Jesse Armstrong had to remind even Matthew Macfadyen that Tom Wambsgans isn’t dumb
Sometimes the Succession star was inclined (like the rest of us) to forget that his loveably awkward Tom was capable of running a billion-dollar department
Aux News MacFadyen
Unless you’ve been living under a rock these past few months (or you’re more of a Billions stan), you’re probably more than aware that Succession’s fourth and final season begins this Sunday—bringing, hopefully, a whole slew of long-awaited answers with it. Who, in the end, will take over the company? Will Roman finally get to kiss the tall man of his dreams? And will Tom wise up and hold onto his current power position? Or fumble it like he largely has thus far?
Taking on this last one has been a doozy for even Tom’s actor Matthew Macfadyen, who—like the rest of us—has sometimes been inclined to mistake Tom’s, well, extreme doormat-ness for outright idiocy. “Jesse [Armstrong, Succession’s creator] will remind Nick [Braun] and me, ‘He’s running a billion-dollar wing of this company; he’s not a total moron,’” Macfadyen said in a recent New York Times interview.
When we last saw our goofy, conniving Nero, he was attempting to comfort his wife after betraying her for Logan and his own interests, even earning the honor of the episode’s final, lingering shot. Still, even after this stunning move, Macfadyen doesn’t think Tom’s future is locked down. “Tom may be in Logan’s camp, but it’s not an easy camp to be in,” he said. “He still doesn’t feel particularly secure, and he’s still worrying about his relationship with Shiv. And everyone else is still maneuvering and jockeying and competing.”
But while Tom may have finally thrown his hat in the ring, Macfadyen himself is happy to sit back and let it all play out around him. “I’ve seen actors get very proprietorial about their ‘journey’… but I don’t feel like it’s my character—it’s Jesse’s, and I’m the conduit for it,” he said.
As for his feelings about the show coming to an end, something that made his on-screen wife Sarah Snook “very upset” and his on-screen father-in-law Brian Cox feel “nothing”?
“It was a really lovely bunch of actors,” he said. “It’s a weird thing, the grief when you finish a job. It’s sort of awful and heartbreaking but at the same time, there’s a slight relief—a complicated mélange of feelings.” Right down the middle–; very on-brand for Tom.
The fourth and final season of Succession premieres Sunday, March 26 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
30 Comments
I want a spinoff where Tom and Greg solve crimes…badly. Or do anything together really.
I really hope you chose that user name because you’re currently working on a Cocaine Bear sequel that just hasn’t been announced yet.
The world’s worst hit-men.
there is definitely room for at least one macfayden/braun road movie.
“Jesse Armstrong had to remind even Matthew Macfadyen that Tom Wambsgans isn’t dumb”Has Armstrong never watched the show?
Tom is dumb. It took him years to figure out that Shiv gives zero fucks for him* and then he did a desperate, flailing thing that may end up being the first and only smart thing he’s ever done on the show.Of course, I’m pretty sure the show will end with Greg atop the pile.*In fact, in re-watching the series recently, I’ve honestly never gotten an inkling of why Shiv was with Tom in the first place, much less married him. Before the S3 finale, he seemed to exist to be consistently belittle and cuckolded by Shiv.
There’s a fun dynamic where Macfadyen’s accent will occasionally slip, but it oddly works for the character, since Tom is kind of like an artificial intelligence that’s pretending to be a human male with about a 90-95 percent success rate.
Yeah his and Snook’s accents are very good like 99.9% of the time, but eeeevery so often they slip on something really subtle. Like I think one time McFayden used that little T->L click thing that Brits sometimes do in words like “subtle” or “little”.
usually shows in the vowels when they get shouty
Macfadyen is a handsome man who also looks like the generic human male template in a video-game character creation section.
This is the most accurate description for anything that I’ve seen in a very long time.
Yeah he comes off as someone so emotionally stunted that he’s trained himself to replicate behavior he sees in others without really understanding it. That takes effort and leaves margin for error, resulting in that 90-95% hit rate.
Kind of Jesse’s fault for writing such amazing Peep Show-esque dialogue for Tom and Greg.
And season one, to the best of my recollection, does kind of set up Tom as a dolt. Yeah, he’s in Waystar, but the implication seems to be that it’s nepotism more than anything that keeps him around. He gets given roles and promotions, but we never actually see if he’s any good at them. I know more than a few VP-level execs who are about 2% involved in the running of their departments, but they get all the credit. I like Tom’s arc, but I think it’s easy to understand how viewers and even the actor himself would think that the character was a bit dim, given his initial introduction in the series. He gets more malign after season 2, but even up until the end of season 3, I’m not sure many viewers would say that Tom “had it in him” to pull of the move he does in the finale.
I have to think that was deliberate, to make the viewer underestimate him as much as the rest of the Roy family seems to. He’s a lurker who is not going to stick his head up too high for fear of getting it cut off, but clearly picks his spots when opportunity arises.
So Sarah Snook lives under a rock?
No, she was just upset when the ending turns out that Bran inherits the company. Didn’t work when Game of Thrones tried it either.
I didn’t watch either of these shows; so your, I’m sure multi-layered reference is lost on me.
A SEXY rock.
Obviously!
Under a rock? Little hyperbolic there, it’s not exactly Friends at it’s peak. Even if you’re aware the show exists I’m not sure you’d be aware about the fourth and final season bit.
None of the characters are very smart. That’s one of the themes, it doesn’t really matter what they do. They’re so rich, there’s very little consequences in their lives.
Not even Logan is, really. One of my favorite scenes of the series is Stewy, a seeming dolt, not only no-selling Logan’s entire schtick but being utterly bored with it because he knows only the promise of more money matters at this point. It really made me flip my perspective on Logan as someone who is simply a lifelong bully and little more than that.
Logan is more ruthless than smart. Willing to cross lines that others won’t, not outthinking everyone.
You think Stewey seems like a dolt? Odd take.
That’s really the fun of the show – despite the title, you’re telling me any of the kids has the combination of acumen and experience to run a global media empire? Not even close. They’d be learning the CEO role on the job, which is not a great strategy.
I think the more you watch, the clearer it is that not only are the kids not that smart, none of the characters are. Even Logan. All these “titans of industry” aren’t better or smarter than us, just more immoral and lucky.
Yeah, they’re all dumb as a box of rocks, which is why Succession works. It’s basically a sitcom with the trappings of a prestige drama.
Logan’s an animal who started with nothing, which is his strength in the business world. He’ll just beat the shit out of you. None of his kids have that characteristic in the least.
It’s a good reminder that there are many types of intelligence. Tom is smart enough to learn how to do things effectively and retain information, and he may have some organisational prowess. But if you’re measuring emotional or social intelligence, he’s pretty low on the scale.