Kieran Culkin has his own take on who the most despicable Succession character is
In a recent interview, Culkin weighed in on which of Succession's Roys is, in his opinion, the most despicable
Aux News Kieran Culkin
The question of who the worst person on HBO’s Succession is—which we raised in a piece ranking all those awful main characters a few weeks back—is a fluid one. The Roys and their various parasites-in-law are all awful people, so we’re typically working in a matter of degrees when it comes to assigning them their various sins. Still, it never hurts to consult an expert on such matters—and now series star Kieran Culkin has officially weighed in.
This is per an interview Culkin did with Esquire earlier this week, in which he was presented a variety of Q&As—including being, apparently, shown the headline of our piece and asked for his personal take. (And yes, since you’re asking, we do still get that “Hey, ma, I’m on the teevee!” feeling when stuff like this occurs.) More interesting than our flailing egos, though, was Culkin’s quick answer to the question of which Roy is worst, which he delivered with conviction: Alan Ruck’s Connor Roy. Here’s Culkin’s full answer, focused mostly on Connor’s relationship with his now-fiancée, Willa, played by Justine Lupe:
Connor is quite a terrifying and unpredictable man, who basically purchased a person and put her on a ranch. I don’t wanna say against her will…he created a lovely golden cage for her. And she feels trapped, and he knows it, and just, you know, says, “I’ll try to make your dreams come true.” It’s kind of actually terrifying. So, him.
Which, hey: We’re happy to see our read and Culkin’s mostly dovetail; our own ranking puts Connor just a bit below his father in terms of evilness, but it’s undeniable that his milquetoast nature belies some pretty nasty and manipulative tendencies.
Still, this is Succession: There’s always room for people to be even worse.
30 Comments
Kendall killed a guy. That’s worse than using money and emotional manipulation to get someone to stay in a weird relationship with you.
True. Though I’m a big believer of judging people on intent and not outcome.
The death Kendall caused was a pretty bad accident and something he clearly deeply regrets, while Connor’s ongoing treatment of Willa is ongoing and intentional. Certainly not trying to excuse the death but it wasn’t murder, while Connor can and would continue to damage Willa for his own benefit.
“It’s not technically murder” is a weaselly defense of causing a person to die with your actions and then covering it up.
If you think I’m suggesting that Kendall is innocent or trying to defend him then we’re not in the same conversation.
““It’s not technically murder” is a weaselly defense of causing a person to die with your actions and then covering it up.”
Jesus, you’re a real moron.
it’s a fictional show, you don’t need to get this worked up about it
It being fictional also means you don’t need to accuse people of being emotional just because they disagree with you.
He didn’t cause him to die in any meaningful sense though. If he had full control of the car when it went off the bridge then you’d have an argument. I feel like a ton of people forget that the kid grabbed the steering wheel and caused the crash. Kendall’s still a terrible person, but he’s not responsible for that kid’s death.
There’s nothing technical about it-its just NOT MURDER. Period. Manslaughter at worst. There was no intent for murder.
Ir wasn’s exactly premeditated murder though. Misadventure or manslaughter really.
So in terms of consequences, what Kendall did might be worse. But in terms of culpability, it’s Connor all the way.
Yeah, saying he killed someone is absolutely a stretch. The ugliest part of that whole situation to me is more that Ken ran away after the fact to escape culpability, but it’s not like he purposefully drove the car off the road.
I’d say the only real problem is that he covered it up. The kid grabbed the steering wheel. He’s only responsible for his death in the “if only we hadn’t been on a coke run” sense.
I didn’t say he could be convicted of murder. His actions directly caused a guy to die and then he had it covered up.
“His actions directly caused a guy to die and then he had it covered up.”
Which “action” did he do that “directly” cause anything? The kid grabbed the wheel and jerked it to the side, directly causing the crash.Kendall tried to save him and was unable to.
Literally *NOTHING* Kendall did “directly” caused anything.You are wrong and ignorant and you shouldn’t try to tell people you aren’t a moron.
Wasn’t it an accident?
“Kendall killed a guy.”
Kendall is worse than everyone else because he was in a car accident?You might want to invest in some sort of moral compass.
“That’s worse than using money and emotional manipulation to get someone to stay in a weird relationship with you.”
TIL that getting in a car accident is worse than longform mental and emotional abuse.
Imagine being the kind of piece of shit, garbage person who would ACTUALLY think that.
Good satire, though.
Honestly, what makes Succession stand out to me among other dramas about evil rich people that have become so prevalent over the last couple years is the humanity of the characters. Yes, they’re capable of awful things, but their awful acts are always rooted in queasily understandable human impulses, which actually strengthens it’s systemic critique. It’s not individual people that are that problem necessarily, it’s the economic system that’s the problem. I’d highly recommend Jenni Abere’s videos on Succession, they dig into the nitty-gritty of this show with much more nuance than I’ve seen pretty much anywhere else:
Yeah. It’s the humanity+the lack of redeemable qualities that makes the show work as a perfect black comedy with some dramatic elements. If any of the main characters was a “good” person the whole thing would be too cruel, I think.
I’ve always seen it as like a tragicomedy, both the comedic and dramatic aspects kind of feed into and elevate each other. It’s both the funniest show on tv and the most emotionally exhausting, for me at least.
Counterpoint: Willa got Connor to move to New York in addition to financing her play. If this show continued another few years we would probably find out Connor didn’t make her sign a pre-nup or if he did it still gives her half of everything.
I won’t go as far to say that she is manipulating him, but I do think that it’s fair to say that Conor is too inept to be outright manipulative. He is always pretty blatant with Willa about it. Even when he proposed, it was cut-and-dried: she’ll be more comfortable, he’ll be slightly more electable. Honestly, it’s pretty sad for both parties. Willa feels financially trapped into this relationship, Conor knows that the best he’ll ever do is marrying someone for political purposes.
I just rewatched the first season and Connor seems way creepier yet also more innocuous than Kendall. Like, he is completely oblivious and will spend millions of dollars to inflate his ego, but a lot of that is just self-contained. Kendall will go out and ruin someone’s life and reputation if they don’t have sex with him at a party. Also, he did manslaughter a guy and cover it up. Basically Kendall is just as much of a hypocrite as his father, only he pretends he’s got morals, whereas Connor is merely an indulgent prick. In some ways his relationship with Willa is more honest than many of the other ones on the show. She’s a “kept woman” and as Kieran Culkin mentions, Willa is in a golden cage, but she’s definitely got Connor under her thumb and she knows the score, unlike Tom when he got married to Shiv. Willa has probably made close to a million dollars just by listening to old dudes rant about war medals, Napoleon, and Alexander the Great etc. along with the random blowjob.
That bit where Roman rescues Kendall from that meth den and they listen to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” on the way back is so underrated.
Roman is definitely the most self-aware Roy kid, even if he does hide a lot of it in provocateur antics and artisan level sardonic cut-downs. That arc where Gerri sent him to business school (before he screwed up the whole shuttle launch) was a very solid trajectory for him. Recently, he’s the only Roy who actually cares about the company succeeding and not just trying to “win” the family war. If he didn’t care about the approval of maternal/paternal figures so much, Roman would probably be running the show. But at least he’s still the funniest Roy.
Hah, I forgot about the rocket explosion. As far as single acts go his negligence there to hit a deadline is up there. Sure no one died, but they easily could have. To me the rocket thing is like ten times worse than Kendall not trying to rescue the waiter and then trying to pretend it didn’t happen.
Forgot about that. The rocket launch was bad, but he shouldn’t have been anywhere near it, so that is on Logan as well. Don’t put your idiot kid in charge of rockets. His support and buddying up with Mencken is way worse, for me though. Helping put fascists into power (whether or not it succeeds) is unforgiveable.
It’s, of course, Logan, by a wide mile, then the kid’s mother Caroline. (Sidenote, we’ve never met Connor’s mom, will we ever? I hope so).Then it’s a really a fight for who is next. I say Roman, Shiv, Connor, Kendall, but it changes day to day. Buddying up and supporting Mencken, the fascist candidate is truly worse than just about everything else the kids have done.
Willa hasn’t been forced to do anything. She’s been put into awkward situations, and pressured to do things, and Connor is a dick, but she has been free to walk away and live a normal life away from the Roy family money whenever she wants. It doesn’t seem like Connor threatens her to keep her around, she hangs out because she wants the access to money and power (like just about everyone in their lives).
Connor is just a sad, forgotten half-brother who is looking for someone to validate him and love him, and he’s using his money to try and get it because it’s all he knows.But sure, he’s more despicable than the ones who are intentionally fucking over their friends, family, loved ones, spouses, etc.