Sure, Brian Cox has some thoughts on "millennials" and "woke culture" for you

Brian Cox has a fresh Emmy nomination in hand today, having been one of three actors, alongside fake sons Kieran Culkin and Jeremy Strong, to be nominated for Lead Actor In A Drama for their work on HBO’s Succession. Cox—who, having found himself in the unlikely position of going from “well-liked character actor” to “fuck off man” icon at the age of 77, thanks to the show—was making the press rounds even before the news broke, though. Specifically, Cox made a return appearance on Talk TV’s Piers Morgan Uncensored earlier this week to say a lot of stuff we might reasonably bundle together under the label “Piers Morgan kind of stuff,” including some requisite thoughts on “millennials,” “woke culture,” “shame culture,” etc.

The interview took a pretty standard format: Some chit-chat, a bit of British politics, the unavoidable bit where Cox discusses his feelings about Logan Roy being killed off three episodes into Succession’s final season. (Still gets it, still doesn’t love it, still hasn’t watched the episode.) Then, Morgan did as Piers Morgan does, lobbing topics at Cox to get some soundbites off of.

For instance: Is social media damaging the fabric of society? Cox: “I think it points out too readily inadequacies. The whole woke culture is truly awful […] and the shaming culture. I don’t know where it comes from. Who are the arbiters of this shaming? And it’s very hard to pin them down, and, it turns out, it’s usually a bunch of millennials. And who gave them the halos? I suppose in a way they’re probably saying, ‘Well you’ve all screwed it up so we may as well do something about it.’ But it’s from the wrong principle. It comes from the wrong place.”

Here are some other hits from the interview: Trigger warnings for the Nazi content in The Sound Of Music? “This is what I can’t stand…It’s so important to acknowledge what our history is.” The alteration of Roald Dahl books for modern sensibilities: “It’s disgraceful. Absolutely disgraceful. Roald Dahl was a difficult man, but he wrote some amazing stuff.” “Cancellation” of artists from the past in general: “It comes from complete ignorance. It’s an ignorant state that creates this sort of, ‘That’s bad, that’s good.’” (Tragically, Morgan forgot to ask Cox about method acting, to really round out the list of topics.)

To be fair, Cox comes off as even-handed in the discussion—no Logan-esque “Fuck off!”s here—and he dodges at least one Morgan-trap about whether people are too hard on the evils of the past. (Noting that it’s “quite a good thing” for the U.K., for instance, to more fully acknowledge its role in the slave trade.) But the whole thing is a good reminder that the charm of an actor of a certain vintage cutting loose with what he really thinks can certainly be a double-edged sword.

[via Deadline]