Brian Cox is never one to mince words when it comes to his fellow actors, but in a new interview with the London Times, he preemptively targeted his 25th Hour co-stars Edward Norton (A Pain in the Ass), Ian McKellen (Not for My Taste) and Kevin Spacey (A Stupid Stupid Man). Cox, who is promoting his directorial film “Glenlorthan,” even called Quentin Tarantino “charitable.”
“I’m more of an egalitarian than a lot of managers and self-proclaimed visionaries,” Cox said of his directorial style. “I respect the actor’s performance. In a Quentin Tarantino movie, all you see is Quentin Tarantino. That’s not me. I don’t want to do that.”
By the time his memoir ‘Put a Rabbit in the Hat’ was published in 2022, Mr Cox had already made headlines for his attacks on actors, revealing that he had turned down the role of the Governor in the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ series, but was relieved Johnny Depp had turned him down because he was ‘so bombastic and overrated’. Cox later said he regretted Shade and “just got tough” on Depp, adding, “You picked the easy joke. And I picked the easy joke. That’s what happened and I regret it a little bit.”
Perhaps Cox’s most viral criticism was about her Succession co-star Jeremy Strong. Cox has spoken out against method acting in various interviews over the years, frequently citing Strong as an example of why his acting style is “fucking annoying.” In an interview with Variety, Cox even brought up the connection between Strong’s Method acting and Daniel Day-Lewis, saying, “Jeremy was Day-Lewis’ assistant, so he learned everything from Dan.”
Day-Lewis disagreed with Cox’s ideas in an interview with Britain’s Big Issue last year, saying: “I worked with Brian Cox once, and I inadvertently got caught up in the dawn handbag controversy[over Method acting]. Brian is a very good actor who has done an extraordinary job. As a result, he’s been given a soapbox and… he’s not getting off of it. Whenever he wants to talk about it, I’m easy to find.”
When asked by the London Times if he had contacted Day-Lewis, Mr Cox replied: “No, I have not. I have no connection to Dan Day-Lewis.”
“Dan Day-Lewis, he’s careful. He never disrupts[the filming process],” Cox continued. “He never does that…I don’t want to say any more about Jeremy because I’m in a lot of trouble and he’s begging me to stop talking about him. He’s a good actor, Jeremy. He’s a great actor. Just all the stupid stuff that comes with it. Look at the kids. They don’t say, ‘What are my motives?’ They just do it! ”
Cox infuriated the US by saying during the interview: “We hate women in America. We won’t allow a woman to be president for the foreseeable future. Look at what happened to Hillary Clinton. Patriarchy is so invasive and insidious that it’s hard to let go of it. I think the patriarchy is fucked up. And it’s the patriarchy that got us in the position we’re in.” In that moment, we don’t learn the lesson that told us to leave it to women. ”
To read Mr Cox’s full interview, please visit the London Times website.
