Exclusive: Brian Cox Is Actually a Sweetheart According to Mending the Line Director

After the conclusion of Succession on HBO, fans can next check out Brian Cox in the new film Mending the Line. From director Joshua Caldwell and writer Stephen Camelio, the film tells the powerful story of a Marine (Sinqua Walls, White Men Can’t Jump) who’s sent to a V.A. facility in Montana after getting injured in the Afghanistan war. There, he meets a headstrong Vietnam vet (Cox) who encourages him to take up fishing as a way of dealing his emotional and physical trauma sustained at war.

While speaking with MovieWeb about the film, Caldwell reflected on Cox first joining the project. At that time, Succession was still halfway through its run, and Cox’s portrayal as Logan on that show had Caldwell wondering just how much like that character the actor would be in real life. Upon meeting Cox, however, Caldwell was quick to discover that the veteran actor was just as kind as he was professional.

“Of course, I know Brian from other stuff, but I’d also just watched a bunch of Succession, so I was very nervous about it,” he explained. “[I thought] ‘Is he more like Logan than anybody else?’ Because he’s a towering figure already, right? Forget Logan, he’s just been around forever, and he’s played some incredibly iconic characters. But he’s just really the sweetest guy.”

The director continued, “And I think that he was so taken with the script. He doesn’t often do these types of movies, but he did it because of the script, so I don’t take credit for that. That’s all Stephen Camelio. But then, Brian’s the kind of guy who largely, you know, comes in and if he likes the script, that’s what he’s gonna do, right? He’s gonna play the script. And I know we did some work him, Stephen and I did work on that kind of final monologue that he gives […] We really worked on that to make sure that we were hitting what we needed to hit, and Brian had a lot of input and a lot of great suggestions.”

“But other than that, the characters really maintained who they were in the script, and each actor brought their own individual quality to it,” Calwell said. “I’d say the biggest difference was that Perry Mattfeld injected such a beautiful awkwardness to Lucy and her interactions with Coulter; that was not in the script at all […] and I thought that was a really great contribution to the character.”

Related: Mending the Line Review: You May Just Get Hooked

Brian Cox Does Something Different in Mending the Line

Along with Cox and Sinqua Walls, Mending the Line also stars Perry Mattfield (In the Dark), Chris Galust (First Love), Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond), and Wes Studi (The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder).

The official synopsis for the film reads:

Mending the Line is a story about finding something to make living worthwhile. John Colter, a wounded veteran, returns to the States still carrying the demons of war, hauntingly disturbed by the everyday expectations of friendships and love interests. In Livingston, Montana, he meets Ike, a surly, headstrong fly-fisherman more than twice his age, and Lucy, a talented photographer turned librarian who reads aloud to veterans, both damaged in their own way. While getting treatment for his wounds, both physical and psychological, Colter wants only to re-enlist, to have something to die for. But the real challenge is finding something to live for.

Mending the Line is now playing in movie theaters, via Blue Fox Entertainment. You can view the official trailer for the film below.