Succession 's Sarah Snook explains the reason for Shiv's pivotal vote in series finale
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Feet. Oh sure, they're useful for walking around on, but they can also get you into a lot of trouble.
In a new interview with Variety, Succession star Sarah Snook, who portrayed Shiv Roy on the hit HBO series, discussed what she believes prompted her character to vote against Jeremy Strong's Kendall in May's series finale. Shiv, she explained, decided to doom Kendall's chances of taking control of media conglomerate Waystar Royco after seeing her brother put his feet up on the desk of their late father, Logan (Brian Cox). The pregnant Shiv's decision ultimately left the company in the hands of Alexander Skarsgård's tech bro Lukas Matsson and under the direct control of her husband Tom Wambsgans, played by Matthew Macfadyen.
"I've spoken with friends of mine who love the show, and I quite like being able to dissect it with them," said Snook in the interview, which was conducted prior to the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike. "I have heard that people thought that Shiv was thinking 10 steps ahead, and that if Tom's going to get the CEO-ship and she's got a kid with Tom, then the closest she can be to it is by saying 'No' in this moment. But I think it's just pure instinct. I think it's trigger response. It's scratching an open wound that is always there with the siblings. And this was in the script in the big print — when she sees Kendall put his feet up on Dad's desk? There's something in her that goes like, 'Ahhhhh!' Sorry to swear, but, 'Motherf---er!'"
David Russell/HBO Sarah Snook in 'Sucession'
Towards the end of the show, viewers saw Shiv and Tom at least somewhat reconciled, and holding hands in a car, but Snook believes her character is in for a rough time.
"[Tom] would go into work the next day, and she would have to be dancing on outer rim," said Snook, who was herself pregnant while shooting the final season and gave birth shortly before the finale screened. "Friends of mine have been like, 'So what do you think would happen to Shiv after this?' Shiv is about to have a baby, all of this has gone down, she's sort of thrown back into a world with her husband that wasn't a great situation beforehand. But I think the baby thing is really about to hit in a way that is inescapable. And she's probably someone who would go into quite a deep postpartum depression, and quite a difficult next 12 months, I think."
Snook also revealed in the interview that she only discovered Succession creator Jesse Armstrong was bringing the series to a close when she read the script for the finale en route to the show's last table read.
"I was understanding that it probably could end, but there were maybe mitigating factors that would maybe prevent it ending — which I won't go into," she said. "But it could go one way or the other. And also, it's nice to hope. It was devastating. I didn't get a chance to finish the script before I got to the read-through. I was quickly devouring it in the car on the way there. And then by the time I finished, I just arrived and was like, 'That's it. It's done.' And I walked in, and Matthew was like, 'No, I don't think so. I think that's quite hopeful! The last handhold, maybe there's potential for what's going to happen with Tom as CEO,' or something like that. But then once we got into the room, Jesse made an announcement saying, 'Yeah. As you can see, this is the last.'"
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