Succession's Kieran Culkin Talks Roman Blowing Up On Alexander Skarsg?rd's Matsson, And What The Character Needs After Logan's Death
Spoilers below for the latest episode of HBO’s Succession, so be warned if you haven’t yet made the trip to Norway.
We’ve reached the halfway point in Succession’s streamable fourth and final season, but the specter of Logan Roy definitely hasn’t been vanquished from the HBO hit, as Brian Cox’s patriarch is still a major point of contention for the Roy siblings on their quest to sell most of the company off. But nothing is ever so easy for these characters, even when it seems like it, as evidenced by the episode “Kill List.” Kieran Culkin’s Roman laid out a venomous rant that appeared to blow up the deal with Alexander Skarsg?rd's quietly ruthless Lukas Matsson, until it didn’t, as it now looks like the baby brother’s emotional outburst was the perfect move to secure the buyout, even if ATN is (currently) part of the deal.
While Succession fans could no doubt spend a while just talking about the business end of what went down on top of that Scandinavian mountain, the best part of the episode in my eyes was easily Roman wholeheartedly unburdening himself via a rage-filled dressing-down of Skarsg?rd's power-hungry tech king Matsson. Any rant that ends with someone saying “Yeah, I fucking hate you,” with a hard-G on the F-bomb, well, it’s one for the ages. And Culkin talked about bringing that scene to life for the latest ep of HBO’s Succession Podcast. When host Kara Swisher brought up the character going over the edge in a way that Matsson likely viewed as a business-minded ploy, the actor answered by saying:
Right, which, you know, Roman might like to say after the fact that it was [a play]. Yeah, he's sort of emotionally unhinged there, I believe. I think that's just the moment when he loses it, and he decides he's not going to play business anymore. 'I'll let the feelings come out.' It's not a move, I think. In that moment, it's not. It's just honesty and how he's feeling, and all the anger about his dad comes out at one person who does, in my opinion, deserve that.
It was a breath of mountain-fresh air for Roman to take the offensive and get the spotlight in Episode 405, with the previous installment hinging largely on the “underlined or crossed-out” debate surrounding Kendall’s name in Logan’s non-legalized will. Granted, that required Culkin to deal with even more dark states of mind to sink into ahead of filming, to the point where the actor admitted he wasn’t even fully cognizant of the gorgeous settings they were filming in as the cameras were rolling, and only took the time to appreciate things in between set-ups.
But for all that Roman was so hardcore and in-the-moment when calling out Matsson for forcing the overseas face-to-face as a power move, rather than respectfully giving the family time to grieve before demanding the next move be made in the buyout talks, the character is still in something of a freefall, according to Kieran Culkin. He hasn't quite found his footing in a post-Logan world, and the actor says it's very important for Roman to have a specific task at hand as a way to avoid pitfalling. (Now I kinda feel bad for predicting Roman's death in Season 4.) In his words:
No, I don't think he has a bloody clue what he wants, or what he needs, or what he's doing. He's very much overwhelmed. At least, thank God, there's like a trajectory for him. That's why I sort of saw it that, sort of, 'Busy hands are happy hands.' Just taking over and taking that on is one huge thing and then trying to fuck this deal and get rid of this guy, and restructure the business a bit, is all he can think about. It's like, thank God I'm at least very busy, because I have no idea how to process these things.
Keeping oneself busy can often be the easiest way to cope with grief, even if it may not always be the healthiest reaction. In Roman's case, fooling himself into believing he'd already grieved is part of what brought him to react so strongly to Matsson, as he was still quite sensitive to every comment the GoJo founder made about their dad, even if he probably would have agreed with most of the comments under different circumstances. You know he was just fooling himself by claiming that Logan wasn't a prick.
It might seem like the easiest move for the Roy siblings to just sell off everything Logan built up in order to spend their lives in the laps of luxury. But for Kieran Culkin, it would be a nightmare for Roman to never be recognized for anything outside of being Logan's son. In his words:
I think that when the show started, Roman was in and he just got ousted. And I think that Roman saw himself as a bit more of a creative, which is why he liked being at the movie studios, throwing out ideas and things like that. And it wasn't the right fit for him. So finding his way back in and finding his voice, and realizing there's something he can do with the company and his life, has felt really good. And that's what draws him back in. Because otherwise, in his view, he's kind of just like a rich schmuck who sits at home. He's just the son of somebody important, and that's not a very nice feeling.
Now, it appears the biggest upcoming event for the Roy crew is Logan's funeral, which Brian Cox himself actually filmed for, as a way to throw onlookers off of predicting who died. Of course, with this season take place across one day per episode, it's hard to tell exactly when that funeral will fall, and whether or not we'll get more information about Logan's past, specifically about his late sister Rose.
But all episodes are available to stream with an HBO Max subscription, with new episodes airing linearly on Sunday nights at 9:00 p.m. ET.
