In the most recent episode of Succession, Connor Roy attends his brother Kendall’s desperately douchey 40th birthday party in a coat he refuses to take off and his arm in a sling. When pressed about the mysterious injury, the presidential candidate (one percent isn’t nothing!) blamed it on “ranch stuff,” a.k.a. “he had a fall” while doing an Irish jig after drinking cognac. We’ve all been there, but seriously, what really happened?
During Monday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, Alan Ruck, who plays Connor on the Emmy-winning HBO series, explained that he hurt his shoulder in real life. “We shoot the show in New York primarily. I was living in New Jersey and it snowed, and like a dumbbell, I tried to shovel some snow,” he said. “And I felt it pop — I mean I’m an older guy now — it just went pop and when I finally talked to a surgeon in March, he said, ‘Yeah, you should have had this sewn up before Christmas.’” Ruck called Succession creator Jesse Armstrong, and told him, “Jesse, the guy says I have to do it now or I’m gonna be messed up for the rest of my life.” Armstrong’s reply: “We’ll write it in.”
It worked out. Maybe not for Ruck, but for Succession: Connor is the type of guy who would show up to a party with a random injury. Not from shoveling snow, of course. He pays someone else to do that, but everything else checks out.
You can watch the full interview above.