Jamie Chung took that Succession cameo to keep health insurance

Humanity’s evidence-finding mission to prove that stars really are just like us has made some impressive strides in the last few years. From finding out Tom Cruise likes popcorn and movies to Ben Affleck trying to wrangle an unwieldy Dunkin’ order in a single trip, celebrities have expressed greater willingness to show off their more down-to-earth qualities in front of their adoring public. Even Taylor Swift is getting in the action by attending football games, just like a real person might.

But the realities of our current dystopia, which in these beautiful United States of America means only the gainfully employed have the privilege of health care, has its drawbacks regardless of how many Instagram followers one has. To wit, Jamie Chung, the former Real World contestant turned Junction actor, auditioned for that surprising Succession cameo because she needed health insurance.

Speaking to The A.V. Club, ironically promoting Junction, a healthcare drama about the opioid crisis and the abysmal state of the American healthcare system that fostered it, Chung revealed that she only auditioned because she, like most people in the world’s richest nation, really needed health insurance. Chung says the offer to audition came when she hadn’t “really worked” in a year and “turned a lot of things down.” Despite not working, Chung still needs her health insurance because health continues to need care whether one is employed or not. Thankfully, unlike almost everybody, the question of when and where to get said insurance doesn’t come with the opportunity to appear in one of the best episodes of television ever made. But they did for her. So there you go.

That’s not to say auditioning for Succession is easy. If it were, every A.V. Club writer would’ve enlisted to get canned by Kendall in the Vaulter offices. Chung describes a secretive process where “they won’t give you a script,” and they won’t say “how many scenes you’re in.” Succession producers, in Chung’s experience, just hand her some lines and tell her to go. Normally, that wouldn’t be ideal, but “knowing that this is the last season and knowing that I need health insurance, I was like, ‘Yes. Absolutely.’”

Chung, of course, appeared as Beth, Connor Roy’s wedding coordinator, for none other than “Connor’s Wedding.” An unrivaled cultural moment for a fractured media ecosystem, the episode was quite a feat of technical prowess for the whole production. “It was the scariest experience,” in Chung’s estimation, because “it’s all really long takes” done on film. “There’s no room for screwing up.”

Fortunately for Chung, Succession’s cast is one of the more decorated ensembles of the last few years. “Everyone is so tight,” she said. “They’re so prepared, but there’s so much ad-libbing, and I don’t like to ad-lib. I did not come prepared to ad-lib.”

“So that was a real big learning experience, but having no idea what the episode was about until, you know, I’m supposed to come in and interrupt and tell them that the room is ready, and yet everyone’s crying. I was in the moment of the discovery like ‘Oh, he dies.’”

Being one of the first to learn of Logan Roy’s demise isn’t all sunshine and daisies. She even broke an NDA to tell her husband, Junction director Bryan Greenberg, which she thought “was okay.” Greenberg, also present for the interview, refuted her claim, saying “it wasn’t okay” to spoil that significant Succession plot point. Unfortunately, that means Greenberg was among the first to feel the great Succession spoiling of 2023. But at least Chung got her health insurance.