Actor Alan Ruck reflects on "Succession" role, as the show comes to an end

All right, my talk at the table is our next guest, one of the stars of the acclaimed series, Succession. Fans are anxiously awaiting the premiere of the fourth and final season this weekend. Of course, Succession follows the dysfunctional and conniving members of the Roy family who are fighting for control of their global media empire. Actor Alan Ruck has starred in the series since 2018. He plays Conor Roy, the oldest of the Roy siblings, who's pursuing a long shot presidential run. Watch this. Hey, hey, you okay Conor? Oh yeah, yeah.

Just polling. And yeah, 10 days out and. Nice, what are you out now? Solid, still holding. Yeah, one person. It's just the fear is in these last days, it could get squeezed. Squeezed down from one, because that's the lowest number. No, there's decimals.

Says that's the lowest number. Posing, Greg. No, closing, Greg. Or just saying, Alan, I love that scene. It's a great scene, and Alan Ruck is here, joining us now, welcome. Good morning, good morning. Yeah, your chances don't look so good, Mr.

President. I have a little leverage. That's not coming out yet. You're polling in like the 1%. It's something. That's like a million people. I do love that attitude, which is so much on display in the show.

But how do you feel about the fact that the show is coming to an end? I'm not ready, Alan. None of us are. Well, neither am I. I made Friends for Life on this show. And it's bittersweet. I'm really happy to have been a part of this thing. One of the nicest sort of periods of my career, absolutely, the best writers I've ever worked with.

Fabulous cast, great directors, everything, the designers, everything. Every member of the cast and crew has that quality of yes and. It's like, can you do this? Yes, and I was thinking about this other thing and everybody adds their special touch to it. And that's why the show is so good. The use of the F-bombs too, in addition to great writing, but the way that they use the F-bombs and the way that they. Well, specifically Brian Cox. Brian Cox.

But everybody does it. It's all pervasive. Yeah, it's very pervasive. But now that is also taken on a life of its own too, that I think is sort of fun to watch. Do you? Yes, I do. I don't trust people that don't curse. You know.

You don't. As long as you have an expansive vocabulary, I think the occasional F-bombs is highly appropriate. And if you wield it well, more power too. That's called good writing. Okay, so I wanna know if you can share the extent you can, whether you think fans will be satisfied with the ending, which I imagine you know well at this point. I think it's the best season we've done. I know that's a bold statement, but I really do think it's the best season we've done.

Wow. And. Can you say why you think that without giving away the storyline? Probably not. No, okay. I've heard you say that you've been waiting for a show like this for 30 years. What is it, what were you waiting for, and what did you get? It's funny, I just had a little reunion with some folks the other day. I did a pilot 35 years ago called Shooter for another network, and it was about photojournalists in Vietnam.

It was the same kind of tone. It was a drama, but it was wickedly, darkly funny. And it didn't go to series, you know? And I've been wanting something like that ever since. And then finally, this succession job just fell into my lap. So I got lucky. I love that you said you've made friends for life. That you've made friends for life on this show.

I have done on a few things I've done. I did a show years ago called Spin City. I made friends for life. Stuart, I remember that. I remember that, yeah. He played Stuart, yeah. So all those guys, Barry Bostwick, Michael Boatman, Richard Kyned, everybody, we're still pals.

Are there? I'm sorry. Oh, go ahead. No, I got nothing. I was gonna say, are there? I was gonna say, are there? Alan, you always have something. This is always a news guy question, but are there real life politicians that you as an actor looked at and drew inspiration from to play your character running for office? Connor is so sort of divorced from reality that I mean, some would say there are politicians out there who also are. I think he's not very current. He doesn't have a lot of current sort of heroes.

I think, I mean, he harkens back to Lincoln and models himself very much. I mean, his fascination with Napoleon. Yes, I mean, nothing sort of current, but people from the past, he admires greatly. Some people remember you from. Of course, Gail, you know where we were going. Go ahead, Gail. There's fewer.

I mean, and I have such great memories of that film, especially when Cameron was in Egypt's land. Yeah, yeah. My Cameron go, but here's, have you heard this, like, in the film nerd community? A lot of us believe that Ferris was not real, that Ferris was a fiction created by Cameron in his mind to imagine his life the way he would want to see it. Have you heard that before? The Fight Club theory. Yes. Have you heard that? I have, and whoever came up with that, I hope they got an A on that paper. Very clever.

Yeah. I don't believe that. But you said you have a love-hate relationship with the film, why? Well, I did for a while because when I was younger, there was a period where I had a really hard time getting work and everybody kept bringing up Bueller and I thought, well, I'm a one-trick pony and that was the trick, you know? And that was just like a period of two years and I was just, I didn't want to hear any more about it. That's tough. Well, it's things, you know how it is, it's up and down, right? Yeah. But then things got better and now I'm really pleased that I was a part of something that people love. Yeah, I love the music from, I love the music.

Great sound effect. Yeah, I never hit skip the intro because I love the music. Any family news, anything going on good in the family other than how well you're doing? Yes, my wife, Mirei Enos, has a new show called Lucky Hank on AMC with Bob Odentkirk and it just debuted last night and that's awesome. Two actors in the family. Congratulations. And we're making it work. Yeah, I love it.

You know. You're making it work very well. She's also extremely talented. We're very, very happy for you. Very happy, yes. Congratulations. And it wasn't just Ferris, I loved you in Young Guns, loved you in Spin City and I love you in Success.

He's a film geek, if you didn't know. I am a film geek. See, Alan, you are not a one-trick pony. That's right. Thanks. Alan and Ruck, thank you so, so very much. Season four premiere of Succession airs this Sunday on HBO Max.

Coming up.

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