{"id":583324,"date":"2026-04-03T17:47:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T17:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/583324\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T17:47:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T17:47:15","slug":"brian-cox-lets-rip-on-trump-farage-johnny-depp-and-sex-at-79","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/583324\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Cox lets rip on Trump, Farage, Johnny Depp and sex at 79"},"content":{"rendered":"

Playing the irascible media patriarch Logan Roy in HBO\u2019s hit Succession<\/a> is still a challenge for actor Brian Cox. Sure, the show ended three years ago but in some ways Logan Roy is still here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, before Succession I never used to swear\u2026 Now I swear all the f***ing time!\u201d Cox declares.<\/p>\n

There are other echoes. When Cox arrives for our meeting he is stressed in quite a Roy-like way. An assistant has placed a function in Stoke Newington, north London, in his diary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to go to Stoke Newington so I\u2019ve just said, \u2018F*** off. I\u2019m not coming!\u2019\u201d he reports.<\/p>\n

\"maho20230223-001\"\u201cMy wife has too many friends. At my age I\u2019m trying to get rid of them\u201dmarc hom\/Trunk archive<\/p>\n

And before that he had a run-in with a rep from fast-food giant McDonald\u2019s. Cox is the voice of McDonald\u2019s in America and they recently launched the giveaway of a plush toy called a Squishmallow (you get one with a child\u2019s Happy Meal).<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, I\u2019ve never struggled with ads. It\u2019s a way of earning a living,\u201d he asserts.<\/p>\n

Just don\u2019t tell the man who has played King Lear, Hannibal Lecktor (as the killer is named in the film Manhunter) and Logan Roy that his enunciation makes it unclear if he\u2019s saying \u201cmellow\u201d or \u201cmallow\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a row,\u201d he says solemnly. \u201cI said, \u2018For f***\u2019s sake, it\u2019s mallow. I\u2019ve just done a whole day of ads saying Squishmallows!\u2019\u200a\u201d<\/p>\n

The thing is, lots of people like these residual anger-management issues. Once upon a time appreciative fans would simply have asked for an autograph. These days they insist on a video of Cox telling them to f*** off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do mourn when people didn\u2019t know who I was,\u201d he says. \u201cNow the whole f***ing world knows who I am. And it\u2019s a very hard thing to deal with. I\u2019m not mad about it. I really am not\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\"77thWith his wife, Nicole Ansari-Cox, at the Golden Globes, 2020Getty images<\/p>\n

\""Succession"With Jeremy Strong in Succession. Cox called his method acting \u201cannoying\u201d and \u201cAmerican shit\u201dShutterstock<\/p>\n

We meet in a boardroom at his PR firm in central London. There\u2019s a long table loaded with coffee and snacks. At one end there\u2019s a flip chart as though Cousin Greg is due to make a presentation on cruises and theme parks. Cox doesn\u2019t like the coffee on offer and someone is dispatched to get a latte. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen a human being move down a flight of stairs so quickly.<\/p>\n

Succession made him a household name in his early seventies but Cox had already enjoyed a pretty extraordinary career. After being brought up in Fifties Dundee by older sisters (his shopkeeper father died when he was eight; his mother had acute mental health issues) he got a job as what he calls a \u201cfactotum\u201d at the town\u2019s repertory theatre aged 14 (his first role was playing a man in his forties when he was 15).<\/p>\n

It was a scholarship to the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art (Lamda) that changed Cox\u2019s life. He was still a teenager when Sir Laurence Olivier asked to audition him (Olivier was the director of the National Theatre) and soon learnt how strangely people can behave around great actors when Princess Margaret put her hand inside his shirt to fondle his nipple backstage at London\u2019s Royal Court Theatre in 1969. Cox later appeared opposite Olivier in King Lear and went on to win two Olivier awards for his stage work.<\/p>\n

But watch any classic TV from the Sixties onwards and there are abundant \u201cWait, isn\u2019t that Brian Cox?\u201d moments too: Z-Cars, Inspector Morse, Red Dwarf, Sharpe, Frasier, he was in them all. His film breakthrough was in the seminal Scottish independence text Braveheart in 1995 and since then he\u2019s been in everything from the Jason Bourne series of thrillers to Adaptation and even 2011\u2019s Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Cox played a proto-Logan Roy character, applying brutal management techniques to a monkey sanctuary).<\/p>\n

Not \u201cHarry f***ing Potter\u201d though, he sniffs in his 2021 memoir Putting the Rabbit in the Hat (\u201cBefore the magician pulls the rabbit out he\u2019s got to get the f***er in,\u201d he explains). All his pals were in it but he never got the call.<\/p>\n

\"CHURCHILLIn 2017\u2019s Churchill. Cox called Gary Oldman\u2019s Oscar-winning performance as Churchill in Darkest Hour \u201ccobblers\u201d and \u201ca crowd-pleasing farrago\u201dAlamy<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s also a danger to doing the big franchises, he pointed out. The work is well paid but unchallenging, repetitive. Cox turned down the role of the governor in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise (Jonathan Pryce played him), relieved not to work alongside Johnny Depp who he thinks is \u201cso overblown, so overrated\u201d.<\/p>\n

Latterly, that is what Cox has become known for. When the 79-year-old Scot is discussing the thespian craft, all luvvie protocols are suspended. He states his preferences with King Lear-like vigour.<\/p>\n

Edward Norton? \u201cA pain in the arse.\u201d Kevin Spacey? \u201cA stupid, stupid man.\u201d Ian McKellen\u2019s acting? \u201cNot to my taste.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quentin Tarantino? \u2018Meretricious\u2019<\/p>\n

He can be very decided on writers and directors too: Tarantino (\u201cmeretricious\u201d); Michael Caton-Jones (\u201ca complete arsehole\u201d); David Hare (a \u201csee you next Tuesday\u201d).<\/p>\n

Cox will not hold back if he feels the \u201cwork\u201d is being compromised for public taste. In 2017 he played the lead in the biopic Churchill while Gary Oldman portrayed the wartime PM in a film called Darkest Hour released later the same year. Oldman won a best actor Oscar for his performance. Cox called it \u201ccobblers\u201d and \u201ca crowd-pleasing farrago\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"BrianIn Shades of Greene, 1975Getty images<\/p>\n

Has being so blunt lost you friends or caused you problems?<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I don\u2019t know yet if it\u2019s caused me problems,\u201d he chuckles. \u201cI mean, my wife keeps saying, \u2018Brian, be careful. Brian, be careful.\u2019 I think, \u2018F*** it, I don\u2019t want to be careful any more! I\u2019ll be 80 this year. F*** it! I\u2019m gonna say what I want to say.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Cox also got into hot water for criticising the \u201cmethod acting\u201d of his Succession co-star Jeremy Strong (he played Kendall Roy), calling it \u201cf***ing annoying\u201d and \u201cAmerican shit\u201d. Strong was reportedly inspired by Daniel Day-Lewis (Strong was once his personal assistant), who in turn got drawn into the debate at the end of last year. Day-Lewis advised Cox to get off his \u201csoapbox\u201d and to make contact to discuss it.<\/p>\n

Did he reach out to Day-Lewis?<\/p>\n

\u2018Children don\u2019t say, \u201cWhat\u2019s my motivation?\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I haven\u2019t reached out because it\u2019s got nothing to do with Dan Day-Lewis,\u201d he grumps. \u201cDan Day-Lewis, he\u2019s discreet. He never upsets it [the filming process]. He\u2019s never, sort of\u2026 I don\u2019t want to go on about Jeremy, because I\u2019ve got into a lot of problems and he\u2019s begged me to stop talking about him. He\u2019s a good actor, Jeremy. He\u2019s a wonderful actor. It\u2019s just all the bollocks that goes with it. You watch children \u2014 they don\u2019t say, \u2018What\u2019s my motivation?\u2019 They just do it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Cox gets stroppy with actors who don\u2019t act from \u201cwithin\u201d and with directors who don\u2019t respect \u201cthe text\u201d, even with underperforming audiences. (He once spotted an audience member in a New York theatre reading his programme and snatched it out of his hand. The audience member threatened to sue.)<\/p>\n

\"BrianWalking the runway at the 2011 Dressed To Kilt benefit show with actors Chris Noth and Kiefer SutherlandAP<\/p>\n

Today Cox will even go \u201cfull Dundee\u201d on a film he hasn\u2019t even seen. I know Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon\u2019s 1939 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights is a favourite of his and wondered what he made of the new one starring Margot Robbie.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200a\u2018Keith Cliff! It\u2019s me, Cathy!\u2019\u200a\u201d he declaims suddenly in a cod Australian accent (Robbie was once in the Australian soap Neighbours). \u201c\u2018How ya doing, Keith? Awright?\u2019 \u2018Yeah, I\u2019m awright!\u2019\u200a\u201d<\/p>\n

Cox enjoys a hearty chuckle before composing himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cMargot Robbie is far too beautiful for that role. I mean, I think there should be something more of the Gypsy about her but it\u2019s wrong of me to judge. It may be a brilliant film.\u201d<\/p>\n

Actors who are too beautiful or who bring their \u201cbollocks\u201d to the set are live issues. We are meeting to discuss Cox\u2019s own film directing debut. The film is called Glenrothan and thematically it bears some relation to Succession: two Scottish brothers, Sandy (Cox) and Donal (Alan Cumming), bear the scars of their overbearing father as they battle over the family whisky business.<\/p>\n

Given his strong views, was it daunting to direct?<\/p>\n

\"Glenrothan\"With Alan Cumming in Glenrothanbrodie productions<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, because I realised that I\u2019m more egalitarian than a lot of directors, the kind who call themselves visionaries,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

He gives the example of Quentin Tarantino. \u201cI like to honour the actor\u2019s performance. With a Quentin Tarantino film, what you see is all Quentin Tarantino. That\u2019s not me. I don\u2019t want to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glenrothan, he says, is his love letter to Scotland. After leaving for Lamda when he was 17, Cox caught a tide of rising social mobility epitomised by films such as Albert Finney\u2019s Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and John Osborne\u2019s play Look Back in Anger.<\/p>\n

\u2018Scotland doesn\u2019t get what it deserves\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were 21 cinemas in Dundee and I went to all of them to see American films which \u2014 whether the people were crooked or bent \u2014 showed them in a largely egalitarian society,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

This early part of his life, he says, was all about looking outward, lifting himself up through ambition. However, looking back, he feels enraged by the injustices of history.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way people treat Scotland, you know, it\u2019s very beautiful and all that, but what we\u2019ve done intellectually \u2014 we created television, the telephone, advances in medicine \u2014 it\u2019s extraordinary. But we\u2019re so low graded and because of that we don\u2019t get what we deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cox has studied his family history closely. He is actually 80 per cent Irish. His forebears arrived in Dundee after the 19th-century potato famine and found work digging canals or spinning jute. The famine was a genocide the effects of which have never been fully acknowledged, he says. The Celts have been \u201ctraduced\u201d and often treated little better than \u201cslaves\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Glenrothan\"Cox directing GlenrothanGraeme Hunter Pictures<\/p>\n

\u201cIreland was always a problem to them [the English], because we just had a different culture,\u201d he goes on. \u201cThat\u2019s why, you know, after what happened in Ireland, the whole rise of the IRA was completely understandable.\u201d<\/p>\n

It must be said Glenrothan is not an angry film. There are lovely lochs and forests and folk musicians in cosy pubs. A chocolate-box vision of Scotland then, but Cox\u2019s disaffection with UK politics is very real. In the Nineties he did ads for New Labour but fell out with the party over the 2003 Iraq war. However, he remains friendly with former PM Gordon Brown<\/a> and still clearly resents how the Tony Blair<\/a>\/Brown partnership played out.<\/p>\n

Gordon Brown is \u2018the jolliest man I know\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were both John Smith\u2019s boys,\u201d he says, recalling the former leader of the Labour party, who died in 1994. \u201cThe deal was, Tony would lead from the front and Gordon would do all the donkey work, with Gordon eventually getting his chance \u2014 though I felt it should have been the other way around. I left because of Blair\u2019s hubris and what went on with him and Bush and weapons of mass destruction; all those lies that came out and people going along with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown eventually became PM in 2007. He sought Cox\u2019s advice when people advised him to smile more. Cox\u2019s counsel? \u201cBe yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause he is the jolliest man I know,\u201d claims Cox. \u201cHe\u2019s so jolly!\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe not right now he isn\u2019t. The recent publication of email correspondence between convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and former US ambassador Peter Mandelson mentions Gordon Brown in most unflattering terms. Despite serving as Brown\u2019s business secretary, Mandelson suggested to Epstein that his boss \u201cneeds to be confined asap to a sanitorium\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018I never trusted Mandelson\u2019<\/p>\n

Brown has been helping the UK police with their investigation into Mandelson\u2019s wider dealings with the convicted paedophile.<\/p>\n

Has Cox spoken to Brown about this?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I never trusted Mandelson<\/a>. During the 1997 election he was going on about how we have to \u2018get\u2019 John Major. I said, \u2018We don\u2019t need to do that, Peter. There\u2019s no need to be horrible to John Major. He\u2019s not a bad man. Actually, he\u2019s an extremely nice man, you know?\u2019 I mean, you can disagree with his politics, but there\u2019s nothing evil about John Major. They were making him the bogey man and I really didn\u2019t like that. I don\u2019t like when they do that. I never trusted Mandelson. I never knew where he was coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n

After becoming disillusioned with Labour, Cox backed the Scottish National Party and was close to former SNP leader Alex Salmond<\/a> (he died in 2024). Salmond\u2019s deputy and longtime ally was Nicola Sturgeon<\/a> whose estranged husband Peter Murrell (the SNP\u2019s former chief executive) will stand trial next year, accused of embezzlement of \u00a3460,000 of party funds.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Cox suspects there is mischief afoot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, he [Murrell] may have done it, I don\u2019t know, but they didn\u2019t like Nicola and they were determined to get her,\u201d he says. \u201cI think there\u2019s some dubious legality about the whole thing. I don\u2019t know what it is, but it smells to high heaven and always has done.\u201d<\/p>\n

You think the UK government is trying to stitch up Nicola Sturgeon?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, because they don\u2019t want us. You know, they don\u2019t. I mean, they\u2019re very active about not wanting an independent [Scotland].\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018My relationship with Scotland is complicated\u2019<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a scene in Glenrothan where Donal\u2019s mother warns him about his homeland. Scotland might be beautiful but it\u2019s a trap, she says. \u201cFirst chance you get, go and never look back,\u201d she advises.<\/p>\n

Is that how Cox felt?<\/p>\n

\u201cMy relationship with Scotland is complicated,\u201d he sighs. \u201cIt\u2019s about being a Celt and feeling displaced.\u201d<\/p>\n

I know he has homes in London and New York. Does he have a place in Dundee?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I find Dundee difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some people take a dim view of Scottish celebs phoning in their Caledonian patriotism. Rod Stewart and Sean Connery spring to mind. Does he understand that?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s one of the things that is a problem,\u201d he agrees. \u201cI go back to Scotland as much as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cox served two terms as rector of Dundee University between 2010-16 and regularly visits his niece in Perthshire.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a complicated relationship and pretty hard to describe,\u201d he continues. \u201cActually, the poverty is very hard to take. To see the heroin addiction, to see where it\u2019s got to\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t seem to get away from questions of nationhood. Outside the meeting room there are pops and booms coming from a wall-mounted TV. Tehran is in flames. Cox\u2019s wife, the actor Nicole Ansari-Cox, is of German\/Iranian descent (she\u2019s in Glenrothan too). Is her family OK?<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d he says, though she gets annoyed with him discussing Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe thinks I\u2019m very unsympathetic about Iran. I\u2019m not, but I do appear to be at times, because it\u2019s such a complicated issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"'Succession'In Succession with Matthew Macfadyen. \u201cFavourite Succession line? \u2018I love you but you are not serious people\u2019\u201dshutterstock<\/p>\n

But with a slurp of coffee Cox soon warms to his theme.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump doesn\u2019t give a shit about the people. He\u2019s only interested in the oil. There\u2019s just sheer f***ing greed motivating him, nothing else. The idea he\u2019s liberating people is a nonsense. And it\u2019s that greed that sort of permeates through society. I find at my age, I just go, \u2018Are we going to get any better?\u2019 You\u2019ve seen great times in our country. And then you go, it\u2019s never been worse, with Farage and that shit that he comes out with on a constant level. And there he was, you know, at his school doing Hitler impressions and all that. I find that we\u2019re moving in a direction I can\u2019t understand. Why won\u2019t people want to oppose it?\u201d<\/p>\n

He and Ansari-Cox first met after she saw him as King Lear in Hamburg in 1990. She was 23, he was 44, and she was so impressed she saw the play eight times. They chatted at an after-party but only became a couple after a chance meeting in New York eight years later.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re about to have our silver wedding,\u201d he smiles.<\/p>\n

\u2018I was making my own decisions at eight years old\u2019<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a real milestone because Cox has twice been married twice before. First to Lilian Monroe-Carr when he was 20 (it lasted two years) and then to actor Caroline Burt for 18 years (she left him in 1986). He admits he wasn\u2019t a good husband. He cheated and, when he and Burt had children (a daughter, Margaret, and the actor Alan Cox), wasn\u2019t a very good dad.<\/p>\n

But after Burt he went into therapy and realised he\u2019d never really opened up or been \u201cpresent\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore recently I\u2019ve realised how free I was,\u201d he says now. \u201cAt eight years old [when his father died] I was making my own decisions. There was freedom to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyway, he is obviously very happy now. With his white hair and dark eyebrows there\u2019s something of the badger about him. And Cox\u2019s weathered face is as foreboding as an Easter Island statue. However, he beams when talking about his wife.<\/p>\n

Mind you, 22 years is quite an age gap (before Ansari-Cox, he was in a relationship with a woman 26 years his junior, 20-year-old actress Siri Neal). Does she keep him on his toes?<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s considerable, she is considerable. She\u2019s one of the most generous and caring people. The problem with Nicole, and we discuss this, is she\u2019s got too many friends. At my age I\u2019m trying to get rid of them. Well, most of mine are dying off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ansari-Cox does sound like a straight-shooter. She appeared briefly in the penultimate episode of Succession as a mistress at Logan Roy\u2019s funeral. However she has also voiced concerns about why women are attracted to men like Roy. \u201cIt worries me that women find the vile toxic bully Logan Roy sexy. It totally puts me off,\u201d she said last year.<\/p>\n

Why do women like you telling them to eff off?<\/p>\n

\"NINTCHDBPICT000000174900\"As Hannibal Lecktor in Manhunter<\/p>\n

\u2018In America, they don\u2019t like women\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something that women should take up among themselves,\u201d chuckles Cox. \u201cI think it\u2019s an economic thing. In America they don\u2019t like women. They won\u2019t let a woman be president, not in the foreseeable future. Look what happened to Hillary Clinton. The patriarchy is so invasive and so insidious, it\u2019s hard to throw it off. I think the patriarchy is a f***ing mess, and it\u2019s the patriarchy that got us into the position that we\u2019re in at the moment, and we don\u2019t learn the lessons. I say, give it over to the women.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has credited couples therapy with maintaining his marriage (they have two sons, Orson, 24, and Torin, 21), though Ansari-Cox has mentioned they went through four years of \u201cpure hell\u201d and in 2024 she told reporters: \u201cI\u2019ve supported him for 25 years and it\u2019s my time now. Otherwise I\u2019d leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNicole gave up a lot for me. It was tricky for her, but she gave up a lot, and I feel that she needs to be honoured,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

They keep separate bedrooms at their two American homes, one in Brooklyn, the other in upstate New York. And in the UK they maintain completely separate homes nine minutes\u2019 walk apart in Primrose Hill, north London.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy keeping things separate, we are responsible for our own mess,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt\u2019s as simple as that. Her space is very important for her and my space is very important for me. I think if we\u2019re thrown together we feel locked together and that\u2019s not a good creative relationship\u2026 You should be free.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m not exactly poor\u2019<\/p>\n

Logan Roy was an avaricious ball-breaking Dundonian often disappointed by his children.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, \u2018I love you but you are not serious people,\u2019 is my favourite line in the whole show,\u201d agrees Cox.<\/p>\n

Has he ever been tempted to say that to his own kids, given it\u2019s perhaps hard for them to understand where he came from?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think one has to be careful with that,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s all very well living the life I\u2019ve lived. But you can\u2019t throw it in people\u2019s faces. I think my boys are sensitive. They\u2019re very aware that I\u2019ve done quite well. I\u2019m not exactly poor. But they want to feel free, not burdened by inherited wealth. And I completely respect that. I completely admire it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For his 80th in June he\u2019ll throw a party. Could it be like the scene in Succession where Logan Roy watches as the youngsters make oinking noises while hunting for sausages on the floor?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, but I think that was some of the most incredible writing on TV,\u201d he says, smiling.<\/p>\n

Cox doesn\u2019t come across like an 80-year-old. He and Cumming even have a scrap in Glenrothan, rolling around on a lawn after a disagreement. Impressive. How does he stay in shape?<\/p>\n

\u201cGym three times a week,\u201d he says, patting his modest tummy. \u201cYou really have to be responsible for your body, because it\u2019s dying. You can\u2019t give in to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Shetland\"Cox and Douglas Henshall in Shetland, 2014BBC<\/p>\n

His greatest fear is dementia<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t drink much but for the past 30 years has relaxed with an evening spliff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell earned. Pre-rolled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does he have a dealer in London?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, he\u2019s in Scotland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cox says he will never retire, though his greatest fear is dementia.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, you know, there\u2019s all kinds of protocols I can take,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m very careful about it, because I need to learn my lines to keep working.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seven years ago he was cast as Lyndon B Johnson in a Broadway production of The Great Society. He learnt 160 pages of dialogue-heavy script in three weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouldn\u2019t do that now,\u201d he laments.<\/p>\n

To ward off cognitive decline he uses an inhaler he says was invented by Elon Musk. Taken nasally, some drugs are thought to reduce amyloid plaque build-up in the brain (recognised as a cause of dementia), and to enhance sleep Cox chews gummies called Pillow Talk.<\/p>\n

Cox perks up talking about another brand (he can\u2019t remember the name) he uses for enhancing his erections.<\/p>\n

\u2018Wealth is a double-edged sword\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does help that incredibly,\u201d says Cox. \u201cOh yeah, it\u2019s amazing. I don\u2019t live on them all the time, but I do take them on occasion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any other 80-year-old actor would feel free to enjoy their success. But Brian Cox is very aware of where he came from. Last year he told a journalist he was embarrassed by his wealth. Is that still true?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be hypocritical of me to pretend I didn\u2019t enjoy it but it\u2019s a double-edged sword. I think it\u2019s a feeling of not being worthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spectre of Logan Roy looms again. Not the table-thumping deal-maker who died in the toilet of his private jet (Cox says he will die in Scotland). It\u2019s just that both suffered the vertigo of starting at the bottom and reaching the top.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people who start off meaning to honour their backgrounds but they end up getting too successful or with too much money and it just slips away from them,\u201d he says. \u201cLogan became the great man he was, but he wasn\u2019t the man he wanted to be. Who can\u2019t take a lesson from that?\u201d <\/p>\n

Glenrothan is in cinemas from April 17<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Playing the irascible media patriarch Logan Roy in HBO\u2019s hit Succession is still a challenge for actor Brian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-583324","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}