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Thats right: In all thingsSuccession, there is Gerri, Waystar Roycos general counsel.
Played with poisonous efficiency by J. Smith-Cameron, Gerri survives the chaos primarily by staying out of it.
At the end of this episode, Gerri and Roman have very charged, very unexpected phone sex.
How did you initially react to that scene?Well, I was totally shocked.
I was like, What foreshadowing?
And he went, Oh, has no one told you about that?
Then he said, Yeah, theres gonna be something.
Kieran and I have known each other a long time.
We have a good rapport on set.
He maybe respects that or enjoys that in some roundabout way.
But its still very, very weird!
I was rewatching the first season and I was surprised by how much its foreshadowed.
She keeps her boat afloat and thats not lost on him.
He finds that appealing.
What do you think she gets out of it?
It was on the page, but it also just was true.
It just happened in the room.
I dont think, at that point, Gerri would ever guess where it was going.
I think she is fond of him and would like to think of him as a protege or something.
She thinks,Oh, hes not stupid.
And hes very charismatic.
Hes just a restless spoiled brat.
If the right person could fashion that, hed be really an amazing person.
But thats a distant thought, because I dont think she has very high hopes for the Roys.
But some kind of rapport is there.
I dont think she knows what to make of it.
Every time we went to shoot one of those scenes, Id be like, What is this?
It finally occurred to me that Gerri doesnt know either.
Shes just playing it moment to moment, like,What?
A lot of Gerris scenes involve her observing these Roy power struggles, then reacting to whatevers happening.
What is it like to film that?Its really fun.
But theres some sanity that she can always access because shes not caught up in that above-the-law feeling.
So she does bide her time.
She does carefully choose her words.
Its not that Gerri is morally superior at all, by the way.
Its like an extreme sport.Will I get dunked by this wave or will I come out on top?
Logan had his stroke and he went to the hospital and Im like, No thanks.
Hes like, What?
This season, shes not in the chosen [group].
Shes not quite in sync with it all.
Shes staying alive in the game, but its not really quite exactly going her way.
You talked about working with Kieran in the past.
Kierans been in a number of my husbands plays as well asMargaret.
Ive gotten to know him over a long the time.
I feel like it did really inform the Gerri-Roman thing, our history.
It makes for this shorthand you have with someone.
Its like the beginning of a beautiful friendship, like theyre like partners in crime.
