In an almost suicidal act, Jeremy Strong (Kendall in ‘Succession’) risked his life to force an alternative ending

*This article contains spoilers for the final chapter of Succession

From Esquire we have already explained in detail the end of succession and Shiv’s decision and even recommended a Spanish series that was ahead of succession and that comes divinely to remove the monkey. But let’s not fool ourselves, we’re still going on and we’ll continue for a long time in that finale, in that night with the brothers in Barbados, in that violent embrace between Kendall and Roman, in that Shiv whose stomach won’t allow her to vote for her brother, in that Roman alone at the bar, in those ten seconds without dialogue that are the best of succession and, of course, in that final scene, Kendall and the sunset.

Jeremy Strong, the interpreter in charge of giving life to Kendall Roy has had his ups and downs with the rest of the cast and crew. Brian Cox (Logan Roy) has called him “unbearable” several times and it seems that the rest of the cast is not very fond of him either. The reason is not that he is a bad professional, far from it. He’s not an unpleasant person either. His working method is known as extreme, for getting into the character and the scene in such radical ways that it can annoy the rest. We have a sample, apparently, in what happened in this episode where Strong had to bear the weight of putting an end to succession in a scene without dialogue.

In the final scene of succession we see Kendall walking alone in Battery Park after losing the vote and walking out of Waystar. He is followed by Colin, the one who was his father’s bodyguard and who he rescued from retirement in one of his many attempts to imitate his father figure. Kendall has been left without a purpose in life, as he himself says. He stares at the river and the series ends there. succession He did not want to be dramatic and show us how he cuts his wrists or throws himself from the balcony. It is not necessary that his death be physical, he is a person who has been left with nothing to do in life, whether he ends it or not is indifferent. That is why they leave us with the ambivalence of him looking at the river, a river that he may jump into shortly, but we don’t need to know.

However, Strong was so invested in his character’s feelings that he couldn’t help but continue with the scene, and from a dangerous point of view. In an interview for Vanity Fairthe actor has revealed that he tried to jump into the river after the shot that we see as the final point of the series.

To me, what happens in the board vote is an extinction level event for this character. There is no turning back… I heard the poem by John Berryman with which Jesse Armstrong (creator of the series) has named this final chapter. John Berryman himself died by suicide, jumping into a frozen river… I tried to get into the water after we cut: I got up off that bank and ran as fast as I could over the barrier and over the pilings, and the actor who played Colin ran after me.

We repeat that Jeremy Strong was so into character that, after cutting the scene, he attempted suicide. It was his bodyguard in fiction who had to save him in reality. Something that perhaps only prolonged Strong’s state.

I didn’t know I was going to do that, and he didn’t know it, but he ran over and stopped me. I don’t know if at that moment I felt that Kendall just wanted to die, I think he did, or if he essentially wanted to be saved by a representative of his father.

The second thing Strong says is very interesting, which points to Kendall’s need to be saved by his father (through his assistant) rather than suicide. For Strong, this was “a much stronger ending philosophically”. We, however, think that it would have been a discordant note, too high and screaming, far from the subtly tragic tone of the whole set.

There’s some kind of fatal loop that we’re all stuck in, and Kendall’s stuck in this kind of silent scream with Colin there as a bodyguard and jailer. My gosh, that would have been hard to do (get into the cold water). But I think you even feel on a cellular level the intention or the longing to cross that threshold. The way Armstrong leaves us with a kind of ambivalence stays true to his vision.

Mark Mylod, the director of the majority of important chapters of succession (35 of 39) and in charge of the finale already knew Strong very well and took precautions so that the actor did not end up in the Hudson.

The first thing to do was make sure she was safe. Once we got it back up on the railing, we were able to safely continue with the moment because both actors were still in it.