Getting the role of Jess, the perfectly put-together, always a step ahead assistant to anti-hero Kendall Roy on Succession, was and still is a dream for Juliana Canfield. She landed the part (her first-ever TV job) shortly after graduating from Yale drama school and, since then, has evolved into somewhat of a cult favorite. From her first appearance in Season 1, when she wasn’t sure if she would continue on the show, to Season 3, where her position has been cemented, her following—Jess Hive—has grown in support of the character and how well her facial expressions betray her usually stoic corporate persona.
As a Black woman who on many occasions is the only person of color in the room, it’s Jess’s eye-rolls and side-eyes after particularly ridiculous requests from her billionaire boss that really resonate the most. (Like when he had Jess set up a “bunny cam” so his kids could see their beloved rabbit via Facetime, or relay his weak comebacks to Logan in a game of telephone.) “She’s been working for Kendall for a little bit longer so she has a little less control over her face,” Canfield tells ELLE.com. “It’s a problem I have in my life with the filterless facial expressions.” Same here. And it’s these moments that have made screencaps of Canfield’s most notable onscreen moments go viral. Almost acting as a Shakesperean chorus, Jess is a conduit for the audience, a normal person amongst the titans of industry who just can’t resist letting a bit of Resting Bitch Face come through.
Canfield sees and appreciates the love, laughing when I tell her, in the words of Issa Rae’s now-infamous Instagram Story, it’s her season. But it’s true. With more focus than ever on Canfield and the way she brings Jess’s character to life (and how Jeremy Strong’s method acting contributes to her growing presence on the show), I wanted to get her take on some of the most iconic Succession moments she’s been a part of and her experience as a Black woman on set. I caught up with Canfield via Zoom the week before the Season 3 finale to discuss her journey these last three seasons, that famous car ride scene with Kendall, and the answer to one of the most recurring questions surrounding the show’s last few episodes: Where is Jess?
As a member of Jess Hive since season 1, I’ve been so excited to see that people are really giving you your flowers now. How has the overall journey been like for you from season 1 to season 3?
Whoa, [laughs] that’s a gigantic question.
I know, really getting into it from the jump.
It’s okay, I love it. Maybe it goes without saying that being a part of Succession is such a pleasure and an honor. Just generally, I love the show, I’m a fan of the show, and I think I would be even if I weren’t involved. When it started, getting cast as Jess was my first job out of drama school. So in the beginning, I remember finding out I had gotten it and I was so excited. I was thrilled, and a lot of that had to do just with the idea that I was going to get to work on a TV set which I’d never done before, and every experience that I had on that set in the first season was the first time I’d experienced it.
You know, on a TV script or a script for a movie, they have the page numbers, but they also have the scene numbers, and I could not get it. Looking at those scripts in the beginning was like reading a foreign language. But everyone was so generous and patient and lovely, and it was and is a sort of unparalleled group with whom to cut one’s teeth. I just feel extremely lucky that I’ve been invited to stay and that as the show gains momentum, and as more and more people watch it and love it, that I get to remain a part of it because it does hold such a special place in my heart. Even if I’d only done that one episode right in the beginning, it would have been really meaningful.
I just read your interview in The Cut, as well as Jeremy Strong’s profile for The New Yorker, and they both mentioned Jeremy’s method acting; you shared that you were able to have more dialogue because of his approach and his wanting you in the scenes because he felt like Jess would be there. How do you approach those scenes knowing that he’ll go off-script and could quite literally throw something at you?
Yeah, I think that his approach just requires or encourages me, I’ll speak for myself, to really think like an assistant. Assistants don’t have the luxury of knowing what’s going to happen, knowing what’s going to need to happen next. So Jeremy’s process, I think, makes it really fun for me to play an assistant because it puts me in that headspace of what’s going to happen. I mean, Jeremy is lovely, and I never feel like he’s trying to catch me or get me to mess up. But there are times where we’ll be rehearsing and he’ll mention a couple of things before we start rolling that I would know about as Jess, so then I pull them all up on my phone and if he asks me a question about some financial website, whose name I have forgotten, I already have it up on my phone, and I have enough information, thanks to him to be able to riff along with him. I think, especially for this character, it just makes the process feel richer, and it makes the stakes feel higher.
I don’t feel peas and carrots. You know what I mean by that?
[Laughing] Yes
I don’t feel like I’m just homina homina homina and playing Candy Crush on my phone and then I say, “Yeah, well, you have a car in five minutes.” I really feel like I have to have screens up on my phone and texts ready, and answers prepared, and that kind of engagement makes my day on set feel really so much fun.
Now in season 3, I think the importance of your character has really been cemented, especially in the premiere, you’re basically playing telephone between Logan and Kendall. What was that like thinking back to season 1 and your place being uncertain to now being right in the middle of a major plot point?
I mean, I was thrilled! That was such a fun day on set. We were just driving around downtown [Manhattan], sort of the Financial District in that car. We were shooting this whole season in deep COVID and it was a strange environment to go back into the season, but being in that car and doing that scene, it’s such an up moment in the episode for Kendall, and so therefore for Jess, and for Greg [Nicholas Braun], who at that point is pretty staunchly Team Kendall. So the energy in the car was just up. And I was nervous because I hadn’t been on set very much yet, I don’t think. But I will say that it wasn’t really Logan on the other side of the phone. It wasn’t Brian Cox. I think if it had been I would have been more nervous because his voice is like the voice of a God. It can send you straight to hell or straight to heaven depending. I think it was one of the ADs or maybe it was our script coordinator or a script supervisor. Not having Logan’s voice on the other side abated some of my nerves about what Jess was going through. But, of course, I was so happy to have a chunky thing to do and it wasn’t necessarily expected. I just feel lucky to be on that set in general, and to get to do a scene as that feels like extra, it feels like sprinkles on top.
Like a little cherry on top.
Yeah! I’m obviously glad and I’m so grateful to the writers for conceiving that moment which I think is hilarious and also very realistic. I love the idea of this relatively low-status character being caught between these titans who were in the midst of a massive family feud.
People of course love Jess because of her facial expressions, the eye-rolling, and to me, it reads very much like she is code-switching in real time as the only Black or person of color in a predominantly white space. As a Black woman, do you bring those experiences when you’re making those facial expressions or are they written into the character?
It’s an interesting question, and in this particular job I haven’t really approached her from that perspective but it’s just kind of there. The eye-roll wasn’t written in but it’s just I heard him on the phone saying that the bunny was sick [pause] and it affected me. [Laughs] What can I say?
It’s a disaster. [Laughs] Jess also loves that bunny. So the idea that the bunny is sick, Bertha, by the way, is her real name. She’s a queen, she’s a star, and she’s a complete joy to work with. One of my favorite acting partners I’ve ever had.
But, I think that it is true that Jess is one of the few people of color in that environment and that’s sort of just the fact of it. It’s not something that I, in approaching the role, feel I even need to highlight because it’s just the fact of the situation and anybody who watches it can really either note that or note the frustrations that any assistant would have with a demanding or temperamental boss. Or the frustrations of watching the extremely wealthy make ludicrous decisions when you’re a more regular person. I think there are a lot of different ways in which Jess is observing this family and Kendall. I hope that audiences can find a hook into one of them because I think one of the great things about the show and the smaller characters is they’re a way for audience members to look in on this crazy family. And the way that all those people respond and react to that family, I think maybe [is] how the audience responds and reacts to that family.
That’s totally it. As a Black woman who’s worked the corporate side of being the only POC in the room, I identified so much with her because that’s the reaction I would have.
I will say that I think in this season, Jess has been working for Kendall for a little bit longer. And so she has a little less control over her face. [Laughs]
I didn’t really have an idea when I first got the job of what the landscape of characters would look like. So I just thought, I better be an eager, hopefully competent assistant. And as you said, I think the reality of what that is for her just plays itself out in the show. I think the writers, Jesse [Armstrong, the Succession showrunner], and that whole team are so smart, and thoughtful, and they don’t underline things that don’t need to be underlined. I think they let the characters and the scenarios those characters find themselves in speak for themselves and give the audience a chance to imbue those scenarios with meaning. And I think that’s so fabulous.
We don’t really get a backstory on Jess. We’re inserted into this moment in time and can gauge her importance to Kendall, how much he relies on her, and that she cares about him as a person and as her boss. But what is her end goal? As a young Black woman, does she really want to work her way up at this conservative news organization?
Yeah, it’s an interesting question. I imagine that Jess has ambition, certainly, and I don’t know—maybe she was keen to work in the intersection of media and major business. And as lovely as I think she is, I think there’s something about her…that she has to have some sort of blind ambition that keeps her in step with this family. Not saying she’s not a moral person, but I don’t think she and I would maybe be friends in real life.
I’ll say, it is very interesting that she works for this conservative conglomerate, but I also think her alignment with Kendall, who’s definitely deeply enmeshed in this company, there’s a reason she’s hitched her wagon to that horse and that she’s not pursuing a career at ATN, for example. I think the business is really big and extremely powerful and some people—I think Jess is one of them—think, Okay how can I get as much influence as possible from within? I don’t think she’s the kind of person who wants to break down the system. She wants to get into the system and make some sort of an impact from inside there. Which does mean that she wants power, money, all of these things that are maybe not so altruistic. It’s kind of unclear where her alignment is right now in terms of who’s employing her, but I think someone like Gerri [played by J. Smith-Cameron]—I don’t know what Jess and Gerri’s relationship is like, I don’t think we’ve ever interacted on the show, but I think that Jess looks at Gerri and thinks that’s an amazing woman right there. She’s really high up at this company. She’s making extremely important decisions, and at this point, she’s sort of a member of the family. And for better or for worse, I think that’s sort of what Jess is angling for.
I’m glad you mentioned the uncertainty of her employment because Jess has been noticeably absent from the last few episodes. Where is our girl? Is she coming back? Is she taking some of that much-needed PTO?
Where’s our girl? Well, I hope she’s taking advantage of PTO. Maybe she’s in France, or something at a seaside resort so she’s close enough that she could come if she needed to. But I will also say it is one of those things. This is an embarrassment of riches. They hadn’t written episodes eight and nine when this was all going down, but I very luckily had another job [FX on Hulu’s Y the Last Man] that I had to do so I wasn’t available. I don’t know if I would have been in those episodes, but I couldn’t do them. It’s one of those things, being an actor; there are times where you’re not working at all and then all of a sudden a couple of things pop up, and it’s amazing and I feel so lucky…So I sort of hope that Jess took a little vacation, maybe in a neighboring European country so that in the event that Kendall needed help, he could give her a call. We’ll have to see!
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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