{"id":562903,"date":"2026-04-03T22:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T22:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/562903\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T22:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T22:01:10","slug":"a-history-of-brian-cox-saying-slightly-mean-things-about-celebrities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/562903\/","title":{"rendered":"A History of Brian Cox Saying Slightly Mean Things About Celebrities"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt\u2019s no secret that Brian Cox<\/a> has been pretty unfiltered in recent years. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe actor has unloaded on several Hollywood stars in media interviews and in his autobiography \u2014 including his Succession co-star Jeremy Strong. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn a new interview The Times UK<\/a>, Cox added a couple more \u2014 as well as defended his frankness. <\/p>\n

\n\tAsked if all his griping about fellow Hollywood talents has cost him anything, personally or career-wise, Cox replied, \u201cWell, I don\u2019t know yet if it\u2019s caused me problems. I mean, my wife keeps saying, \u2018Brian, be careful. Brian, be careful.\u2019 I think, \u2018Fuck it, I don\u2019t want to be careful any more! I\u2019ll be 80 this year. Fuck it! I\u2019m gonna say what I want to say.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019re just reading this for the tea, so here it is:<\/p>\n

\n\tKevin Spacey<\/a>: \u201cA stupid, stupid man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJohnny Depp<\/a>: Cox said he turned down a role in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise because he didn\u2019t want to work with the actor, whom he called \u201cso overblown, so overrated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEdward Norton<\/a>: \u201cA pain in the arse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGary Oldman<\/a>: Cox worked with the Slow Horses star on the Winston Churchill biopic Darkest Hour, for which Oldman won an Oscar for best actor. Cox called Oldman\u2019s performance \u201ccobblers\u201d (Scottish slang for \u201cnonsense\u201d) and \u201ca crowd-pleasing farrago\u201d (meaning a \u201cmishmash\u201d). <\/p>\n

\n\tIan McKellen<\/a>: Cox was relatively polite \u2014 by his standards \u2014 merely saying the rather beloved Lord of the Rings actor\u2019s performances are \u201cnot to my taste.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tMargot Robbie in Wuthering Heights: \u201cMargot Robbie is far too beautiful for that role.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tQuentin Tarantino<\/a>: \u201cMeretricious\u201d (defined as \u201capparently attractive but having in reality no value or integrity\u201d). Cox added, \u201c[When directing] I like to honor the actor\u2019s performance. With a Quentin Tarantino film, what you see is all Quentin Tarantino.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tDonald Trump: \u201cTrump doesn\u2019t give a shit about the people. He\u2019s only interested in the oil [in Iran]. There\u2019s just sheer fucking greed motivating him, nothing else. The idea he\u2019s liberating people is a nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJeremy Strong. Cox has called Strong\u2019s method acting \u201cfucking annoying.\u201d And said: \u201cI don\u2019t hold a lot of the American shit, having to have a religious experience every time you play a part. It\u2019s crap. The thing about Jeremy\u2019s approach is it works in terms of what comes out the other end. My problem \u2014 and, it\u2019s not a problem, I don\u2019t have a problem with Jeremy because he\u2019s delightful. \u2026 He\u2019s an extraordinary dad. He\u2019s a pretty unique individual. But, he does get obsessed with the work. And I worry about what it does to him, because if you can\u2019t separate yourself \u2014 because you\u2019re dealing with all of this material every day. You can\u2019t live in it. Eventually, you get worn out.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tIn his new interview, Cox noted, \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t(For his part, Strong has said he took his\u00a0Succession\u00a0character \u201cas seriously as I take my own life\u201d and expressed some dismay about his co-star\u2019s criticism. \u201cI had a safe forum to share those things \u2014 and ultimately that experience was put in doubt.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\n\tIronically, Cox added that he just filmed a new series of ads for McDonald\u2019s Happy Meals (he\u2019s done voiceover ads for the company previously, as well). <\/p>\n

\n\tCox is currently promoting his new film, Glenrothan, which he directed. <\/p>\n

\n\tAuthor\u2019s Note: This story originally cited the Times UK article which portrayed many of these quotes from Cox as if they were from a new interview. According to Cox\u2019s representatives, several quotes were actually pulled from Cox\u2019s 2022 autobiography, Putting the Rabbit in the Hat, and other sources. This story has been updated to reflect this information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s no secret that Brian Cox has been pretty unfiltered in recent years. The actor has unloaded on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[60847,125975,88,21538,63122,32394,157236,59523],"class_list":{"0":"post-562903","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-brian-cox","9":"tag-edward-norton","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-gary-oldman","12":"tag-ian-mckellen","13":"tag-johnny-depp","14":"tag-kevin-spacey","15":"tag-quentin-tarantino"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}