In a show about billionaires, all about living an outrageously rich lifestyle, there were certain scenes of absolute opulence that have stood out for the cast…
With the arrival of the third season of Succession this week, it is the show that everyone – yes, everyone! – is talking about. The acting, the scripting, THAT opening music, everything about the show is incredible. But one of the things that we constantly notice isn’t just that these people are rich… they’re beyond rich.
These are legitimate billionaires, with access to the level of opulence and extravagance that comes with that level of richness. Of course, the actors do a great job of being sort of bored by it all, but when JOE caught up with some of the cast of the show, we had to ask what moment across the show so far really did take them aback with that level of billionaire living.
First up, here is our chat with Alan Ruck, who plays Connor (the eldest Roy sibling), and you can check out our interview with him in full right here:
Ruck had one scene in particular that stood out in terms of opulence:
“When we were on that yacht, it was owned by some very rich person, and I think it was worth $150 million, and the upkeep per year is $10 million. The decking is all teak, right? It stains quite easily, so there are people walking around with red wine and they’ve had a few and they drop a drop, and there is somebody immediately there [acts out wiping away the drop]. They have a whole crew making sure that nothing gets stained.
“I think our rental on that yacht was $1 million per week. Yeah. And everybody is barefoot because they don’t want shoe marks on anything. All of the [yacht] crew are very attractive young people. They are all of these beautiful young people who are very well trained and very skilled in all of the different areas. The yacht got to me, but I gotta tell you, it was a bit lost on me because it still just a boat. It had its own gym, it had a swimming pool in the yacht! But it was like ‘Okay, that’s nice’. But I’m working class from Parma, Ohio, so there are some things that… the yacht was the opulent thing that we’ve dealt with yet, and I think it was just a bit too much for me.”
Next up, we chatted to J. Smith-Cameron, who plays Gerri, a trusted family friend and a high-ranking officer within the Waystar-Royco company:
J.Smith-Cameron also mentioned the yacht, but delves into the humour of the setting against what the characters are dealing with:
“It is tricky, because the characters – particularly the Roy family, but my character is fully ensconced, she’s almost a family member in a way, she’s a godmother to Shiv – we are totally inured to it, the characters are. So, in fact, I always think it’s funny, the writers are quite witty, because we’re in these gorgeous places and the weather is perfect and everything is deluxe, and we’re miserable and plotting and biting our nails. So it is funny to see that juxtaposition.
“But I am certainly not inured to it, it is fantastic. Because the way to see other places, I think, is working. I love to go on location. I forget which strata of opulence [the yacht] was, but it was really high up there, it was beautiful.”
And, last but not least, we chatted to Matthew Macfayden, who plays Tom, the brother-in-law sorta-outsider of the main Roy family:
Macfayden describes how funny it is for him to get used to it all, but that the impact of the ‘richness’ of the show was present from his very first scene:
“The truthful answer is completely and totally. You walk on to these yachts… or me and Sarah [Snook, aka Shiv]’s apartment is amazing. But the really out of body thing is just how quickly you get used to it. You just think ‘Oh, we’re here again… Can I get a coffee?’ Because its sort of transient, and I’m sort of half serious, but you know what I mean? You sort of get used to it.
“The really thrilling thing, actually, was when we were doing the pilot. And I was really nervous, because I was doing an accent and it was this different thing. But we were shooting, Sarah and I had a scene on the Upper East Side on Madison Avenue, around 63rd Street or something like that, and it was a very cold, blue sky New York day. And it was beyond exciting, because we were filming in Manhattan and I never thought… It was just very, very thrilling to be embarking [on this project]. And we didn’t know how it was going to turn out, but I thought ‘I’ve done this, this is good’.”
The third season Succession continues every Monday on NOW.
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