
"Kendall wins but loses" - Jeremy Strong on Succession
Jeremy Strong won the 2020 Best Actor Emmy as Kendall Roy in Succession, the multi-award-winning HBO drama series about four very rich siblings behaving very badly while trying to win their father’s approval – and control of his company, a global media and entertainment empire.
With all nine episodes of Succession S3 now on Showmax, we caught up with Jeremy to find out more about the hit show, which is currently at #4 on IMDb’s Most Popular TV Show list and has a 98% critics' rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Early in Season 3, another character describes Kendall’s end-of-Season-2 public attack on Logan and Waystar Royco as “histrionic and meretricious”, and Kendall himself as a “self-regarding popinjay”. What are your views on that?
I mean, firstly, what wonderful writing. My views on that? Well, I certainly disagree with it. At the end of Season 2, when my father refers to the boy in England as an NRPI – No Real Person Involved – I see the heart of darkness with painful and final clarity, his lack of an ethical moral core, and the howling void is revealed to me.
And with that comes an almost divine summons - I’m gonna get Biblical here - to spread the light. Kendall has almost a moment of enlightenment on the way to the press conference, and realises that what he has to do – and in a sense what his whole life has been leading up to doing – is to go on a crusade to detoxify and cleanse the corporate culture.
I would call myself in Season 3 a visionary and a leader. There’s a sense of mission. There’s a messianic sense to the character now, which other people might have all kinds of feelings about. But it’s very clear to Kendall what must be done, in the sense that, in both senses of the term, here comes the sun/son.
You said recently: “I remember things that are instructive. They are like northern lights for me.” What was the most instructive description of Kendall from your earliest conversations with Jesse Armstrong about the character?
I went to visit the writers’ room in Brixton in South London about four or five years ago, when we were starting the first season, and Jesse Armstrong had written on a note card: ‘Kendall wins but loses.’ And that stayed with me, the paradox, the tension of those two things that are ever present in this character. That no matter what, when he’s on the top, he’s on the bottom. There’s a sense of both being on top of the world at this moment, but also in the ninth rung of hell.
Where does Kendall’s “muzzled anguish”, as you’ve described it, come from?
Well, I think it comes from a lifetime of being stifled, of being thwarted, from a lack of nurture and love from his parents. I think this character has a lot of rage.
The show in a way explores legacy, right? But it’s about a legacy of damage, and it’s about a legacy of abuse that is endemic in this family – and understanding that there’s a spill-over into the culture. The toxicity within this family finds its way out into the groundwater, and the groundwater is poisoned.
Where does the anguish come from? I mean, listen, I also think the anguish comes from what happens at the end of Season 1. Until then, it’s a story of ambition. The first season is a story of ascendancy and being the incumbent – and then a tragedy happens. Something that really irrevocably changes this character.
Jesse and I talked a lot about Crime and Punishment and what Dostoevsky described as this ‘monstrous pain’. That monstrous pain of the secret that Raskolnikov has, and the way that that secret separates him from the world and puts an unbridgeable chasm between him and his former self and whatever was good in him. That is a terrible anguish that is muzzled because it can’t be shared. And it has to be internalised. So that’s where that comes from.
You had a lot of intense two-hander scenes with Brian Cox in Season 2 – effectively they bracketed the season – and presumably you have more of them, at an even more intense pitch, in Season 3. How are they to film for you?
Brian is pound for pound as great an actor as has ever walked the earth. So it’s immeasurably exciting to be in the ring with him. He is a primal force, like Logan.
We have a lot to do together over the course of the canvas that we’ve been working on, and we have a lot to do together in this third season. But it’s always like we meet at the top of the mountain, so the stakes are as high as they can possibly be.
We don’t rehearse our scenes, to Brian’s [initial reluctance]. So we just meet each other in the ring, and it’s just like he’s a heavyweight, and it makes me summon every ounce of artistry and courage that I can summon.
More like this

Bea's Block S1
Join Bea and her friends as they spread kindness and build empathy through playful adventures in their community.

Nelisa Ntabeni on finding love in Married at First Sight
Nelisa Ntabeni shares the best things about being on Married at First Sight. Catch new episodes every Sunday on Mzansi Magic and Showmax.

Is HBO’s Task “the best crime thriller of the year”?
Brad Ingelsby talks Task, HBO’s gritty crime thriller with Mark Ruffalo and Thuso Mbedu. New episodes Mondays on Showmax, express from the US.

Conclave (2024)
Secrets, drama, power, and faith collide when the Pope dies, leaving Cardinal Lawrence with the task of organising the conclave to elect a new Pope.

Task S1
Mark Ruffalo plays Special Agent Tom, who leads a task force in working-class Philadelphia to put an end to a string of violent robberies.

Afrikaans series to stream on Showmax
From Donkerbos to Nêrens, Noord-Kaap, from Een Keer Om Die Son to Troukoors, here are some of the best Afrikaans shows to stream on Showmax.

Art, money and power: a blueprint for The Brutalist
Writer-director Brady Corbet, actor Adrien Brody and the production team behind The Brutalist tease out the tense relationship between art, money and power.

The Brutalist (2024)
Adrien Brody delivers an Oscar-winning performance in this period drama about a visionary architect who meets a wealthy client who changes his life.
Laugh Africa Comedy Festival S2 on Showmax
Youngins S3, coming soon to Showmax
Latest Stories

Glory awaits: From MTN8 Kings to Manchester's Crown, football's biggest stage is on Showmax

Uncover the soul of South African football with the boxset of Giants

The best Premier League signings of 2025's summer window

SA siblings’ debut film chosen for BFI London Film Festival

Simo Magwaza on his challenging role as De Klerk in Youngins

Alexander Isak a great option for LFC's attack, say former Liverpool striker David Ngog

What to watch on Showmax in September 2025

Kate and Annie take charge in Ten Pound Poms Season 2

Tshepo Miya talks about being on Married at First Sight

Vilakazi's verdict: Sundowns to "edge it" in high-stakes MTN8 semi-final

Khaki Fever and more sexy Afrikaans movies and series

Rivalries reignite in thrilling Premier League games on Showmax

5 patients you’ll meet in The Pitt Season 1
.jpg&w=3840&q=100)
Ilana Glazer delivers in Babes

Makoto on what really went down in her Married at First Sight journey

Palesa Mphaki on being Married at First Sight, her husband and more

5 new reality shows on Showmax in August

The Big 6ix on new Premier League season and their SA adventure

Will anyone stop the champs? Booth on Downs' quest for a 9th title

The curtain rises: Wembley Showdown - LFC vs Crystal Palace

Showmax Premier League weekly watchlist: 4-9 September 2025

Showmax PL kicks off football fiesta with MTN8 quarter-finals

Melissa Kape Saili tips Morocco to win WAFCON final

Must-watch trailer: upcoming Showmax reality show Vaal Riviera