'Succession': How J Smith Cameron and Kieron Culkin's flirting became a storyline
HBO's Emmy-winning drama 'Succession' is known for the intense twists, and one of them is the relationship between two of the key characters, Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) and Gerri Kellman (J Smith-Cameron) that began in Season 2. There was ribbing, copious amounts of flirting, and definitely some sexual tension between the two which carries over to Season 3. It has to be a rather unlikely pairing considering that one is a CEO now, while the other is in the race to be the potential heir to media conglomerate Waystar Royco
In what comes as an interesting piece of trivia, the writers of the show came across the idea for the weird romance between the two after watching both actors interact on the set when not filming. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Culkin said he would flirt with Smith-Cameron just to fool around. "I would flirt with J in the most obnoxious way, just to f*** around," he said.
While filming the Season 1 finale 'Nobody Is Ever Missing', which focused around Shiv Roy (Sarah Snook) and Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen)'s wedding, Smith-Cameron added that said she and Culkin both turned around to "check out each other's butts." She recollected: "I remember the writers all laughing," Smith-Cameron told the site, adding, "But it never occurred to me that it would inform anything they wrote."
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The premiere of the new season saw them come painfully close to sharing an intimate moment (can roughly be translated to some much-anticipated hookup). With Gerri now appointed as the interim CEO after Logan Roy steps back, the question would be whether these two will still have the same flirty, sexual tension. Or perhaps even more.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Smith-Cameron shed light on their relationship in season 3. "Why not? What's to stop them?" she said. "I think it's on a certain trajectory. It seems to be the two characters have different ambitions for their liaison. I think Gerri would like to see it become a dynamic business partnership. I know what Roman says but I don't know what he really thinks is going to happen."
