(This story contains a major spoiler for Succession season four.)
Succession star Dagmara Domińczyk says her own father died while she was filming the series’ big death scene, which made shooting and ultimately watching the scene even more emotional.
Domińczyk, who plays Karolina Novotney, head of public relations and legal team member for Waystar Royco on the HBO series, spoke to Rolling stone about her character’s role in managing the crisis of Logan Roy’s sudden and shocking death on an airplane. During the discussion, the actress revealed that while filming the scene – one of the last two days of filming the fourth season of the Emmy-winning series in New York – her father died in Poland at the age of 69.
“Two days before we shot our very last day Succession in New York City, our very last day, two days before I showed up, my own father, who, I’d say, is a kinder, kinder Logan Roy, in that he’s been the greatest presence and strength in my entire life to me and my sisters, this truly unique human being, passed away suddenly at age 69. And we found out through a phone call from a person we had never met. He was in Poland at the time,” she recalled.
His death shared eerie similarities to the one she had played on screen, with the actress adding that it was “a very strange season for me” to film Logan’s funeral around her father’s time as she is miles away from him. was removed in New York. Jersey.
“It just feels like the universe is real — I don’t know how it works that death Succession and Logan Roy’s death coincided with the death of my damn wonderful, complicated father,” she said. “I was supposed to work the next day. And of course the funeral – I’m not even sure I should tell you there’s a funeral, but of course we’re assuming there is – we taped that too a few days before my dad died.
When it came to the plane sequence, it was already “emotional” and saw it Succession actors Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin and Jeremy Strong call into the loudspeaker as her side of the sequence is filmed. “They called every take we did. We sat on stage, very intimately,[with]their voices and every time they called, you know, it was so touching and so damn weird,” she shared. It also involved director Mark Mylod reminding her — before her father died — that while her performance choices were “beautiful,” they weren’t necessarily in character.
“I am a very emotional person. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I had a hard time not crying on that plane. This was before my dad died, we shot the episode on the plane,” she explained. “And Mark Mylod would step up and say, ‘Hello, what you’re doing is really beautiful. But Karolina wouldn’t (cry.) She’s the voice of reason here. There are things to do. This is a giant public figure. Please don’t cry.’”
Domińczyk added that apart from the initial experience of having to deal with her father’s death around the filming of an already emotional storyline on the show, she also had to reprocess her grief after the episode’s completion and airing. The Succession actor said that while it may “sound crazy,” in some ways it became almost therapeutic to see how her character, Karolina, dealt with Logan’s passing on the plane when she got an early look while watching it “alone” night with my dog on my husband’s armchair.”
“My father died two months ago, but in terms of sudden, traumatic loss, it could have happened two days ago. That’s how the fuck I feel. And I started watching the episode, and this vein started throbbing in my head. I thought I was going to have an aneurysm,” she continued, discussing her physical reaction to the episode’s showing. “And of course I cried and cried and I thought it was brilliant. The episode was so good and so tense and so amazingly orchestrated and put together, that I was able to pull myself out of my own grief for a moment and just be in the story.
While it provided brief relief, Domińczyk notes that it was all still “very, very, very difficult”, with those around her sending her condolences as the parallels of what happened became clearer to them. That group included her husband, fellow actor Patrick Wilson, as well as friends texting about how “bizarre” it all was. Especially as someone who had “always been afraid that he might die suddenly, or die while we weren’t there, and that’s exactly what happened.”
“For reasons I can’t quite say, being a very little girl, I was afraid my father would suddenly die. And it happened. And so it’s just been really crazy,” she said. “But there was Karolina, no-nonsense on that plane, knowing with all his health problems and Logan’s problems and hospital stays that this day would come, and she has her beautiful pen and her notebook ready to go.”
It was an experience that the actress was suddenly quite familiar with, and that’s how a Domińczyk says with confidence that the show has been captured.
“With these dramatic, sudden, violent deaths, the first few days, there’s a kind of shock. You don’t believe it. And I think Succession really captured that,” she told the magazine. “You don’t see them break down completely, and of course my reaction in real life was like a wounded beast because it heard something that you’ve been expecting to hear all your life, but it hasn’t happened yet, so it’s just not going to happen. And it happened And so, as we go into the season, that sadness will catch up with them.
