Note: The following contains spoilers for “Succession” Season 4, Episode 3
“Succession” creator Jesse Armstrong and executive producer and director Mark Mylod praised Sarah Snook’s performance in “Connor’s Wedding,” the pivotal third episode of the pivotal third episode of season 4 which revolves around the Roy family’s reaction to the surprise death of Logan (Brian Cox).
When asked by “Succession” companion podcast host Kara Swisher about the moment of the episode that hits them the hardest, both Armstrong and Mylod agreed its when Siobhan (Snook) is put on the phone to say her last words to Logan.
“Up until that point, I’d been emotionally involved but I hadn’t kind of been kicked in the head in the way that I guess I’d anticipated particularly from reading the words,” Mylod said. “Sarah picks up the phone and then Jesse and I were just in pieces, I think, as I recall, watching that first take. It was just brilliant. And Sarah’s just – she has that Meryl Streep thing where you call “cut” and she goes “How was that? You want another one?” She’s immediately out of it again and it feels almost like an insult because she’s just ripped your hear out and then she’s completely back to being Sarah.”
Armstrong agreed, calling the moment “quite cathartic.”
“I don’t not want to see it. But every single time, it’s emotionally – her voice cracks and she realizes and she has the most rapid transition from this very public – its got the quality of a nightmare,” he added. “And for people who’ve had bad news, that thing, the sudden tip of the world, it happens almost more quickly for her than anyone else. And the ways that she reacts with this just wanting to deny it, and then sort of cheerful and then angry, it’s — I find it very affecting.”
In a behind-the-scenes featurette, Snook talked about her experience acting in the episode.
“Being in that frame of mind for two weeks at a time is not healthy,” she said. “I found it was better for me to pull out of it completely so that it could be fresh still because like for me staying in means that it dulls and it’s not good.”
Listen to the full podcast in the video above.
“Succession” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and is streaming on HBO Max
