Interview: Succession's Nicholas Braun Loves Theater and Kara Young

Nicholas Braun has spent years envying the actors he saw on stage. Even starring in one of television’s biggest hits—Succession—couldn’t quench his thirst to do live theater. So when the opportunity came to do not one, but two plays back-to-back, how could he say no?

Braun (a multi-Emmy nominee for playing the Roy family’s eternal flunky, Cousin Greg) is starring with Kara Young in Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries at the Lortel Theatre, an experience that he earnestly calls a dream come true, despite knowing how meaningless a turn-of-phrase like that could seem in a press interview. After a month’s break in January, Braun will be on stage at the Nederlander Theatre on Broadway as part of the rotating cast of Simon Rich’s All Out.

Neither role resembles the one that made him famous—and that, he says, is the best part.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Were you a theater kid growing up?
I wasn’t a huge theater kid. The play that sort of sparked everything for me was Jitney [by August Wilson] at Second Stage in 2000. My dad took me and my brother to see that show and there was something, I don’t know. It was just so real being in that taxi station. It was transportive. I just thought, “I want to do that” I want to be up there. I want to give that experience to somebody. I want to live in that imaginary world.

I’ve been dying to do a play for like 20 years and I’ve struggled to win those parts. Theater just didn’t come as naturally to my career as I wanted it to. It’s one of those things where you’re banging your head against the wall being like “How can I break into this?” I try to go to a lot of theater, just to learn and watch great performances. I go to shows with actors that I love to try and pick stuff up, like, “What am I missing?” But it happens when it’s supposed to happen.

And Gruesome Playground Injuries happened when it was supposed to.
I saw Chris Abbott and Aubrey Plaza do Danny and the Deep Blue Sea at the Lortel a couple years ago, and I was very moved and impressed by it. To work intensely on a two-hander at the Lortel during the holidays was kind of the dream. I met with [producer] Greg Nobile last year and he sent Gruesome over, and it was exactly the kind of piece I wanted to. Once Kara signed on, it came together super quickly.

Having seen so many good shows at the Lortel over the years—I saw Punk Rock there and I really wanted to be in Punk Rock—I know this phrase gets tossed around, but this is really, truly my dream. If you’re not going to go to Broadway, to go to the Lortel is really cool.

I didn’t realize that this was such a fast process.
It was like two-and-a-half weeks of rehearsal or something before we started tech. But I don’t think it stopped us from figuring this thing out in the deepest way we could.

I was going to say, it feels like the two of you have been doing it for months. It feels very lived-in.
It feels like that to me, too. Kara and I matched up really well. We see the play the same way. We feel the tone of it the same way. We know what it requires in terms of the emotional arc of it all. I just love her courage. She is so inspiring to watch because she wasn’t afraid to go towards her ideas with 100 percent energy. She is willing to make the wrong decision, but honestly, most of what she does is spot on. She’s a different type of actress than I’ve ever worked with, and it’s amazing to just get to literally look at her every day and watch her make these choices. That’s the best experience. I get to work with her and I get to watch her. It’s awesome.

Is this a conscious way of trying to step away from the Cousin Greg zone?
Yeah. I always am trying to step out of the Greg zone. That role will be with me forever. And I mean that in the good way. Like, that was the best time of my life, working on that show. I want to take on different types of parts and find different energies. Luckily, in this play, we’re playing even different ages and there’s a lot of stuff to work on. What these two characters go through…I am not reminded of Greg when I’m doing this part. It doesn’t feel like I’m treading on any of the same ground.

Yeah, Greg doesn’t strike me as someone who would ride his bike off a roof.
Absolutely not.

Was that you? Are you tapping into personal stuff with this?
A little bit. When I go into the coma scene, I’m thinking about when I went to the hospital because I tried to jump over a bonfire and I didn’t make it. I ended up in a burn unit in Bridgeport, Connecticut for nine days. Every time I put the gown on and I walk on stage and I get in that bed, I try to remember what it was like walking around in that unit for nine days. It’s different than being in a coma, but it’s nice to have those things to use as a resource. I feel like on every movie set I’ve been on, I’ve gotten in some accident. I’ve gotten pretty banged up.

I think it’s going to be fascinating for you to go from a theater as small as the Lortel to the Nederlander where you’re doing All Out in February.
I know. This is my first real play, so going to Broadway straight away would be pretty wild. All Out is completely different circumstances. We’re all, like, non-humans. That’s maybe a weird way to describe it, but were playing animals and all sorts of things in Simon Rich’s style. And being able to read off the script is a totally different format, which will be really fun. This is a good warmup, honestly.