5 things we learned about Nicholas Braun — from his Disney era to his Superbad audition
In a Q interview, the Succession star reflects on his career up until the show’s final season
Nearly five years after its premiere, the hit HBO series Succession is coming to an end.
Actor Nicholas Braun, who plays Cousin Greg, returned to the Q studio for a wide-ranging conversation with Tom Power about his life and career.
You can listen to the full interview on our podcast — and here are five things we learned along the way.
His dad created some of the most famous album covers of all time
Braun's father, Craig Braun, is an actor and former graphic designer who made some of the most innovative album covers of the '60s and '70s for iconic bands like the Rolling Stones and the Velvet Underground.
"[My dad] was in the record business for a long time," Braun told Power. "He was designing album covers and logos and designed the Rolling Stones tongue. He worked on Sticky Fingers and Tommy, the rock opera for the Who, and sort of all these kind of iconic things in the music industry. But he had this dream of being an actor for his whole life.
"As things were turning into CDs and CDs were turning into iTunes downloads, like, he was in this point in his life where he was like, 'I don't know how to design things in the way that I was doing it before.' And so he had this dream of being an actor and he started taking classes while he was working the day job in the music industry still."
Braun said he'd stay with his dad on weekends (his parents were divorced) and help him prepare for auditions by running scenes together. Eventually, his dad started helping him with his own auditions.
"It was just contagious, I guess, or I was just lucky enough to be exposed to something that maybe I wouldn't have been otherwise," said Braun.
WATCH | Nicholas Braun's interview with Tom Power:
He 'had a bit of a Disney era'
Braun started his acting career at a young age, mostly doing theatre in New York. He got his first film role in the 2001 TV movie Walter and Henry, but his first big studio film was the 2005 Disney superhero comedy Sky High, about the children of superheroes going to high school.
"That was my first Disney film, then I did a couple of Disney Channel movies — 'DCOMs' as they call it: Disney Channel original movies," he said. "Then I went back and did a movie called Prom that went into theatres. So I had a bit of a Disney era."
He almost landed Michael Cera's part in Superbad
Even successful actors like Braun have to face rejection sometimes.
"Auditioning is its own kind of existential hell," he said. "You get the sort of potential of something, the potential to be in this big thing that could be career-changing, the potential to be seen in a different way. You think you're getting close, you do a callback, you meet all these people. Maybe you're going to get it — and then you don't get it, and you're like, 'Why didn't I get it?'"
One of the big movies Braun didn't get was Superbad, the 2007 teen comedy that skyrocketed the careers of its stars, Michael Cera and Jonah Hill.
"I was up for the Michael Cera part," Braun told Power. "I had maybe three auditions, four auditions. And I read in front of Seth Rogen and those guys, so I got pretty far. But that just didn't go. And I was, like, obsessed with the movie and thought it was the funniest thing I'd ever read. And that doesn't happen often — like, most things are humorous, but they don't make you, like, crack up when you're reading them…. It's a part of it that you just have to accept. You're going to get your heart broken."
He and Matthew Macfadyen constantly make each other break character
Earlier this year, Power interviewed Braun's Succession co-star Matthew Macfadyen, who said he really only breaks character in his scenes with Braun.
"Well, that's very kind, but I think Kieran [Culkin] probably makes him break sometimes," said Braun. "It's, I would say, different because we know each other's faces so well that, like, if he starts to do a little thing with the side of his mouth, I'm like, 'I know he's trying to hold laughter in right now.' I know he's trying to keep it together, which will break me…. But yeah, we break constantly. It's been a problem."
He's also a skilled photographer
Braun has many talents beyond acting, including making music (which he spoke about in his 2019 interview with Power) and photography.
Over the years, he's taken a lot of photos on the set of Succession. With the fourth and final season airing now, Power asked Braun to reflect on his time on the show by talking about his favourite shot from throughout the seasons.
"There's one of Brian [Cox] standing outside the castle, the Hungarian castle, with all the dead boars from the day around him and, like, a fire. And I think Kendall [played by Jeremy Strong] is in that picture too, and just looks, like, cooked — just, like, wiped, you know, emotionally. And Brian's, like, stood tall and, like, all these dead boars around him. That one stands out."
The full interview with Nicholas Braun is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Nicholas Braun produced by Kaitlyn Swan.