Succession's Nicholas Braun Found Inspiration For Greg In An Australian Shepherd

He might have participated in an impromptu game of Boar on the Floor, but the animal that "Succession" character Greg Hirsch seems most closely aligned with is a dog. When we first meet the hapless cousin of the Roy dynasty, he's even dressed as a dog — Waystar Royco's popular children's character, Doderick — as part of a management training program at one of Waystar's theme parks.

When that excursion ends with Greg getting mobbed by kids and puking out of Doderick's eyes, he goes to New York City to beg for a job from his Uncle Logan. There, the dog comparisons continue; Shiv refers to him as a "rescue pup," and after Logan has a stroke, Marcia gets rid of a hovering Greg by asking him to fetch his uncle's slippers. Hell, Greg even uses dog poop bags (not pre-pooped) to pilfer free food.

Actor Nicholas Braun was, in fact, deliberately bringing some canine energy to the role. In a discussion with Jimmy Kimmel about how the character was first formed, Braun said he drew inspiration from two real-world sources. One was a man he saw on the dance floor at a party, who was "just dancing recklessly, just freely, just like a pure soul ... not to the beat." The second was not a human at all, but an Australian Shepherd dog called Durango that Braun was taking care of in the lead-up to "Succession" season 1.

From his slightly awkward physical presence to his habit of clinging to various members of the Roy family, Greg often seems like a dog in human form — and Durango was the template for that behavior. "He would kind of follow me around and he was looking at me and he's like, 'It's okay that I'm in here with you?'" Braun explained to Kimmel. "He wanted to be next to me but he's sort of asking permission to be with me and I thought, 'That's pretty Greggy.'"

Asked to elaborate on Durango's influence by ABC News, Braun explained that he'd been taking a cross-country trip with the dog prior to shooting the pilot episode of "Succession." Although it was a friend's dog, Braun was "just very close with him at the time." Since Greg's personality on the page already had lots of "puppy dog energy," Braun says that sometimes on set he "would think about Durango [and] be like, 'Let me put a little Durango into this scene."

If Greg the puppy dog can be said to have an owner, it's Tom Wambsgans, another outsider in the Roy family who seemingly recognized Greg as a kindred spirit. "[Greg is] a dog that's maybe being beaten a bit," Braun told Awards Daily in 2022. "But he's being trained by Tom." That might be why Greg has taken a somewhat ugly turn in season 4; Tom taught him to indulge in the excesses of wealth, but didn't do such a good job of teaching him discipline. 

Still, at least Greg has his freedom, which means he's better off than poor Mondale.