No shame, but all shade!
Brian Cox is getting super honest about certain Hollywood A-listers in his new memoir, “Putting the Rabbit in the Hat.”
Excerpts from the 75-year-old “Succession” star’s book — available Jan. 18, 2022 — were published by the Big Issue on Thursday, and some of the people the Scottish actor slams include Quentin Tarantino and Johnny Depp.
Before diving into the people he’s trashed, Cox told the outlet, “I’m expecting probably never to hear from some people again. But that’s the way it goes.”
In regards to “Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood” filmmaker Tarantino, Cox writes, “I find his work meretricious. It’s all surface. Plot mechanics in place of depth. Style where there should be substance. I walked out of ‘Pulp Fiction’ … That said, if the phone rang, I’d do it.”
Cox also says he rejected the role of Governor Weatherby Swann in the Depp action-adventure film series “Pirates of the Caribbean.” That role eventually went to Jonathan Pryce.
Writing about Depp, 58, Cox says, “Personable though I’m sure he is, is so overblown, so overrated. I mean, ‘Edward Scissorhands.’ Let’s face it, if you come on with hands like that and pale, scarred-face makeup, you don’t have to do anything. And he didn’t. And subsequently, he’s done even less.”
The “X2: X-Men United” star worked with Pryce, 74, and actor Christopher Walken, 78, in the 2001 drama “The Affair of the Necklace.” On shooting with the two screen legends, Cox writes, “Christopher Walken was somewhat bemused by Jonathan Pryce, which is understandable, Jonathan being an interesting fish, kind of dark and gloomy at times. And if you can freak out Christopher Walken … “
Having co-starred with Steven Seagal in the 1996 thriller “The Glimmer Man,” Cox has this to say about the martial artist-turned-actor: “Steven Seagal is as ludicrous in real life as he appears on screen. He radiates a studied serenity, as though he’s on a higher plane to the rest of us, and while he’s certainly on a different plane, no doubt about that, it’s probably not a higher one.”
Before the late David Bowie became a world-renowned musician, he was an actor. Bowie appeared as a soldier in the ’60s series “Redcap” in an episode Cox guested on. He writes of the rock star, “A skinny kid, and not a particularly good actor. He made a better pop star, that much is for certain.”
While Cox doesn’t fully rip into legendary actor Michael Caine’s career, he does have this to say about the British star: “I wouldn’t describe Michael as my favourite, but he’s Michael Caine. An institution. And being an institution will always beat having range.”
Lastly, Cox describes his “25th Hour” castmate Edward Norton as “a nice lad but a bit of a pain in the arse because he fancies himself as a writer-director.”