Macfadyen: We did a read-through of the pilot on the eve of Election Night. So we all went to this gathering at Adam McKay’s house after the read-through to kind of watch the returns.

Snook: [McKay] found out [about the election results] at about nine o’clock. He was like, “Yep. It’s done.” And we’re like, “No…no. You’re overreacting. It’s not happening yet.” And then there’s a silence. He’s like, “Well, at least we’re making the right show.”

Macfadyen: The party was, like…[makes sputtering noise]. But you think, “Anything that you put in the show, it’s kind of: Well, that’s fine now, because anything goes.”

Snook: I have a very vivid memory of Jeremy at the end of the night, saying goodbye. I remember saying, I think, “You good? Are you all right? You gonna catch a cab?” And he’s like, “No, I’m just gonna walk for a bit,” and he just walked off into the night. So if that’s not the image for what’s going on, right now…

Strong: One of the reasons I loved working with McKay the most is because he comes from that [improv] background. It just opens up the environment in a way where you have permission to wander off the path a little bit and go off-roading and fuck around.

Braun: I really like it. Especially with Greg, because the more stuff that Greg says that’s out of line, the better it works.

Snook: I had to get over my self-doubt. I’m doing new lines or improvised dialogue in an American accent, so it’s getting rid of the fear. Once we did that, it seemed to flow smoother. [I’d improvised in] an Australian accent, but not in an American accent being a billionaire’s daughter.

Culkin: Adam’s way of working actually terrified me at the beginning. I’ve not done that shit. I get really insecure if they don’t write the exact line. So he would say, “Yeah, we’re going to do a couple of takes scripted, and then we’re just going to leave it up to you. Or I might in the middle of a take throw out a joke at you, and you’re going to have to deliver it.” And I’m like, “This is your thing, not mine.”

Braun: I was like, “Am I ruining scenes by being as weird as I am? Or just lurking and having this other energy?” But I guess that’s what Greg is in this world—the guy who doesn’t say the right thing almost ever.

Strong: We sort of went down a K-hole in New Mexico. I feel like I did. They wouldn’t let us smoke meth, so I don’t know what we were smoking, but it felt like we were in this gauzy, fucked-up fever-dream place.

Culkin: By the time we were doing [episodes] seven, eight, nine, I was like, “It feels kind of like we have a show here.”

Snook: When we were getting scenes that were with the siblings all together, working that dynamic, I was like, “Okay, this is the show. This is where it’s most interesting.” And I think what Jesse and the rest of the writers did, which was genius, is putting them all together into a room, in these circumstances where family should triumph. And yet this is the very moment where they tear each other to shreds. They eviscerate each other.

Matthew Macfadyen's Tom Wambsgans marries Shiv, and inherits plenty of Roy family drama. Jacket, and turtleneck, $1,095, by Ralph Lauren Purple Label

Less Wonderment

The ass end of that evisceration was typically Braun’s Cousin Greg. A fan of marijuana and California Pizza Kitchen (“They make a Cajun chicken linguine just the way I like it”), Greg became an audience favorite, thanks in large part to his jousting with Macfadyen’s Tom. Even months after production wrapped, the dynamic remains. I’m scheduled to speak with Braun after my interview with Strong, which is running long. When I tell Strong that I need to go, and why, he lights up: “I mean, fucking Cousin Greg? He can wait.”