Succession - How Matthew Macfadyen Perfected Tom Wambsgans

If you want to make a Tomlette, you have to break a few Greggs

His horrified expression when Logan hit Roman said so much about him. He clearly comes from a different type of family where violence never occurred and he simply didn't know how to react. I also loved his reaction to Ken's rendition of L to the OG.

"...I wonder if the sad I'd be without you would be less than the sad I get from being with you." My favorite line in my favorite scene

The funniest scene I've seen in quite some time was Greg asking Tom if he could blackmail him. They both played it perfectly.

It is absolutely amazing that Matthew can make this character stand out amongst all of these larger than life characters. It makes no sense, but he commands the screen every second he's on it.

He’s a tremendous actor, playing the role of a man, “acting” in his own life. Superb.

In my opinion he is absolutely the best actor on the show. He went from a character I despised to the one I sympathized for most.

Macfadyen's choice to remain calm and poised during the recent "situation" on the private jet was stunning.

Okay, now i understand why large amount of audience feels protective over him. He's so animated, emotionally transparent, and don't forget his puppy eyes.

Please do J Smith-Cameron! Gerri was supposed to be a man, but she auditioned and reacted so annoyed but professional to the crass dialogue that the writers cast her.

Tom handled Logan's Death and facing Logan's Kids delivering the shocking news like a champion and switches completely while telling Greg about the same on phone he hides his fear by sharing a joke and then almost burst into tears ( No I am not Okay Greg) .....Matthew executes this performance perfectly

Personally, I think his performance is so captivating because honestly he’s the hardest one to figure out. He does “nice things” but can’t tell if his motives are genuine. Same goes for when he does horrific things. Hard to tell if it really bothers him or not. I love that about his character. We know he wants power, as the rest do. but at what lengths? He could literally go any direction, and it wouldn’t be surprising. Makes a fascinating character Ok, Just so I don't upset anyone else, I accidently said Tom grew up blue collar. I apologize... I just meant in contrast to the Roy family. I know Tom mother is a lawyer. As far as his financial standings growing up, its not really brought up. I'm sorry

Tom is such a brilliantly complex character. Matthew is genius. I don’t think anyone else could of played Tom so delicately and perfectly. The whole show is so well cast.

What I admire about MacFadyen as a performing is that he had this career trajectory of being a handsome leading man type and totally went in the opposite direction

The thing that made Tom stand out to me immediately is how he never wanted to betray anyone, particularly Shiv. Shiv had to break his heart and diminish her entire relationship to him before he really began acting like the Roys. Greg feels a special exception to this because of his bumbling perpetual confusion. It brings out the latent willingness in Tom to enact a power dynamic. We know Tom has a predator streak in him, but he wants allies more than enemies. The complexity of his sensitivity and desire for power really tugs at the audience’s empathy in a way no one else does, save maybe Kendall Roy.

I don't now quite exactly how to describe this, but Macfadyen is maybe the most convincing Brit playing an American I've ever seen. The half-fake / half-genuine Midwest-nice he embodies. How his accent almost seems practiced; not like a Brit playing an American, but like someone from Minnesota trying to talk how they think a bunch of uppper-class New Yorkers would talk. Everything about Macfadyen's performance embodies a corny guy from St. Paul who probably grew up in a family that had matching Christmas pajamas desperately trying to fit in with the most high-powered vicious people in the United States. Too many people make the mistake of going general when doing accents, but Macfadyen let the character and the situation he's in inform how he speaks, and it pays off beautifully.

“You should be careful, Tom. These people are coming down from molly, and their pupils, they’re dilated. And your shoes are like looking at the sun. They’re dangerous…”

I absolutely adored his performance in Connor's Wedding. He was the stand-out to me in an episode of stand-outs. All I saw was my dad trying to be gentle over the phone telling me my grandfather had passed. It was some of the most realistic and human acting I've ever seen.

I love every single second of Macfadyen's performances. He 100% understands and fully embodies that character. In very very similar ways like how Brian Cox performs Logan, the subtlety that isn't written on the page but is internalized by the actor. The great writting helps, of course, but the little things, how he tip toes around direct conflict and inflects his words almost whisper like lol, his stares, his non-aggressive stature like a teenager trying to be cool, how he can flip on a dime and be two different people depending on who he is around. He's awesome. Role of a lifetime. This is the definition of perfect casting.

His scenes with Shiv, the ones where they're discussing seriously about their relationship are the ones that made me the most emotional in all of the show aside from maybe Connor's Wedding. The way he pours himself out to Shiv, where it seems like even when he's the "golddigger" he truly loved her, and how his heart breaks and he releases all the bottled up feelings of inferiority are really tough scenes for me to watch but I really loved them.