{"id":11237,"date":"2026-01-11T02:58:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T02:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=11237"},"modified":"2026-01-11T02:58:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T02:58:22","slug":"succession-creator-jesse-armstrong-says-he-struggles-with-impostor-syndrome-jesse-armstrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=11237","title":{"rendered":"Succession creator Jesse Armstrong says he struggles with impostor syndrome | Jesse Armstrong"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The award-winning screenwriter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tv-and-radio\/jesse-armstrong\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Jesse Armstrong<\/a> has said a writers\u2019 room can feel like \u201cwalking on the moon\u201d when it is working well, but has admitted to experiencing impostor syndrome during his career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Armstrong was behind the hit HBO drama <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tv-and-radio\/succession\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Succession<\/a>, starring Brian Cox as the global media tycoon and family patriarch Logan Roy, who sets off a power struggle among his four children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">He is also an Oscar nominee for co-writing The Thick of It spin-off film In The Loop with Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche, and has won TV Baftas for his work on Peep Show.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"f9d74709-c6a2-4b4c-bc76-24034dd04e18\" data-spacefinder-role=\"richLink\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-47fhrn\"><gu-island name=\"RichLinkComponent\" priority=\"feature\" deferuntil=\"idle\" props=\"{&quot;richLinkIndex&quot;:3,&quot;element&quot;:{&quot;_type&quot;:&quot;model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement&quot;,&quot;prefix&quot;:&quot;Related: &quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;\u2018I have a lot of sympathy for Elon Musk\u2019: Succession creator Jesse Armstrong on his tech bros AI satire Mountainhead&quot;,&quot;elementId&quot;:&quot;f9d74709-c6a2-4b4c-bc76-24034dd04e18&quot;,&quot;role&quot;:&quot;richLink&quot;,&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/film\/2025\/jul\/01\/mountainhead-jesse-armstrong-intervew-elon-musk-succession-tech-bros-ai&quot;},&quot;ajaxUrl&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/api.nextgen.guardianapps.co.uk&quot;,&quot;format&quot;:{&quot;design&quot;:0,&quot;display&quot;:0,&quot;theme&quot;:3},&quot;isInStarRatingVariant&quot;:false}\"\/><\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Speaking on Radio 4\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tv-and-radio\/desert-island-discs\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Desert Island Discs<\/a> to Lauren Laverne, Armstrong, 55, said: \u201cWhen a writers\u2019 room is working well, it\u2019s like you\u2019re walking on the moon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cYou\u2019re suddenly released from the thing that could take you a week to figure out at your desk on your own.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cYou\u2019re suddenly bounding around and picking up rocks and everything\u2019s veined with gold and it\u2019s like you can have these golden moments of the ideas coming from everyone and you\u2019re all on the same wavelength and it can feel quite magical.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">He added: \u201cYou can get really good days and hours working writing alone, but when it\u2019s not working and you feel you\u2019re not going to equal the best version of the thing you\u2019re trying to make, I would find that very, very difficult.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThe theoretically consoling idea that \u2018oh, it\u2019ll be all right because you\u2019ve done it before\u2019, actually becomes another rod for your back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cYou don\u2019t know how possible it is for me to be a really bad writer because you don\u2019t see all these drafts where it\u2019s really bad.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"72b46fb6-5d74-455f-83b1-7b7f836daac9\" data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-173mewl\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-fd61eq\"><span class=\"dcr-1inf02i\"><svg width=\"18\" height=\"13\" viewbox=\"0 0 18 13\"><path d=\"M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">Armstrong wrote Succession, starring Brian Cox as media tycoon and family patriarch Logan Roy, who sets off a power struggle among children.<\/span> Photograph: Kirsty O\u2019Connor\/PA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Succession, which won 19 Emmys including outstanding drama series and nine Golden Globes, concluded in 2023 with its fourth series.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Despite the numerous accolades, the writer said he still experiences impostor syndrome.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">He said: \u201cAll the good writers I know that I\u2019ve ever met are riddled with self-doubt and lack of certainty about whether what they\u2019ve just done is good.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cI think you go in maybe with this 70% feeling that it\u2019s like: \u2018Oh, this is going to be a disaster and I\u2019m going to be exposed as the fraud I always thought I was all along\u2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cYou need that 10 to 20% \u2013 if you\u2019re lucky, 30% \u2013 feeling of: \u2018If I could do the version of this which I think it should be, it could be really great\u2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cI think maybe that little bit of confidence that you know that that\u2019s how it feels, maybe that grows in you.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cAlso, knowing that the negative feelings are not necessarily true.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The full Desert Island Discs interview can be heard on BBC Sounds and BBC <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/media\/radio4\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Radio 4<\/a> from Sunday at 10am.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>#Succession #creator #Jesse #Armstrong #struggles #impostor #syndrome #Jesse #Armstrong<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The award-winning screenwriter&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11237"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}