Nothing is more important than a first impression, and no one knows that better than Succession’s Brian Cox, who recently reflected on his first time meeting Meryl Streep.
Cox sat down with actress Emily Blunt to chat as a part of Variety’s Actors on Actors series. The two instantly clicked and discussed their projects, both past and present. Cox asked Blunt about getting her foot in the door in the entertainment industry with her role in The Devil Wears Prada, or what Cox jokingly refers to as the “Devil Prada film.”
Blunt exclaimed, “The Devil Wears Prada! It was just an extraordinary overnight shift in my life when that came out.”
Cox enthusiastically responded, “I loved it. And to work with one of the greatest screen actresses of all time, I so envy you,” referring to Streep, who played the nightmarish Miranda Priestley. “One of my ambitions, before I snuff it, is to work with Meryl.”
“Oh, don’t say ‘snuff it’!, Blunt replied. “You will. She’s amazing and was slightly terrifying on that film. She said it was one of the first times she’s tried Method acting. But it made her so miserable, playing Miranda.”
Cox then shed light on his first time meeting Streep.
“I met her once, and I said, “I never liked you,” Cox shared. “And she went, ‘What?’ I said, ‘I never liked you because I was jealous.’ How can anybody be that good?”
Blunt followed Cox’s story with a compliment, saying, “I think that about you. You do keep us guessing, from that caustic, fiery writer in Adaptation, and then what you did with Abbott in Bourne Supremacy. You just feel this sense of foreboding.”
Cox argued that when it comes to acting, “what’s important is really what’s underneath.”
“There’s this whole debate about Method acting and all that,” Cox continued. “I’m all for whatever gets you through the day. But the great thing is how you transmit energy. If you hit it right, it just works. That’s the most important thing that we have as actors, that ability to go into something very quickly and come out of it. Not to dwell.”
The story led Cox and Blunt to discuss their acting methods and their recent work, specifically Cox’s dominating role as Logan Roy in Succession and Blunt’s portrayal of vengeful Lady Cornelia Blocke in The English.
In the meantime, you can stream Succession on Max and both The English and The Devil Wears Prada on Prime Video.