Brian Cox musing on the Spice Girls is the generational introspection we didn't know we needed

"This idea of 'tell me what you want what you really really want' is such a bogus notion."
 By 
Shannon Connellan
 on 
The actor Brian Cox appearing on The Late Show with the caption "Can you name any Spice Girls? Brian: Old Spice."
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While you were catching up on the latest gargantuan episode of Succession, you might have missed that Logan Roy himself, Brian Cox, did Carpool Karaoke.

The Scottish actor joined fellow Scot Alan Cumming on the Apple TV+ show, cruising around singing classics like Dusty Springfield's "I Only Want to Be With You" and The Crystals' "Da Do Ron Ron" and chatting about all their adventures on stage and screen since meeting each other in the '80s. Importantly, the pair proved that friendship never ends with a rendition of Spice Girls' pop go-to "Wannabe."

"There’s one thing I am really quite envious of what you’ve done," Cox tells Cumming in the episode. "What would that be?" Cumming replies. "The Spice Girls movie," says Cox, feigning a look in the backseat to check no one heard him. Cumming starred as a consistently bumbling documentary maker following the superstars around in 1997's Spice World.

"Seriously? You’re a Spice Girls fan?" asks Cumming. "I’m a closet Spice Girls fan," Cox replies. However, when "Wannabe" is over, Cox flips the switch. "I'm so glad that’s over. That was one thing I was fearing of this whole fucking thing. I know fuck all about the Spice Girls."

Appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday to talk Succession, the host finished the interview with a check-in on Cox's Spice Girls knowledge post-Carpool.

“They are not quite my generation,” Cox told Colbert. "This idea of 'tell me what you want what you really really want…' is such a bogus notion, quite frankly."

I've honestly never thought about it that way. But now...😱

A photo portrait of a journalist with blonde hair and a band t-shirt.
Shannon Connellan
UK Editor

Shannon Connellan is Mashable's UK Editor based in London, formerly Mashable's Australia Editor, but emotionally, she lives in the Creel House. A Tomatometer-approved critic, Shannon writes about entertainment, tech, social good, science, culture, and Australian horror.


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