Succession is one of the tightest written shows on television, teeming with bon mots and inspired put-downs, as well as rich (which is to say, complicated) characters. But they allow improvisation. In a new interview with British GQ, Nicholas Braun — aka the beloved Cousin Greg — reveals that the showmakers allow what they call “loose takes,” in which “the camera runs on beyond the scripted lines and improvisation is encouraged.” That’s how Braun and Kieran Culkin, aka Roman Roy, wound up getting into an improvised wrestling match that you may never see.
It happened during the Season 2 finale, during a scene where the family is aboard a yacht, debating about which one of them should be the fall guy to save the company from scandal. At one point Greg and Roman get into an argument. It doesn’t go very far. But during one “loose take,” it went very far indeed. It found Culkin jumping on Braun’s back, knocking him onto the floor. The two then proceeded to wrassle.
This, of course, never made it to air. But that’s okay, at least with Braun, who is currently one of the only people to see this tussle. “That’s kind of the freedom we all get when we’re doing these scenes,” Braun told GQ. “It’s not a one-minute take, it’s a six-minute take, so you can’t leave your headspace and everyone is sort of forced to stay super present for the entirety of the scene.”
In the meantime, can this scene please get dropped on YouTube? Or at least on the Season 2 Blu-ray? In the meantime, Season 3, which was finally able to resume filming late last year, should be live sometime in 2021, though HBO has yet to reveal when.
(Via British GQ)
