Succession’s Sarah Snook has her say on the film world’s demand for ‘perfect’ bodies 

As the only daughter of billionaire media mogul Logan Roy on the television show Succession, Shiv’s tailored power suits and icy ambition have made her one of the most captivating female characters on screen.

In the fierce, male-dominated world of the HBO drama, loosely based on Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp dynasty, redheaded Shiv is the favorite to win the bitter battle to succeed her aging father, played by veteran British actor Brian. Cox, as head of the Waystar Royco global empire.

But as the fourth and final season of the highly anticipated drama launches tomorrow, it’s not just Shiv who’s hoping to see his fortunes transform. The show has turned the actress who plays her, Sarah Snook, into one of the hottest talents in Hollywood.

Industry insiders point out that her success is all the more refreshing because the 35-year-old Australian, who revealed her pregnancy at the series’ New York premiere last week, is not your average skinny Los Angeles star.

In fact, Snook is credited with being a major figure in the movement to bring realistic representations of the female body to the industry.

She is bolstered in her goals by her close friend and mentor Kate Winslet, who has been outspoken about being an advocate for ‘real’ women’s bodies.

With characteristic candor, Snook told Vogue Australia: “I mean, every time you get a role, you’re like, ‘Oh, this is the one. I’m really going to work out and get in shape and look like the movie star. I hope to become.”

“And every time, I think, can I really subscribe to an unrealistic beauty standard that makes more women unhappy, because they feel like they can’t achieve something that isn’t really realistic anyway?”

Snook was relatively unknown before her role as Siobhan ‘Shiv’ Roy in Succession, which first aired in 2018. Along with her three older brothers, Connor, Kendall and Roman, Shiv must fight for ultimate control of the forged company. from scratch by his father. , Logan, amid concerns for her delicate health.

A Hollywood executive told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Sarah has undoubtedly been the breakout star of Succession. All the characters are great but Sarah is first among equals.

“She’s taken on a complex character like Shiv, someone who’s emotionally damaged but has an icy cold exterior, and it makes you want to root for her. When she’s on screen, you can’t take your eyes off her.

Succession star Sarah Snook attends the HBO/HBO Max Emmy Nominees Reception at San Vicente Bungalows on September 12, 2022 in West Hollywood, California

However, Snook has admitted that she almost did not accept the role, because she feared that becoming the only female lead on the show would involve her playing a “silly one”. She needn’t have worried.

But that attitude is firmly ingrained in his no-nonsense Australian upbringing. Snook, the youngest of three sisters, was born in Adelaide to Ian, a pool salesman and volunteer firefighter, and Debbie, a caretaker.

The couple, who divorced when the children were young, met while traveling in Papua New Guinea. Snook later joked that they “raised three adventurous women.”

“They are a very close family,” a friend told the MoS, despite being spread all over the world. Sister Laura lives in Dubai, while the other, Rebecca, lives in London.

There is a history of acting in the family. Snook’s maternal grandmother had performed in London’s West End before becoming “stuck” in South Africa at the outbreak of World War II. She eventually emigrated to Christchurch, New Zealand, where her mother was born. An English great-aunt was also an actress.

But it was as a child in 1993, while watching her sister Rebecca ‘fly’ across the stage in a production of Peter Pan, that Snook fell in love with the ‘magic of the theater’ and decided to become an actress.

She recalled in an interview: ‘I was like, ‘My God, I didn’t know my sister could fly!

‘

Snook took acting lessons, appeared in school productions, and briefly worked as a children’s entertainer named Fairy Lavender. “When you’ve been a children’s entertainer, nothing gets to you,” she later admitted. She got a place at the Australian equivalent of RADA, Sydney’s National Institute of Dramatic Art, but a friend said the bright lights of Los Angeles had never been her draw.

“Before her career took off, Sarah was a typical Aussie, backpacking Europe and staying with friends,” said a friend. “She came to Los Angeles at one point, but she didn’t like the whole scene.”

Still, her talent was undeniable and she embarked on a series of small but prestigious film roles that earned her a mentor in Oscar winner Kate Winslet.

The couple starred in back-to-back films in 2015: the Australian comedy The Dressmaker and Steve Jobs, about the late Apple co-founder.

It’s perhaps not surprising that they hit it off: Both are known for their outspokenness and body-positive approach in the movie industry.

Like her grandmother, Snook eventually took on a role in London’s West End, acting opposite Ralph Fiennes in a production of Ibsen’s The Master Builder in 2016.

It was after being offered the role of Shiv in 2017 (the first season aired the following year) that he moved to New York.

“I’m much more at home camping or in the bush, and I figured the world of billionaires and high flying isn’t something I’m naturally drawn to,” he said. ‘So I wasn’t sure [the role] it was the right one for me.

“But during the pilot, I was like, ‘I really hope they keep me.’ This is the script and it’s a lot of fun. ‘

A friend said: ‘Sarah has always worried about work. She was never about to become a star.

But today, Sarah has little choice in the matter. As soon as she started Succession, the actress attracted a fervent following online.

A section of the social networking site Reddit is dedicated to her butt, with close-ups of what one fan called “the most perfect butt since Pippa Middleton’s.” Fashion bible Vogue has also dissected the ‘enviable’ style of her character.

But Snook has been candid in admitting that she wears Spanx (compression underwear) to achieve Shiv’s groomed look.

While filming the final scene of last season in an Italian villa, he recalled, “It was a 100 degree day with full sun.

‘I was in high heels… wearing spanx and a tight dress. I had to go and sit in a cold dark room with a cold pack on my face.

Snook has told friends that she finds the “obsession” with her character’s clothes and body “funny”.

One woman, who has known the actress since 2011, said: “The refreshing thing about Sarah is what you see, it’s what you get.” She’s down to earth and she’s real and, yes, she eats. She is someone who has always enjoyed a drink and a good laugh. She hasn’t changed.

Those views are shared by his Succession co-stars. Brian Cox said of her: ‘She’s really talented. I can’t think of anyone better, she is just amazing.

I adore her, she is lovely.

Sarah Snook as Lorna Whyte (L) in the critically acclaimed 2010 TV movie Sisters of War

When Covid hit in 2020, Snook moved back to Melbourne and spent the lockdown on a farm on the outskirts of the city with an old friend, Australian comedian Dave Lawson. They fell in love unexpectedly.

“We were very surprised,” he later said. We’ve been friends since 2014, we live together, we travel together, always excited to see each other, but totally platonic.

Snook proposed to her on Halloween that year and they married in her backyard in Brooklyn the following February, with only a handful of witnesses.

“We both cringe from ‘I’m so happy, I married my best friend,'” she said. ‘We’re like, ‘Oh gosh, are we one of those people?’ ‘

The couple is now expecting their first child, and the costume designers kept their burgeoning baby bump a secret during filming for the latest season of Succession.

Critics who have seen the first four episodes say there is a ‘bombshell’ that will leave viewers stunned.

The new series is known to include a funeral, leading to speculation that one of the main characters dies.

The show’s creator, Jesse Armstrong, told the New Yorker: “There’s promise in the Succession title.” I never thought it could go on forever.

But while it may be the end for Shiv, it’s just the beginning for Snook.

Last year, she filmed the Australian horror film Run Rabbit Run and voiced a character in the new animated TV series Koala Man, alongside Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. For now, her friends say, she hopes to become a mother in May and “see what the future holds.”

“She’s not a braggart, but she’s someone who believes in her own worth, her own talent,” said a friend.

“In person, she’s absolutely beautiful, but she didn’t fit the Hollywood ‘norm.’ I guess she just had to wait for the industry to catch up with her.”

Perhaps, then, Sarah Snook is more like Shiv than she imagined.