This article contains spoilers for the latest episode of Success.
One of the most impressive tricks that HBO’s “Succession” has played on viewers over its four seasons is creating sympathy for its culprits. Most of that sympathy is hushed up in Sunday’s episode, where Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) apparently abandoned democracy because he had to eat too much chicken as a kid.
It also marks the end of the ludicrous presidential campaign of Roy’s eldest and most clumsy son, Connor Roy (Alan Luck). He launched an effort to tackle what he considers America’s biggest problems: usury and masturbation. But even with concessions, after Mr. Connor said he would not give in to petty acts, he insulted voters and issued a veiled threat to unleash his followers, the “conheads.” there is Perhaps this was the darkest moment for a character who has been relegated to the status of an almost clown, but Luck sees Connor’s ignorance as a primary political tool.
“He will believe whatever he thinks is good for him that day,” Luck said in a recent video call full of vivid anecdotes and laughter. “He’ll read something online or hear something on TV and that’s going to be central to his platform for the day. And he’s just not a focused person, so tomorrow could be something completely different.”
As Connor, 66-year-old Luck spun decades of character actor chops into some of the series’ most scene-stealing moments. Anger at the texture of butter while watching his father’s gala ceremony. Call girl-to-fiancée Willa (Justin Lupe) is offered a “razor and butt fight” at the wedding to spice up his presidential campaign.
“I’m telling week after week the best writing I’ve ever come across,” he said. “But I think it would be fun to move on to other things after basically playing as a family.” [expletive]You know, that was the equivalent of 6 years. ”
Luck sees the series as a “gift” in a career that has often involved feasting or starvation and the occasional day job to pay the bills. In 1986, he played Cameron Frye in ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’. The quintessential he is the quintessential Gen X character in a Gen X teen comedy. However, the role did not lead to instant stardom, and Luck found Cameron’s shadow to be very long.
“There were a lot of precarious years where I basically made just enough money to live on,” he said. “People would come up around that time and say something about ‘Ferris Buehler,’ and I would get very annoyed because I felt like that was it. That was my shot.”
Of Succession, he said, “I’ve dreamed of a show like this for years.”
Raised in a suburb of Cleveland, Luck found solace in acting in high school. When he was a student at the University of Illinois, he said he spent most of his time on stage. The university’s performing arts complex, designed by Max Abramowitz, the architect who designed David Geffen Hall, was described as “a different kind of student theater, little more than a small theater space in an arsenal.” There was,” said Luck. “They gave you a $25 budget and you could put on whatever play you wanted, which meant you could get a lot of experience in a short period of time.”
He moved to Chicago in 1979. At that time, theater companies such as Steppenwolf and Wisdom He Bridge were at the center of the theatrical scene. And, he said, after the box office success of The Blues Brothers (1980), Hollywood increased his interest in the city, making it an ideal location for budding actors.
“You can go to any talent agency on Wednesday and say, ‘Hi, I’m new,’ and they’ll sit down and talk,” he says. “When I talk to people who started out in New York and Los Angeles about this, they’re like, ‘What are you talking about? You can’t just go see somebody.’ was.”
Luck eventually landed the role when Broadway casting directors traveled to Chicago to audition for actors in Neil Simon’s “Biloxi Blues.” He moved to New York, where he shared the stage with his future Ferris Bueller co-star Matthew Broderick, but he remembers Luck as having a “Chicago star aura”. rice field.
“He looked like James Dean,” Broderick said with a laugh. “The people in that play all had very different personalities. was fulfilling.”
Casting for “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” began while “Biloxi Blues” was airing. Luck had met director John Hughes in Chicago when he auditioned for an early version of The Breakfast Club, and his agent put his name in for the role of Cameron. However, casting directors thought Luck, who was 28 at the time, was too old.
“But then he came in and read the book and kind of knocked out John Hughes,” Broderick said. “Everybody thought he was perfect.”
“Ferris Buehler” was a hit and is still widely loved nearly 40 years later. But three years into the lead role, Luck was working in the sorting room of a Sears shipping warehouse in East Los Angeles. He unsuccessfully moved to the city after landing on NBC’s Nell Carter pilot, and he had a wife and young daughter to support.
Colleagues said they knew nothing about his acting career. One day, while Rak was smoking in the break room, one of his colleagues pointed out another. “He said, ‘Have you seen the movie ‘Ferret Buford’s Day Off?'” Luck recalled with a laugh. “It looks like [expletive] With Dad’s car! ”
Luck eventually found a number of sitcom and dramatic television roles, most notably on ABC’s ‘Spin City’, as well as bit parts in movies like ‘Young Guns II’, ‘Speed’ and ‘Twister’. . It’s the type of trajectory that might be tough on an actor’s self-esteem and salary, but gives them room to hone. For Luck, it showed exactly what he was looking for.
“I did 18 episodes of sitcom work, and then I had nothing for a year,” he said. “I’m not doing what I’m supposed to be doing, so I’m pretty disappointed.”
By the time he was cast for Succession in 2016, Luck, now married to actress Mireille Enos, was more comfortable with the rhythm, taking on whatever roles came to mind. Enos spent 16 hours a day filming The Catch and taking care of his two young children, even though he was in Chicago filming the Fox series The Exorcist and flying back to Los Angeles for the weekend. was One weekend she asked him to attend a music class with herself and her two-year-old son before returning to Chicago. Then I got a call from an agent. I have an audition for an HBO show, but I have to miss class.
“I turned to Mireille and said, ‘Honey, I’m auditioning for an HBO show,’ and she started crying,” he said. So he kept her promise. “I went to music class and played a tambourine for about an hour.” received.
I didn’t have time to read the script beforehand, so I was told to improvise, but once I got the job and started shooting, it proved useful. “Succession” director and executive producer Marc Myrod said that Luck’s understanding of Connor’s delusional worldview brought “this beautiful soul to this character.” This was especially noticeable in what Myrod called “freebies”: additional takes in which actors try different lines or improvise their own lines.
“Alan is great at that,” Myrod said. “Giving him a freebie basically allowed him to run 10 minutes of film without breaking character.”
Most of Luck’s scenes are with Lupe, but many of them are excruciatingly awkward. But as their characters’ relationship grew into something more than just a deal, Lupe said their off-screen power relationship solidified. They texted each other regularly on how they would describe the evolution of the scene.
“It really helped me,” she said. “Instead of me making up the whole story alone and him making up the whole story alone, I felt like we could do it together.”
Lupe pointed to the wedding scene earlier this season. The episode was just a few seconds of screen time in an episode where the death of Logan Roy (Brian Cox), a family member of his father, would be remembered by viewers. But what Lupe remembers is the intensity of the emotions filming Willa and Connor’s wedding.
“We exchanged vows with each other and it helped us get to a place where it felt like an authentic presentation,” she said. “In between takes, Alan would talk to me about how great it was to work with him, how each other was running, etc. So I was like, ‘No, no! I am going to cry! ‘”
Luck’s next appearance will be in two films, the courtroom drama “The Burial” starring Jamie Foxx and the sequel to “Wind River.” And while I will miss the camaraderie of the cast and crew of Succession, I feel I got everything I could get from Connor Roy, and some I could do without.
“It’s strange to play a character that can be so easily thrown out,” he said with a laugh. “People keep calling you ‘stupid.’ You know, it gets a little under your skin—I’m willing to let it go.”