brody tells TVLine, “she stated, ‘I don’t care what the position is! You’re doing it!’” It helped that Brody was additionally a fan of the present, and that the producers gave him “one thing fantastic to chew on,” as he places it: the position of activist investor Josh Aaronson, who tries his greatest to dealer a truce between Kendall and Logan to stabilize the way forward for Waystar. In Sunday’s episode, Kendall and Logan performed good to win Josh again over to their aspect, however a well being scare for Logan left issues unsure, as Kendall noticed Josh cozying as much as his rival Stewy. (Read our full recap here.)

Beneath, we chat with Brody about Josh’s motivations at that seashore summit — and his shocking tackle the place Josh goes from right here.

TVLINE | We don’t actually get quite a lot of background on who Josh Aaronson is. What sort of man is he, personality-wise?
We primarily based him on quite a few influences, and a few are those that I’ve encountered in my lifetime. I really feel like he’s a way more current particular person, and that’s what I needed to convey: somebody who’s way more rooted in actuality. Despite the fact that he’s up within the clouds, he’s not misplaced and much and away like others could also be at instances. He’s newer cash. That was a sign of a crass, uncultured high quality, however in immediately’s world, we now have this new era of younger individuals who have made it fairly massive and have a really totally different relationship to cash and a unique relationship of what the expectations of society are. They reside in a really totally different area. I needed to infuse a component of that, and likewise an environmental consciousness. Not that that’s his foremost trigger in life, however that he’s somebody who’s genuinely conscious of the place the world is true now, and there’s a must be acutely aware of that. In order that was all in-built inside him and one thing I attempted to convey in the way in which he dressed, how he interacted.

TVLINE | Josh nearly tries to play household therapist with Kendall and Logan, and he appears pleasant with Kendall, however this isn’t a selfless act for him. He says he’s misplaced $350 million on Waystar. How a lot of this effort is simply him making an attempt to guard his funding?
I believe most of it. I believe there isn’t a real friendship there. Look, lots of people are associates. I’ve quite a lot of associates, and when issues are actually unhealthy, I’ve much less associates, and when issues are actually nice, I’ve extra associates. And that’s life. It’s not even so calculated. While you guys are all doing nice collectively, you’ll be able to exit and drink and have enjoyable and inform battle tales, and life is sweet. You might have rather a lot in frequent. You’re associates. However is there an actual deep bond that will endure past dropping an excessive amount of cash for one or the opposite? Hell no. It’s enterprise. He’s not malicious. I didn’t attempt to convey him in that manner. I don’t really feel that he’s a whole jerk. I believe he’s simply obtained quite a lot of energy on this second, and he’s a robust particular person, and he’s used to coping with very highly effective folks. And [Kendall and Logan] are able of weak point. So he’s enjoying with the circumstances and questioning what the end result might be. And that can decide a lot of how they’re going to proceed, collectively or aside.

TVLINE | Throughout that assembly on the seashore, Logan tells Josh what he needs to listen to, however how a lot of that does Josh truly purchase? Does he sense that he’s being offered?
Yeah, I really feel like he does. He needs to consider that issues are going to come back collectively. No less than that’s how I performed it. He likes Kendall. However his conduct is erratic and never wholesome and undoubtedly doesn’t encourage a way of religion in how issues might go. Simply all of the optics of it are robust for him to come back to phrases with. So he’s simply listening. He’s figuring it out.

TVLINE | By the top of the episode, he does go over to Stewy’s aspect…
No, he doesn’t, essentially. That’s your interpretation of it.

TVLINE | Nicely, we do see them hug on the finish.
He hugged Kendall, too!

TVLINE | And Roman tells Kendall that he’s out, that he has zero religion within the management at Waystar. However you see him nonetheless enjoying either side at that time?
I see it as: Life could be very unpredictable, and there’s no simple reply. I believe right here is somebody who has all of it specified by entrance of him, and he’s actually making an attempt to evaluate what’s the greatest play. A part of it’s undoubtedly calculated and maybe a manipulation, nevertheless it’s all truthful in these circumstances. He’s making an attempt to find out the place issues are going to face and what’s greatest. He alludes to [the fact that] he likes Stewy. He’s telling them that. He’s telling them: How would you’re feeling if I take this in one other course, and what are we going to do about that? As a result of that’s additionally on the desk. He’s not fully doing a song-and-dance with the fellows to go mine no matter information he can and simply give it to anyone else. It’s for him. It’s for him to find out what’s greatest, and the place the allegiance lies, and if there’s a solution to treatment the debacle.

TVLINE | After they’re strolling again from the seashore, Logan has that well being scare the place they need to name a physician. Does that play into Josh’s calculus as effectively, realizing that Logan is probably not in the perfect of well being and is probably not in cost for very lengthy?
I believe it’s part of it, sure. I consider that rather a lot was deliberate forward, extra so to find out how Kendall takes cost of this, and the way he treats his father, truthfully. And Logan would have bother maintaining with all of that. It’s an influence play, additionally, between Logan and Josh, saying, “I can get a cart for you, outdated man,” and this man’s saying, “I’m man sufficient to tackle any of you f–kers.” That’s one other dynamic. However I believe the lengthy play is to see as he fatigues, what transpires, and what reveals itself in each males. And he will get his solutions. I believe that’s a fairly calculated transfer on Josh’s half.