In the final moments of the The Morning Show episode, “The Revolution Will Be Televised,” Billy Crudup’s Cory Ellison tells Stella (Greta Lee) that he wants an overall deal at the newly merged UBN network in exchange for his silence about her sleeping with the husband of the new head exec, Celine Dumont (Marion Cotillard). Trembling, Stella squeals, “Jesus Christ,” into the phone, and Cory, with a devious smile, responds, “He is risen.”

It’s a somewhat prophetic declaration, considering Cory becomes the unlikely savior at the end of the season who exposes his longtime friend Celine’s family involvement in the Wolf River chemical plant contamination cover-up. This revelation stops Alex’s (Jennifer Aniston) retaliatory termination by Celine and ensures Bradley’s (Reese Witherspoon) safe return to the States after being detained while investigating the story in Belarus.

“He’s got more than enough shitty behavior,” Crudup says of the welcome character arc. “One of the crucial things the writers and directors have done is they’ve balanced [Cory’s] ruthlessness with a kind of goofy appeal and an occasional act of temporary courage. I was grateful at the end of this season that I got to walk away feeling just a hint of pride after everything else they threw at me.”

Season four was far from a victory lap for the audacious former UBA CEO, who tried his hand at producing a Hollywood film until the investor well ran dry, only for a fortuitous discovery to give him the opportunity to blackmail his way back into the action. Despite his savage reputation, Crudup insists Cory didn’t relish in Stella becoming collateral damage when he ultimately revealed to Celine the affair with Miles (Aaron Pierre). 

“Cory has this weird ethic that he has no fear and rather enjoys being cutthroat, but it’s a tool he only applies interpersonally with people who are in the game, people who are ruthless capitalists the way that he is,” Crudup explains. Hence, his turning on Celine. “He’s not casually cruel to people. And that moment when Greta’s character says condescendingly, ‘You’re played out,’ and ‘You’re done,’ it was so easy for me to recall the relationship that the two of us built as both actors and as characters — that the ease with which she shrugged off his importance in her career got him a little tweaky, like, ‘Oh, you want to play a game?’ ”

It actually was The Mor ning Show’s former EP Chip (Mark Duplass) remarking philosophically on how “crazy” it is to realize “your entire existence depends on whether you have a deal or not” that made Cory spill, Crudup says.

“People don’t tell Cory that when he’s looking for advice. … That was such a shock to his system that I think he responded instinctually, even though it was upsetting to him that he knew it would be in his best interests from a corporate position,” he explains, admitting of the reveal, “I hated playing that scene.”

The actor’s feelings toward his character grappling with the death of his mother (Lindsay Duncan), who chooses to terminate her life amid her dementia progressing, fall on the other end of the spectrum. “I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe they’re going to let me do that,’ ” he says of the uncharacteristically vulnerable side of Cory he was able to show.

When it came time to film the scenes in which Cory pleads with his mother not to kill herself and later finds her slumped over in a lawn chair after she secretly ingests euthanasia medication, Crudup says, “I was very prepared because I wanted to do my very best to play something complicated for Cory and for anybody who cares about the show or him. I had lots of ideas and had banked a lot of the emotional relationship with Lindsay Duncan because we’d played some scenes before, and I’m a great admirer of her work. It was not difficult to provoke feelings of loss, fear, protection over her.”

The tender moment when Cory realizes he’s failed yet another negotiation is exacerbated by finding out that it was his mother — and not his own skills or reputation — that got him in the door at UBA. It also followed another heartbreak for Cory, whose relationship with Bradley finally crossed over to the romantic side, albeit briefly, as he immediately ends things when he realizes Bradley snooped through his phone, believing he was implicated in the Wolf River cover-up. 

The fallout required another swell of emotion from Cory — and Crudup. “All the years of playing this kind of quiet pining that he didn’t allow himself to really invest in didn’t stop him from observing and caring and protecting, but it paid off so well because when we were playing the scene that she betrays him in during rehearsals, I just let it rip,” Crudup says. “The force that it came out in was purely a product of having spent so much time in this relationship and Cory really bonding with her and seeing a future with her — and, yes, it was incredibly abrupt and awful to play and experience.”

And yet, it was somewhat necessary. Crudup views Cory’s emotional turmoil as a sign of personal growth he may not have otherwise recognized in himself. “I don’t know that he actually cared about things before in the way that he began to care about them in season four, which is, narratively speaking, a great place to put a character that you’re about to destroy,” he posits.

As for Crudup, who won the best supporting actor Emmy for his portrayal of the charismatic dealmaker in 2020 and 2024, the eight-year journey (and counting) of walking in Cory’s shoes has been a fulfilling and unfamiliar one, as most of his acting credits derive from the stage and film.

“I’ve never had the chance to see a character grow and expand outside of the realm of my own imagination of who I thought the character was,” Crudup says, hinting at what’s to come for Cory in season five. “He’s back to hustling a bit and is experiencing more pressure than I’m used to with Cory. They definitely applied some last year, but this time, the lack of confidence because of the news that he was not the wonder boy who made it all on his own adds a different kind of vulnerability.”

This story first appeared in a June stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

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