Brian Cox Shares Honest Opinions of Margot Robbie, Johnny Depp & More

1 hour ago 3

Brian Cox Admits His True Feelings About The End of 'Succession'

Brian Cox is leaving no insult unsaid.

In fact, the Succession alum continued his run of candid remarks about his Hollywood peers, including his reaction to Margot Robbie’s performance in Wuthering Heights and Johnny Depp kept him from saying yes to Pirates of the Caribbean.

While detailing why he turned down the role of Governor Swann in the Disney blockbuster—the father of Keira Knightley’s Elizabeth Swann was ultimately played by Jonathan Pryce—Cox admitted to The Times in an interview published April 3 that he was glad to avoid working with Depp, calling him, “so overblown, so overrated.”

Taking a look at some more recent box office hits, the 79-year-old weighed in on the adaptation of Wuthering Heights. And he wasn’t so put off by Robbie’s acting abilities as much as that she took on the role of Cathy to begin with.

“Margot Robbie is far too beautiful for that role,” Cox said. “I mean, I think there should be something more of the Gypsy about her but it’s wrong of me to judge. It may be a brilliant film.”

The Bravehart actor also reiterated his stance on Edward Norton and Quentin Tarantino, both of whom he previously discussed in his 2022 memoir Putting the Rabbit in the Hat. Cox called Norton “a pain in the arse,” while noting that Tarantino is “meretricious.”

His thoughts on Tarantino also stemmed from his own big screen directing debut with 2025’s Glenrothan

“I like to honour the actor’s performance,” he explained. “With a Quentin Tarantino film, what you see is all Quentin Tarantino. That’s not me. I don’t want to do that.”

Max Cisotti/Dave Benett/Getty Images for dunhill

Cox also shared hot takes on Kevin Spacey, saying he's “a stupid, stupid man” and adding that Ian McKellen’s acting was “not to my taste.”

Additionally, Cox touched on his feud with actor Daniel Day-Lewis, which stemmed in part from Cox’s dislike of Succession costar Jeremy Strong’s method acting techniques, which were partly inspired by the Lincoln actor. And though last fall Day-Lewis admitted to being perplexed after being drawn into Cox’s “handbags-at-dawn conflict” with method acting, he invited his Boxer costar to chat.

However, Cox hasn’t taken him up on that for a simple reason: his issues have “nothing to do with Dan Day-Lewis.”

“Dan Day-Lewis, he’s discreet. He never upsets it [the filming process],” the Troy alum noted to The Times. “He’s never, sort of… I don’t want to go on about Jeremy, because I’ve got into a lot of problems and he’s begged me to stop talking about him. He’s a good actor, Jeremy. He’s a wonderful actor.”

Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty Images

Ultimately, he just feels some actors struggle to find the balance with method acting.

“It’s just all the bollocks that goes with it,” Cox continued. “You watch children—they don’t say, ‘What’s my motivation?’ They just do it!”

And the Emmy winner isn’t really concerned about sharing his thoughts so freely—despite warnings from wife Nicole Ansari, with whom he shares sons Orson, 24, and Torin, 21. 

“My wife keeps saying, ‘Brian, be careful. Brian, be careful,’” he said. ‘I think, ‘F--k it, I don’t want to be careful any more! I’ll be 80 this year. F--k it! I’m gonna say what I want to say.’”

For more stars who have made exceedingly candid confessions, keep reading.

Perry Knotts / Contributor (Getty)

Jason Kelce Doesn't Regularly Wash His Feet

"What kind of weirdo washes their feet…." Jason Kelce tweeted in June 2024 after a fan noted the athlete "looks like he doesn't wash his legs or feet."

The retired Philadelphia Eagles player later doubled down on his comments.

"What kind of psychopath washes your feet?" he deadpanned on an episode of his and brother Travis Kelce's New Heights podcast, adding, "If there's visible dirt on them, I'll scrub the dirt off."

Francois Durand/Getty Images

Robert Pattinson Did Not Watch a Clown Die at the Circus

Over a decade after the Twilight star revealed that he saw a clown die in a car explosion during his first visit to the circus as a child, he admitted that wasn't true.

"There was absolutely no hesitation at all [in my voice]," Robert recalled to The New York Times Style Magazine in a December 2024 interview. "I'm like, 'What on earth? Are you possessed?'"

As for what he said during the 2011 Today interview promoting his film Water for Elephants?

"One of the clowns died," he explained at the time. "His little car exploded. The joke car exploded on him, seriously. Everybody ran out. It was terrifying."

Gotham/Getty Images

Kim Kardashian Reveals How She "Honored" Grandma MJ During Sex With Pete Davidson

Grandma knows best.

Kim Kardashian got candid about how her grandma Mary Jo "MJ" Campbell influenced one intimate moment between her and then-boyfriend Pete Davidson, during an October 2022 episode of The Kardashians.

"Pete and I were staying at the Beverly Hills Hotel last weekend, and we were sitting in front of the fireplace, just talking for hours," the SKIMS founder recounted to MJ, mom Kris Jenner and sister Khloe Kardashian. "And I was like, 'My grandma told me that you really live life when you have sex in front of the fireplace. And so, we had sex in front of the fireplace in honor of you."

Grandma's reaction? A nod of approval.

"How creepy to think about your grandma before you have sex?" Kim said, to which MJ replied, "I know, but I was younger once."

Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Kershaw's Challenge

Mila Kunis Reveals Why She and Ashton Kutcher Keep Bathrooms Doors Open at Home

The love shared in Mila Kunis and husband Ashton Kutcher's tight-knit family—which includes 8-year-old daughter Wyatt and 6-year-old son Dimitri—knows no boundaries.

So much so, that the Black Swan actress revealed they keep an open-door policy at home.

"That includes the bathroom," she told E! News in September 2022. "It's just one of those where, for better or for worse, as a family and the kids have all kind of embodied bodily function as a very standard norm."

Mila said she arrived at the decision after her family kept knocking on the door and asking to come in, which prompted her to oblige: "I was like, ‘Oh, forget it. Just keep the door open.'"

Pre-kids, she might not have imagined she'd flush that particular boundary away.

She added, "I'd never thought that I would be the person that was able to go to the bathroom with the door open."

VALERIE MACON / AFP via Getty Images

Jennifer Garner Once Bit Off "Chunk" Of an Actor's Ear

This story may not be music to anyone's ears, but nevertheless the 13 Going on 30 star revealed she once accidentally bit off more than she could chew (literally) during a fight scene for 2007's The Kingdom.

"Pete Berg, who was the director, told him to try to kill me," Jennifer recounted of her scene with Sala Baker. “ We did not have a lot of choreography, and he told me to do anything I could to survive.”

“He did, and I did, and I ended up scrambling onto his back,” she went on. “I bit his ear, and we have a picture of him missing a chunk of ear, because we were not kidding.”

Paul Bruinooge/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

Joy Behar Admits She's "Had Sex With a Few Ghosts"

Ghouls just want to have fun.

As The View panelists were reviewing footage about a woman who alleged she had "sexual ghosts" in her home, Sara Haines asked the group an important question during an October 2022 episode: "If you have sex with a ghost, can you get pregnant?"

Fortunately for her, co-host Joy Behar had an answer, adding, "I've had sex with a few ghosts and never got pregnant."

"I'm just gonna let that ride," Whoopi Goldberg said in response. "I don't know how many of you just heard what Joy just said, but I'm going to let it ride."

Nathan Congleton/NBC

Jenna Bush Hager Explains Why She Doesn't Use Underwear

Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotab are a thick as thieves, though there is one thing Hoda didn't know about her Today co-host. When the pair were getting ready for an episode of Today with Hoda and Jenna, Hoda discovered Jenna perpetually goes commando.

"We both had to change before the show and we were like, 'Oh we have to go back into the changing room,'" Hoda said during a November 2022 episode of Today with Hoda and Jenna. "But then I noticed, Jenna never wears underwear."

Jenna's rationale? Well, no underwear might just be more convenient to her.

"I think it makes a more pretty silhouette," she said. "I also think you don't have to pack as much. There are a lot of pros to it!"

Getty Images, Shutterstock

Britney Spears Reveals She Has "No Idea" Who Pete Davidson and Scott Disick are

Looks like someone hasn't been keeping up.

Britney Spears found herself embracing Keke Palmer's viral saying "he could be walking down the street, I wouldn't know a thing," when she admitted she didn't know who Pete Davidson and Scott Disick were.

Reposting a humorous March video of Pete—who was then dating Kim Kardashian—and Kourtney Kardashian's ex Scott enjoying a "boyz night," to her Instagram, Britney said the two of them had her cracking up.

"Sorry had to repost this," Britney wrote in the since-deleted post. "no idea who these people in the video are but it made me laugh so hard !!!!"

Getty Images

Jana Kramer Explains Why "Asparagus Pee" Might've Lead To A Breakup With Chris Evans

Back before the world knew Chris Evans as Captain America and People's Sexiest Man Alive of 2022, Jana Kramer knew him as the "heartthrob, cutie" she went on a few dates with.

It happened more than a decade ago, the singer revealed on her Whine Down with Jana Kramer podcast in November, and though she can't remember "how many dates it was," she does recall their last encounter.

Jana, then about 26 years old, said Chris invited her over to his house while he had friends in town from Boston.

"The last interaction that I remember is him going into the bathroom after I just went with asparagus pee," Jana remembered, referencing the veggie's tendency to give urine a very distinct scent. "We didn't hook up that night. He stayed up late with his friends and then [in] the morning I did the asparagus walk of shame out of his house."

She added, "I never heard from him again."

Todd Wawrychuk/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images

Former Grey's Anatomy Writer Elisabeth Finch Reveals She Lied About Having Cancer

Not all of these confessions are amusing.

Eight years after sharing in an ELLE article that she had been battling a rare type of bone cancer—her fake diagnosis even inspiring a storyline on Grey's Anatomyshow writer Elisabeth Finch admitted in December it was all a ruse.

"I told a lie when I was 34 years old and it was the biggest mistake of my life. It just got bigger and bigger and bigger and got buried deeper and deeper inside me," Elisabeth told The Ankler newsletter Dec. 7, adding, "I've never had any form of cancer."

Summed up Finch, who was placed on administrative leave from the ABC medical drama before eventually resigning, said, "What I did was wrong. Not okay. F--ked up. All the words."

Rob Latour/Shutterstock

Kim Kardashian Admits—And Then Double Downs On—Why She Would "Eat Poop" to Look Younger

Beauty is pain, but Kim Kardashian might be able to stomach it.

Telling The New York Times the lengths she would go to for a more youthful appearance, the reality star cracked that she was willing to try just about anything.

"If you told me that I literally had to eat poop every single day and I would look younger, I might," she said in June. "I just might."

In a July 2022 interview with Allure, Kim said she was "kind of joking" about the comment, though the idea didn't seem too terrible.

"But now that I think about it," Kim added, "I would probably eat s--t if someone told me, ‘If you eat this bowl of poop every single day, you'll look younger.'"

How much could she make room for? "Maybe just a bite," she told the outlet. "I don't think I can do a whole bowl."

Andrew Chin/Getty Images

Jelly Roll Admits He Once Pooped His Pants Onstage

Jelly Roll could’ve used some saving from himself.

The “Save Me” singer was asked about his most embarrassing moment during an April 2025 appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show—and he definitely didn’t hold anything back.

“I pooped myself one time,” he admitted. “I did, I’m sorry.”

But to be fair, Jelly Roll (real name Jason Bradley DeFord) didn’t expect to deal such a lethal blow.

“I was confident it was all air,” he insisted. “I'm so sorry. I watched this crowd go from loving me to just being completely out.”

For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App

Read Entire Article