10 Times Actors Broke Character In TV Shows

Succession wasted no time at all with actors breaking character, given that in its very first episode, we have Shiv (Sarah Snook) fleetingly revealing a genuine reaction from the actress underneath.

When Shiv meets up with Roman (Kieran Culkin) and gives him a hug, she says of his cologne, "What is that, date rape by Calvin Klein?"

Roman swiftly retorts with "Yeah, you wish," a savagely unexpected one-liner which appeared to rattle even actress Sarah Snook herself, as for a brief moment she stares directly into the camera lens in a confused manner.

While there's no indication that Kieran Culkin's line was ad-libbed, it nevertheless threw Snook off for a moment, causing her to break character before she slipped back in with the line, "You wish?"

And so for just a second, Succession felt like a genuine mockumentary, like an episode of The Office. Blink and you'll miss it, though, as Snook recovered rather well.