James Cromwell Thought He’d Get Fired From ‘Succession’ For This Scene

James Cromwell fansThe long acting career may have seen his character Ewan Roy’s eulogy on the penultimate episode of “Succession” on Sunday and thought, “It’ll be fine, James.”

But it turns out that before filming the scene, the ‘Babe’ star wasn’t exactly channeling the quiet confidence of Ewan or Farmer Hoggett, according to an interview published Thursday in Vulture.

Speaking to the entertainment site, Cromwell said he was so nervous before filming that he thought it might spell disaster for his career.

“I had a little trouble getting into it,” Cromwell said. “I couldn’t remember my lines at all. I could do them myself in the room, but as soon as I walked away from them for five minutes, they were completely gone.

Cromwell expressed his concerns to the episode’s director, Mark Mylod, who said his character could have notes handy while speaking at the funeral of Ewan’s media mogul brother, Logan Roy (Brian Cox).

“You can practically read it,” Mylod said, according to VSRomwell. “Just lift your head, at an odd time.”

That didn’t help placate the Emmy-winning actor, however. He told Vulture he was having “increasing trouble remembering lines” and feared he would be “fired” from the HBO drama as a result.

“I was never fired,” Cromwell said. ”But everyone gets fired for something!

He added that he felt compelled to deliver a stellar performance because the eulogy written for Ewan was adored by the show’s cast and crew.

“Everyone was like, ‘Oh, I read your speech! What a beautiful speech! What are you gonna do with the speech? “, he recalls.

Fortunately, an offhand remark from Cromwell’s aide turned the tables.

“I think I know what’s wrong. You have COVID for a long time,” she told him, according to the actor.

“And then a miracle happened,” he said. “All the text came back to me. The speech was damn beautiful, don’t you think? »

During the episode, titled “Church and State”, Ewan uses Logan’s televised funeral as an opportunity to call out his brother for his politics and greed. The moment is all the more piquant as Logan’s media empire was already in a fragile state after his death.

Ewan begins his eulogy with a half-hearted attempt to humanize his brother, recounting their childhood journey to North America from Scotland during WWII. Ewan also offers a startling revelation about why Logan was so sensitive about their late sister, Rose – a mystery the show never tackled until this moment.

Ewan then launches into a calculation. He ultimately characterizes his powerful brother as someone who “closed the hearts of men”.

“He gave a few millions of his billions, but he was not a generous man,” says Ewan. “He was mean, and he only made an average estimate of the world.”

For more behind-the-scenes info on Cromwell ahead of Sunday’s series finalehead over to Vulture to read the full interview.