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From director Catherine Hardwicke and screenwriter Mark Bacci, the family drama Prisoner\u2019s Daughter finds Max (Brian Cox) needing to reunite with his estranged daughter Maxine (Kate Beckinsale), in order to reside with her and her son Ezra (Christopher Convery) on compassionate release after 12 years in prison. Diagnosed with terminal cancer has put a ticking clock on their time together, and while he may never fully redeem himself, Max just wants to connect with his grandson and protect his family in the only way that he knows how.<\/p>\n
During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Cox talked about having wanted to work with Beckinsale for many years, the very specific looking Las Vegas house that they worked in, why it\u2019s important to have laughter on a shoot, and the father-daughter relationship. He also talked about how often people want to talk to him about his Succession character Logan Roy versus other characters he\u2019s played, and his desire to keep acting for as long as possible.<\/p>\n
Collider: With a project like this, where you know the beginning, middle and end of the story, what is the thing you look for when you\u2019re reading a script? Is it the overall story and experience that you might have? Is it the specific character relationships? Do you look for scenes or moments that might be interesting to explore?<\/p>\n
BRIAN COX: It\u2019s all of that. It\u2019s how it affects you. This was a very moving story, the story of a man trying to reclaim his life, or reclaim a part of his life, and it just resonated so strongly with me. I thought it was a great role. And it was wonderful to be able to work with Kate [Beckinsale], who I have known, on and off, for many years, but we\u2019ve never worked together. We had a great time, and we\u2019ve actually become close friends, as a result. I just think she\u2019s tremendous. And also, young Christopher [Convery], who I thought was wonderful as Ezra. It was a joyous thing to do. The only thing that bothered me was that it was in Las Vegas, but it was a perfect set for this particular film.<\/p>\n
Las Vegas is a very particular kind of town. I love seeing filming locations that we think we know, like Los Angeles or Las Vegas or New York City, but seeing aspects that feel unfamiliar. Even the house in this feels like a character in the film because it has such a distinct look to it.<\/p>\n
COX: And that house is very much a character on that street because it\u2019s the only house that hasn\u2019t been touched and it\u2019s owned by the son of a billionaire. I actually lived across the road from the house. I was in a house that was a beautiful house. They\u2019re based on a Palm Springs design of the late fifties or sixties. I loved that aspect of it. It\u2019s just the other stuff, when you get into Las Vegas proper, that you go, \u201cOh, God, this is too much.\u201d There was a time, when I think back to [Frank] Sinatra and Dean Martin and the Rat Pack, where it must have been rather exciting and the place was relatively in its formative years. Now, it\u2019s the setting for one of those TV programs where somebody gets killed and they have to find out who did it, with CSI: Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve talked about the importance of having a lot of laughs on a shoot. Is that something that helps you to never take it all too seriously or get too caught up in the heaviness of it all, especially with something heavier like this?<\/p>\n
COX: I believe that we are transmitters, actors. It comes through us, and we have to allow it to come through us. In essence, there\u2019s a relative lightness behind it all, that makes you open to whatever is required. If you go too heavy, you limit your resources, I think. That\u2019s why I don\u2019t believe in method acting. I believe that we have to be more open and we have to turn on a dime. That\u2019s a much more interesting challenge, really. I love it. I absolutely love it. I love keeping it light. I\u2019ve worked with a lot of great actors, like Michael Gambon or Paul Scofield, who were great jokers, but they did the most incredible serious work. I think I\u2019m in that tradition. As a kid watching the TV, I\u2019d see someone and get really upset, and my mom would turn to me and say, \u201cBut Brian, it\u2019s not real!\u201d<\/p>\n
Brian Cox as Max, Kate Beckinsale as Maxine and Christopher Convery as Ezra in Prisoner’s DaughterImage via Vertical
\nTaking that into account, do you also have fun doing these types of intense scenes, where you\u2019re beating somebody up with a baseball bat, or you\u2019re getting beaten up?<\/p>\n
COX: Oh, yeah. I love stuff when I have to be physical because that\u2019s my raison d\u2019etre. I\u2019ve done a lot of physical acting, over the years, so that\u2019s fine. But for me, the great thing is the interior element of the character. You let the audience do the work. You don\u2019t do too much. You give just enough to the audience. You don\u2019t project it. You just have to be it, in a way.<\/p>\n
I love the moment in this when your character is still in his cell and he\u2019s getting ready to leave prison, and then he shares a hug and an \u201cI love you\u201d with this big man who\u2019s his cellmate. What do you think it says about this character, that he can earn the respect of someone like his cellmate in prison, but it\u2019s so much harder for him to get there with his own daughter?<\/p>\n
COX: It\u2019s because there\u2019s more going on with his own daughter. And also, the cellmate understands the journey that they both made, and what the cost of that journey is, and how they\u2019ve ended up where they\u2019ve ended up, so that\u2019s fairly straightforward. With his own daughter, he\u2019s very nervous, but he knows that they need to come to some kind of conclusion, as father and daughter, and he needs to revisit that territory. It goes back to the memory of when his daughter was little. There was a very close relationship between them. You know what fathers and daughters are like. I have a daughter, and I still think of her from when she was two and she used to squeeze herself into the side [of the chair and sit next to me], and I would hold her. All of that comes to mind. It\u2019s a double-edged sword. You want people to grow up, but then you\u2019re sad about them growing up. I have [a cell phone], so I can see the pictures of my boys and my daughter. I always say to my students, when I\u2019m teaching, to always have a photograph of yourself when you\u2019re young, when you\u2019re little, because that\u2019s who you are. It\u2019s only your body that grows up, but that little soul is still there. That wonderment of being a child is the greatest gift of all, that we have. That\u2019s what I like to be in touch with that. I don\u2019t want to lose that sense of wonder.<\/p>\n
We know, from the beginning of this film, that your character is moving toward a very specific fate, but it also plays out in a way that we don\u2019t really expect. How did you feel about the decision your character made, really taking his fate into his own hands?<\/p>\n
COX: The point is that he knows he\u2019s gonna die, but he has to save his daughter because he knows that relationship is poisonous and will continue to be poisonous, so he\u2019s determined to turn that around. He resorts to his own self-sacrifice, in order to do that.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the relationships in this that really make the story interesting, from the father-daughter relationship with Kate Beckinsale, to the grandson with Christopher Convery, to the friendship with Ernie Hudson. What did you enjoy about most about the relationship between Max and his grandson, especially with those moments where he does talk to him like an adult?<\/p>\n
COX: That\u2019s Ezra\u2019s gift and his problem. He\u2019s a little man, in many, many ways, and he\u2019s had to be because of his mom. So, Max approaches him as that little man and treats him like that because he realizes that he\u2019s quite intelligent, but he\u2019s still a boy. He still has to remember that he\u2019s affected by things. That\u2019s what I felt really good about. Max is an extraordinary character, just the fact that he\u2019s learned so much, so late in life. His life is over, so he\u2019s just trying to put it in place now. That\u2019s all.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve done some really incredible and memorable work, over the years. What\u2019s it like, at this stage in your career and so many years into being an actor, to do a TV series like Succession, where so many people want to talk to you about it and people probably stop you, everywhere you go? Are there other characters that people also want to regularly talk to you about?<\/p>\n
COX: Some people try to be clever and go, \u201cOh, never mind Logan Roy, what about Manhunter?,\u201d or \u201cNever mind Logan Roy, what about Deadwood?\u201d I get that, all the time. People become proprietorial about a particular performance that I\u2019ve got. Of course, they know about the Logan Roy hype because it\u2019s so out there now, so it\u2019s quite funny. Somebody the other night said, \u201cDon\u2019t forget you played Daphne\u2019s Dad on Frasier, and it was great.\u201d I just thought, \u201cWell, that\u2019s the job. That\u2019s what you do.\u201d If you give somebody something like that and they have a memory of it, it\u2019s humbling and pretty impressive.<\/p>\n
Acting is really one of the only professions that you don\u2019t ever have to retire from, if you don\u2019t choose to. There\u2019s no set cut-off date that they impose on you. Did you know, very early in your career, that you wanted to continue acting for as long as possible, or was there a specific project that made you realize it was something you were just always going to do?<\/p>\n
COX: I knew that ths would be the thing I\u2019ll do until Alzheimer\u2019s or dementia gets me. Otherwise, I\u2019ll continue. I love my job, I really do. I\u2019ve had the best time. It\u2019s one of the best things, ever. I\u2019m really grateful for it.<\/p>\n
Prisoner\u2019s Daughter is now playing in theaters.<\/p>\n
View this article at Collider<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Brian Cox on ‘Prisoner’s Daughter’ and How Often People Bring Up His ‘Succession’ Character: From director Catherine Hardwicke and screenwriter Mark Bacci, the family drama Prisoner\u2019s Daughter finds Max (Brian Cox) needing to reunite with his estranged daughter Maxine (Kate Beckinsale), in order to reside with her and her son Ezra (Christopher Convery) on compassionate
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