Brian Cox unleashed a blistering denunciation of President Donald Trump in an expletive-laced interview with The Times published Friday, accusing the former president of pursuing a war on Iran out of “sheer ******* greed” and showing little concern for ordinary people. “Trump doesn’t give a **** about the people,” the Scottish actor told the British newspaper. “He’s only interested in the oil. There’s just sheer ******* greed motivating him, nothing else. The idea he’s liberating people is a nonsense.”
Cox, who gained widespread recognition playing media patriarch Logan Roy on HBO’s Succession, used the profile to voice wider alarm about the motivations he sees behind Western foreign policy and the cultural appetite for wealth. “And it’s that greed that sort of permeates through society. I find at my age, I just go, ‘Are we going to get any better?’” he added, reflecting a pessimism threaded through the interview.
The comments are the latest in a long line of blunt public statements from Cox, who has not shied from criticising Trump in the past. In earlier interviews he dubbed the former president “that idiot in America” and said being around him “made me feel like I wanted to go and have a shower.” Those barbed judgments and the new denunciation of a potential conflict with Iran have renewed attention on Cox’s reputation for candid, sometimes profane commentary.
The Times profile has also revived and rounded up some of Cox’s more controversial takes on fellow actors, drawn from previous interviews and his 2022 memoir. Among the comments recapped in the piece, Cox dismissed Edward Norton as “a pain the arse,” called Kevin Spacey “a stupid, stupid, man,” and said Ian McKellen’s acting was “not to my taste.” Those candid assessments have long been part of his public persona and are again being cited as evidence of his willingness to speak unvarnished opinions.
Cox’s critique links his theatrical bluntness to broader political views: he framed the push for military action as being driven less by ideals than by resource interests, and suggested that such motivations are emblematic of a wider social malaise. While Cox is primarily known to audiences for his screen work, his comments in The Times underscore how cultural figures can shape public conversation about foreign policy and the motives of political leaders.
The interview has drawn attention on social media and in entertainment circles for both its political thrust and its catalogue of personal condemnations of high-profile colleagues. Whether Cox’s remarks will prompt direct responses from political figures or the actors named remains unclear, but the profile reinforces his long-standing role as a provocateur willing to mix theatrical frankness with pointed political critique.