Succession Put Brian Cox's Head On A Stunt Double's Body To Film A Key Logan Scene
I've always wondered how movie and TV productions pull off scenes with chest compressions. I've taken quite a few first aid courses in my day, and one of the first things students learn about giving CPR is that you have to push down hard. It takes a lot of force to mimic the blood flow of a heartbeat, and if done right — as "Better Call Saul" star Bob Odenkirk has mentioned when talking about his harrowing 2021 heart attack — it can break a person's ribs. Or, if you're in the medical fairy-tale world of "9-1-1: Lone Star," it can apparently break a person's whole frozen chest as it did in a gross and darkly funny clip that recently went viral.
The bottom line is that chest compressions are no joke, and the team behind HBO's hit show "Succession" apparently found a creative way to show them on screen while keeping actors safe in a recent episode. In an interview with Vanity Fair, director and executive producer Mark Mylod explained that Logan Roy's big death scene earlier this season involved a bit of movie magic. Namely, it featured not just actor Brian Cox, but also a stunt double and some ultra-subtle post-production visual effects.
A cruel confirmation
"At some point we wanted to absolutely, definitively and clearly say, yes, that is Logan and he is dead," Mylod explained, noting that he chose not to focus much on the body throughout the episode. The filmmaking choice is impactful as it gives viewers the same sense of uncertainty the Roy kids feel — the sense that if we can't actually see Logan, he might not be dead. Mylod ultimately decided to cut to Logan when Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) put the phone beside his face while the kids attempted to talk to him. Mylod notes that this might be "the cruelest way" to confirm Logan's death to viewers, noting that there's "almost [a] kind of coziness of the fireside chat of having the phone up against his ear."
Once the team decided exactly how they wanted to reveal Logan's body, they had to figure out how to do realistic chest compressions without injuring Cox. Apparently, there are stunt doubles who are able to withstand the strong pressure involved in the motion. "Chest compressions, it's a one-inch compression so it can damage your ribcage so we had a stunt person come in so that we could do those for real," Mylod explained, calling the strategy for the shot a "rare cheat" in an episode that still contains a strong sense of verisimilitude.
Cox was still involved in the shot, though he only had to appear briefly. "I asked Brian to come in one day and literally to lie down for 10 seconds," Mylod shares. "I'd lined it all up, I put a marker on the floor exactly where his head should be." In Vanity Fair's video, Mylod outlines which parts of the shot are Cox and which are the stunt double, who provided only the torso part of the image.
Succession used subtle movie magic to bring its story to life
"We basically took his head and put it onto the torso of the stunt person here," Mylod said. Afterward, the post-production team had another step to do, digitally moving Cox's head so it would seem to be impacted slightly by the force of the CPR being performed on the stunt double's torso. "What we then did in post with the help of our visual effects team was to give a slight rhythmic push to Brian's head so it was in sync with the body compressions," Mylod shared.
This might sound like a remarkable (and remarkably minor) use of visual effects, but it's not the first time "Succession" has made great use of CGI: VFX artist Aaron Raff spoke to Moviemaker back in season 3 and revealed that the show frequently uses non-noticeable visual effects when it comes to things like the view from an airplane window. According to Raff, the show's visual effects "always have to be super subtle and not noticeable, because I think seeing anything that would be obviously a visual effect in a show like this would just be distracting and weird." Logan's CPR scene definitely fits the bill, as there's nothing in the brief, heartbreaking shot that screams "VFX" or even "stunt double."
Mylod, Raff, and the rest of the team behind "Succession" have pulled off some fascinating and impressive filmmaking miracles across the past five years, but the saga's movie magic is about to run out: "Succession" will officially conclude this Sunday on HBO and Max at 9 p.m. ET.