J. Smith-Cameron, who played Gerri in Succession, has said she “did not believe” that her character’s phone sex relationship with Roman Roy was real at first.
The hit HBO black comedy ran for a total of four seasons between 2018 and 2023, telling the story of the Roy family, the powerful owners of a global media company, and their internal fight for control of their empire amid the ailing health of the family patriarch Logan, played by Brian Cox.
Smith-Cameron played Gerri Kellman in all four seasons, the general counsel to the Roy family who becomes a mentor figure to Roman Roy, one of Logan’s sons played by Kieran Culkin. The two characters also share an unlikely sexual relationship, involving elaborate roleplay and phone sex conversations.
In a new interview with The Guardian, Smith-Cameron has revealed that she was very surprised to learn about this aspect of her character.
Explaining how the idea for it came about, she said: “[Culkin and I] were in a bar, and we had this little exchange, and then I left – and apparently Kieran kind of looked back at me, and then just as he turned around, I looked back at him. The writers were giggling, and when we came back for the next season Alan Ruck [who played Roman’s brother Connor] said, ‘So, I hear you’re Roman’s love interest for season two’.”
“I was, like, what? I didn’t believe him at all.”
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Smith-Cameron also revealed in the interview that Gerri was originally written as a male character and was only due to appear in four episodes, saying she “willed myself into every episode of the season after that”.
Jeremy Strong, who played Kendall Roy, another of Logan’s sons in the show, has said that he does not want to see another season of Succession, feeling that it has been “put to rest”.
Nevertheless, and despite the seemingly final closure of the end of season four, Cox said in January that he would be open to returning in a potential Succession movie if the script was “good enough.”
The fourth season of the show was named as the second best television show of 2023 by NME.
“Initially surprising, Jesse Armstrong’s decision to end Succession with an enthralling fourth season ultimately proved inspired,” NME wrote. “With mogul Logan (Brian Cox) finally popping his clogs – rather poetically, in the bathroom of a “PJ” – we saw his kids scrambling to inherit his power and clout before they became too toxic to care about.”
“At its best, Succession managed to evoke not sympathy – come on, that would be ridiculous – but at least a pang of sadness for these awful multimillionaires. The scene where Logan told his offspring that they weren’t “serious people” was utterly devastating because it was both cruel and deserved.”
“Never less than rambunctious and riveting, this final season also offered a welcome reminder that the 0.1% are just as messed up as the rest of us. They just behave so much worse.”