It’s my birthday, and I’ll cry if I want to…and that’s most certainly the case in the latest episode ofSuccession, titled “Too Much Birthday,” in which Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong), ever stuck in the rut of his own rampant insecurities, throws the biggest birthday bash the United States - nay, the world - has possibly ever seen. It has it all: aminatureWu-Tang Clan! Funky Town! An indulgence of intra-sibling rivalry! With all the pomp and expansive majesty on display, it looked like a mean feat to pull off.Lorene Scafaria, the episode’s director, spoke toVultureall about it.
On working with Strong, Scafaria had this to say:
“Jeremy Strong and I were born the same year, so there was something lovely about us throwing this party together. […] Jeremy is one of those very special actors who’s so in touch with himself and so honest and truthful that he can make a likable character out of this very complicated, half unlovable person who has a moral center but is completely out of touch with the real world. We knew Kendall would absolutely demand that every detail of the party express his view of himself, even when it came to the music playing. When we were setting it all up, we got to ask questions like,What’s Kendall’s taste like? What vibe is he trying to get from the crowd here? What seeds has he planted? What tiny little traps has he tried to set that maybe no one will see?”
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It’ll come to the surprise of absolutely zeroSuccessionfans to hear of Strong’s ardent commitment to the role - so much has already been reported, after all, around his capital-M Method. In aninterview with IndieWire last year, for example, co-star Brian Cox described himself as “worried sometimes” about Strong, but stated that his “commitment is undeniable, and his results are equally undeniable […] That’s what the key thing is, is the results, his performance, which was pretty magnificent, actually.”
HBO also released a fascinating featurette, “Controlling The Narrative: The Birthday Party,” which goes deep into the making of Kendall’s fortieth.Alan Ruck, for example, who plays older brother-come-wannabe POTUS Connor Roy, reveals that his slinged arm was actually the result of a real-life rotator cuff injury thatJesse Armstrong’s team wrote into the episode. Strong says it “was the consumation of everything I want to do on this show… that I get to do on this show”. No kidding!
Check out the video below.Successionairs on Sunday nights on HBO, and is available to stream at HBO Max.
