As I leave the office, my editor wishes me luck. “Hope he’s not too grumpy!” she says. A moment later, the deputy editor asks where I’m off to. To see Brian Cox, the actor, I say. “Oh!” she says, with a rather-you-than-me look. “Hope he’s not too grumpy!”
Cox has played grumpy for going on 60 years. All sorts of grumpiness – idiot grumpy (independent candidate Bob Servant in the TV comedy of the same name), world-weary grumpy (school principal Dr Nelson Guggenheim in Wes Anderson’s film Rushmore), psychopathic grumpy (the first movie incarnation of Hannibal Lecter in Manhunter), egomaniacal grumpy (Robert McKee in Spike Jonze’s Adaptation) and, of course, brutal grumpy as media mogul Logan Roy in the TV series Succession. In recent years, he has often appeared on chatshows being grumpy about the state of the world. In 2022, he published his hugely entertaining memoirs, in which he was grumpy about method acting, useless directors, vain thesps, useless politicians, the church, capitalism, cancel culture, you name it. He was also fabulously indiscreet – Steven Seagal, whom he worked with on The Glimmer Man, is “as ludicrous in real life as he appears on screen”, Johnny Depp is “so overblown, so overrated”, Tarantino’s work is “meretricious”, Edward Norton is “a nice lad, but a bit of a pain in the arse because he fancies himself as a writer-director”, while Michael Caton-Jones, who directed him in Rob Roy, is a “complete arsehole”.
‘Ifeel I’ve upset a few people over the years,” Cox says with an angelic smile. “The problem is, I can be quite a loudmouth. Sometimes I have been fairly volatile, and I think, ‘Why the fuck did you say that?’” He’s looking back over his epic career. “There’s a lot of stuff I’ve done which I look at and think, ‘That was crap.’” But today’s not the time for negativity. “No, I’m not going to go down that road.”
We are going to have to expose you as a diplomat, I say, blimey? He chuckles, a sweet childlike laugh. Indeed! “You may expose me as a diplomat!” he exclaims. The problem is that some people are overrated, he continues. We are discussing his autobiographies and the candid allusions to actors like Depp and Seagal. However, they also likely believe they are overvalued. Therefore, I am not expressing anything that they do not already believe.
We meet in a hotel in the West End of London, near the Haymarket theatre, where he is practicing Trevor Nunn’s play The Score, which is about the aging Bach. Cox plays the role of his stage wife in the play, while Nicole Ansari-Cox plays his wife. With a purple tie to balance the 50 colors of brown that Cox is wearing—brogues, socks, checkered pants, and jacket—he looks quite stylish. He was a squat, middle-aged Sherman tank of a man who appeared older than his years. With a goatee and snow-white hair, he looks deceptively young for his age of 78.
I inquire as to why he is frequently portrayed as grumps. Nonplussed, he raises his hands. Could it be that he is one? “No, I am not at all like that. In fact, it is the complete opposite of who I am. He pauses to consider it. “No, that is not really accurate. Naturally, I become grumpy. I become really irritated about politics in particular. I get upset over a lot of that. specifically the Labour Party’s failure. Hold on. “However, I do not want to discuss that.” One more pause. “Hey, I could talk for hours.” And yet another.
One, two, three. And he’s off. “I don’t know why the Labour party is called the Labour party. It’s not labour orientated. I just think … ”
He lets out a big sigh of disappointment. “The man who initiated it all, Keir Hardie, was a remarkable individual. And he was pursuing social justice, which was a really inclusive goal. And they are not practicing social justice with this lot coming in now. They have a lot to do because the former group left us in a bad state, but they must be a little shrewd about it so as not to offend people. Furthermore, Starmer is not exactly the most endearing person. He is not Mr. Charm. He lacks what Tony Blair possessed, which he used to great use until his arrogance overcame him. On that metric, Starmer is down one point.
Nor does he rate Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, on the charm front. “She’s had a charm bypass. There’s no question.” He laughs again. But he’s worried – for Scotland, for Britain, for Europe, for the world.
Along with the group Independent Age, Cox has been advocating for older people to determine their eligibility for pension credit and opposing the elimination of winter fuel payments for those pensioners who are not receiving specific benefits. “I simply believe it is off.” It is unfair. “And means testing?” With disdain, he hisses the word. They used means testing back in the 1930s. And I discover that I am not sure. He pauses, at a loss for words. “I absolutely can not get with it.”