'Succession' 's Dagmara Domińczyk Lost Her Father Days Before Filming Finale: 'A Gentler, Kinder Logan Roy'
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"He's been the biggest presence and force in my whole entire life for me and my sisters," said the actress, who plays communications pro Karolina Novotney on the HBO series
Warning: This article contains spoilers for season 4 of HBO's Succession.
Succession's Dagmara Domińczyk is remembering her father — who died just two days before she filmed the series finale.
Domińczyk, 46, revealed in a candid interview on Sunday what it was like to wrap a "very strange season for me" as her character of Karolina Novotney.
"Because — well, here's something I haven't said publicly," she told Rolling Stone. "But two days before we shot our very last day of Succession in New York City, our very last day, two days before I showed up to set, my own father — who is, I would say, a gentler, kinder Logan Roy, in the fact that he's been the biggest presence and force in my whole entire life for me and my sisters, this really one-of-a-kind human being — suddenly died at 69. And we found out through a phone call from a person we'd never met. He was in Poland at the time."
Related:The Cast of Succession: Everything to Know
Domińczyk's real-life loss of her "amazing, complicated father" echoed the sudden unexpected death of Succession patriarch Logan Roy (Brian Cox), whose children Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Siobhan (Sarah Snook) learned over the phone in the season's third episode their father was dying aboard a private jet en route to a business meeting.
As Domińczyk explained, she was "supposed to work the next day" after her father died, with a funeral scene shot just before his death. "I'm a very emotional person. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I had a hard time not crying on that airplane."
"This was before my dad died, we shot the [third] episode on the plane. And [director] Mark Mylod would come up and say, 'Dag, what you're doing is really beautiful. But Karolina would not [cry]. She's the the voice of reason here. There's things to do. This is a giant public figure. Please don't cry.' And I tried so hard. And I guess I pulled it together."
Related:Succession Reveals Who Will Succeed Logan Roy at Waystar Royco After Big Season 4 Shakeup
Domińczyk added that the plane scene was "emotional" for her because "for reasons I can't quite say, since I was a very little girl, I was worried my dad would suddenly die.
She continued, "And it happened. And so it's just been a really crazy ... because I can't not talk about my dad's death when talking about this episode, or my role in Succession."
After explaining that she was in New Jersey while finding out about her father's death in Poland, Domińczyk argued that the show "really captured" the shock of "dramatic, sudden, violent kind of deaths."
"You don't see them fully break down, and of course, my reaction in real life was like a wounded f---ing animal, because it was hearing something that you expected to hear your whole life, but it hasn't happened yet, so it's just not going to happen. And it did happen. And so, as we get into the season, that grief is going to catch up with them."
"My dad and [Brian Cox] had a lot of similar qualities in how they carry themselves in the world. But Brian is much more artistic and he can be very gentle," she added. "My dad was very affectionate. Brian's very affectionate. And so Brian and I really clicked right away. I didn't have a big part in season 1 or season 2, but he was always so great with me. And I think it's because I knew when to laugh, I knew when to smile, I knew when to listen, I knew when to joke back. Because he reminded me so much of my dad. So yeah, there was a lot of love there."
The HBO series launched in 2018 and follows the Roy family as they prepare for the next phase of their media conglomerate, Waystar Royco, amid Logan's declining health. Show creator Jesse Armstrong revealed the news that the fourth season would be the show's last in an interview with the New Yorker back in February.
"There's a promise in the title of Succession. I've never thought this could go on forever. The end has always been kind of present in my mind," he explained at the time. "From season 2, I've been trying to think: Is it the next one, or the one after that, or is it the one after that?"
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Succession airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
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