‘Succession’: Nicholas Braun says ‘cathartic’ Greg-Ewan scene was left on the cutting room floor
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In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, “Succession” star and Emmy Award nominee Nicholas Braun revealed that one of his “favorite scenes” of the entire final season was left on the cutting room floor.
Asked about a scene between Braun’s Greg and the character’s grandfather Ewan Roy (James Cromwell), Braun said he was “sad to see that one go, honestly.”
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“It was cathartic for those two characters to actually hash it out. It was beautifully written and James was so good,” Braun added.
The deleted scene occurred in episode nine, “Church and State,” after Ewan’s impromptu and searing eulogy for his dead brother, Logan (Brian Cox).
“Greg comes into that scene [after Ewan’s eulogy] bragging to him saying, ‘First of all, thanks for lying to me in the church.’ And saying, ‘You’re not my grandpa who can tell me what to do anymore. You lied to me; you disinherited me. And you know, I fire people now. I fired 100 guys last week,’” Braun said of the scene. “That’s something he brags about. And his grandpa is like, ‘Wow, look what you’ve turned into.’ It’s someone reflecting to Greg: ‘You used to be a little boy who would come to the house and we would fish together and look at birds. And now look at you. You’re a firing machine.’”
The relationship between Greg and Ewan has always been contentious on the show – and after Greg sided with Logan over his grandfather, Ewan gave away Greg’s inheritance to Greenpeace. The betrayal led to Greg suing Greenpeace itself, a move that engendered goodwill among the conservative fans of the Roy family.
“I just loved it because that really is the way to get the full picture of where Greg has gotten to, from a boy to now. Where he’s lost a lot of that sweetness and naïveté, and that sort of adolescent feeling that I always wanted to bring to the character,” Braun said. “The first season or two, Greg could really enjoy the perks of being in the Roy world; the guy who can actually have fun being on a jet and being in the Escalades that drive around the city. And slowly he becomes a guy who gets desensitized to all of that, and this was a scene for that to be reflected back to him. I want to see that scene at some point; I’d love to see it. We also improv’d a lot and James was so great; he was so tuned in to his character.”
At the end of Season 3, Greg volunteered to metaphorically sell his soul to the devil to help Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) side against the Roy siblings. In Season 4, Greg’s debt appears to get paid off: he’s much more in command and willing to backstab anyone who stands in his way of getting to the top. The show ends with Greg having betrayed even Tom, who still reconciles with his protege upon becoming the new Waystar CEO.
“One way to think about it is that the deal, the sort of contract that Tom offers Greg at the end of season three about joining him on the dark side and ‘sell your soul,’ basically, and, ‘I’ll take care of you.’ That’s the promise, and I think he’s keeping that promise. He’s saying, ‘I know you are doing shit, which is basically selling your soul. And I just want to say: I got you,’” Braun said of Greg’s final moments with Tom. “And maybe there is some pride in it for Tom, like when Greg tries to blackmail him with the documents. And Tom can’t go into this CEO position without a wingman. He’s not going to go in solo and hire some new random executive to help him with the transition. He’s got to take his guy. And also, when you fight your best friend, it might make you better friends. So maybe their relationship is even stronger.”
All episodes of “Succession” are streaming on Max.
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