James Cromwell Uses Our ‘Succession’ Obsession To Give Credit to the Writers

James Cromwell is known as that guy from Babe, but also—now almost more importantly—as Logan Roy’s older brother in Succession. Ewan Roy is Greg’s grandfather and a constant thorn in Logan’s side, so when Ewan was determined to speak at his brother’s funeral, the Roy siblings were understandably worried. But as is always the case with a new episode of Succession, the internet became obsessed with how Ewan eulogized his brother.

Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and beyond were all posting about Ewan’s speech, which included a heartfelt story about why his brother was the way he was and how that still didn’t excuse his horrendous behavior. It’s something that we still can’t stop thinking about. Cromwell, in his brilliance, took note and used our obsession with the moment to remind us that it wouldn’t exist without the writers.

“It begins with the words,” Cromwell began in a short Twitter thread. “Nothing happens without them. Sometimes, the writing achieves transcendence, but, in every case, it’s seminal. I got to a give a brilliant speech recently, which not only explicated my and my brother’s characters, it illuminated an entire narrative.”

Cromwell went on to show his support for the strike, saying, “This is what great writers do. And they need to be compensated in accordance with their contribution. At the very least, they need to be able to provide for themselves and their families.” He ended the thread with a call to action: “In this era of corporate greed and union busting, management seems to hold all the cards. Except for the most important ones: Unity; Solidarity; Fraternity. All of us win when the writers win. And we will win. Union! Strike!”

Cromwell is one of many actors who have made it clear that they would not be able to do their job without writers, and it’s been wonderful to see!

Writers bring stories to life

It’s so easy—when we hear an actor talk about improvising or when we focus on the characters—to ignore the writing that goes into those characters we know and love. This moment wouldn’t exist in Succession without the hard work of the writing staff on the show. Giving them our support during the WGA strike is the least we can do, and it’s nice to see Cromwell use his platform to remind fans that writers need us right now.

Yes, shows as a whole involve a lot of moving parts and different unions, but the writers are the ones who build the stories we’re addicted to. Without them, we wouldn’t have had four seasons of the Roy family dealing with Logan Roy and the aftermath of his death. We wouldn’t know that Ewan resented his brother but still seemed to care—and why. The writers gave us all of those moments and, as Cromwell stated, it starts with them.

You can support the strike in a number of ways, and if you’re someone who loves stories and shows and the characters we get to meet along the way, you should be rallying behind the writers who bring them to us.

(featured image: HBO)