Just in case you’re wondering, HBO definitely didn’t cheap out on “Succession” props.
TheWrap asked Nicholas Braun, who plays Cousin Greg on the media-empire drama, what exactly is on those damning papers, IRL, that his character saved from Tom’s (Matthew Macfadyen) fire pit. (You know, the subsection of the ones Greg first saved from Waystar Royco’s shredders.)
Now, we know — basically — what the papers say in “Succession” world, but what is actually printed on the props?
“They printed out — and I think they mocked them up — they were claims. Abuse or sexual harassment or those types of things,” Braun said. “I can’t remember the details, but they were specific to the cruise situation.”
Much like the show’s thorough writers and its property department, nothing the real Braun did with the fake files was haphazard.
“When I was shredding documents, I wanted to make sure things looked like they were worth shredding,” he told us. “I’m very much focused on that whenever I have to have to a prop. Because I never know when a paper is gonna get seen, or maybe they’re gonna zoom in for a close-up with the way that our show shoots. You just can’t risk that not being a real thing, whatever’s on those pages.”
Whatever’s on those pages is Greg’s insurance policy. If you’re wondering why the character hasn’t taken the easy way out of this whole mess by bailing on Waystar Royco while his $250 million future inheritance from his grandpa — Logan’s (Brian Cox) brother — collects interest, well, we asked Braun that too.
“Greg comes from a broken-up family. His father’s not around, his mother feels far away — the more we’ve shot the show, the mother feels that she’s not so important of a figure,” he said. “And the grandfather is an a–hole. There’s no connection with him, like, no actual connection.”
“The money would be great, but I sort of think Greg went to a place of ‘But what would I do with it?’ And I guess I’d just be waiting around for him to die so I would have all this money, and then what?” Braun continued. “The Roy family gives him– there’s enough good moments with these people that I think he feels like he’s part of a clan. He’s part of a tribe, and Logan, at times, is a father figure and gives him a pat on the back — that’s something he’s never really had from a man.”
Admit it — you never thought Cousin Greg would be so deep, did you? There’s more…
“And there’s adversity here that he’s overcoming. He’s able to be ambitious and it’s working, somewhat, sometimes it’s not. He needs that stuff and it’s not just about the money. And I think he thinks Logan will take care of him financially as well,” Braun said. “So, I think he’s taking a bet on himself and he’s taking a bet on the Roys in that moment and hoping it pays off.”
Until that whole congress thing happened, that is. Bad bet, cuz.