Brian Cox turned down some big roles and criticized Johnny Depp: "overrated"

After more than half a century dedicated to acting, Brian Cox is living the best moment of his career. He has looked back, written his memoirs, and made some controversial revelations.

Logan Roy, his character in ‘Succession’, has put him in the category of TV legends and, with the fourth season confirmed, the HBO Max series is the lead example of international drama.

There was no better time to release his book of memoirs than during the third season of the TV drama; and so, Brian Cox released his biography in October 2021.

What nobody was expecting from ‘Putting the Rabbit in the Hat’ - the title of his memoir  - is that it contained so much shade to other stars, series, and films turned down by the actor.

Yes, Brian Cox spills all the tea and leaves us with some memorable passages in his biography, for example, when unloading on two of the biggest Hollywood stars: Johnny Depp and Edward Norton.

On Jack Sparrow’s alter ego, he recognizes that they could have been co-stars in the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ saga. Cox was offered the role of Weatherby Swan, the Governor, eventually played by Jonathan Pryce.

As he acknowledges in the book: "It would have been a money-spinner, but of all the parts in that film it was the most thankless, plus I would have ended up doing it for film after film and missed out on all the other nice things I’ve done." Indeed, Jonathan Pryce was part of the first three movies between the years 2003 and 2007.

But beyond the character, the real reason Brian Cox turned down ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ was his lead protagonist. He writes: "It's very much the 'Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow' show. And Depp is so overblown, so overrated."

Brian Cox doesn’t stop there and goes back to 1990. "I mean, Edward Scissorhands. Let's face it, if you come on with hands like that and pale, scarred-face make-up, you don't have to do anything. And he didn't. And subsequently, he's done even less," declared the veteran actor.

A few months after publishing his harsh words about Depp, Brian Cox apologized for them in the Jimmy Kimmel show in March 2022. "I just thought I was being a bit harsh," he told Kimmel. "I went for the easy joke."

Cox also said he had been pursued quite intensively by Johnny Depp's fan club after he'd published his memoir. "I heard a lot from his, they call it a fan club but it’s some kind of CIA agency that works on his behalf."

Once he finished with Johnny Depp in his memoir, it was Edward Norton’s time to be ‘put in his place’. He shot Spike Lee’s ‘25th Hour’ (2002) with Norton, who later also became Hulk.

"Ed Norton is a nice lad but a bit of a pain in the **** because he fancies himself as a writer-director," commented Brian Cox going right for the neck when remembering one of the scenes the two actors did together "set on the bar my character owned."

"Spike set it up immaculately, but Ed came in and was saying that he had some ideas for the script and had re-written some texts." Spike Lee - as Brian Cox recalls - looked at Ed’s notes, ignored them and did the scene his way, "putting Ed very firmly in his place."

Another big revelation of ‘Putting the Rabbit in the Hat’ is that Brian Cox turned down a role in… ‘Game of Thrones’!

Yes, the actor had the courage to say ‘no’ to one of the most important series in history. They offered him to play Robert Baratheon in the first season of the HBO show.

Brian Cox confesses that he knows very little about the series: "I can’t tell you whether or not he was an important character, and I’m not going to google it just in case he was, because I turned it down."

So, what were the reasons for turning down a trip to the Seven Kingdoms? There were basically two: money and death.

On the one hand, he recalls: "Game of Thrones went on to be a huge success and everybody involved earned an absolute fortune, of course. But when it was originally offered the money was not all that great."

On the other hand, and as everyone who has seen the show knows: "I was going to be killed off fairly early on, so I wouldn’t have had any of the benefits of the long-term effects of a successful series where your wages go up with each passing season. So, I passed on it, and Mark Addy was gored by the boar instead."

As he mentions the boar, it’s clear that he knows Robert Baratheon’s character and finally confesses: "I lied. I did google it."

Where he had no option of turning down the role, and instead expected to get it, was in the Harry Potter saga. In fact, his Scottish origins were one of the premises to participate in the young wizard movies, but it was another colleague who got it.

As he gathers in his biography: "I think the role I was going to get was the one played by Brendan Gleeson (Alastor ‘Mad-eye’ Moody), but he was more in fashion than me at that time and that’s pretty much how this business works."

It was precisely one of the main protagonists of the saga, the iconic Alan Rickman (Severus Snape), who he praises the most in the book: "He was one of sweetest, kindest, nicest, and most incredibly smart men I’ve ever met."

But Rickman was not the only one receiving kind words in ‘Putting the Rabbit in the Hat’. For example, talking about Keanu Reeves he writes: "He has become rather good over the years," and on Morgan Freeman he states that: "he is an absolute gentleman."

The opposite happens with Steven Seagal, with whom he starred in ‘The Glimmer Man’ (1996), and whose first impression couldn’t have been worse.

"Steven Seagal is as ludicrous as he appears onscreen. 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, it's probably not a higher one." We have to admit that Cox’s words are hilarious.

To end the list of affronts, Brian Cox mentions Quentin Tarantino and assures that if the director calls him, he will pick up immediately. But he still thinks that her movies are: "All surface. Plot mechanics in place of depth. Style where there should be substance."

If there’s any justice in Hollywood, the fate will unite Cox and Tarantino in the director’s next project.