Here's Why Brian Cox Wears Sunglasses To Every Awards Show

We’re in the thick of what’s turning out to be a fairly uneventful and unfortunately predictable awards season, and as a result, we have to cling to the few things that still delight and surprise: Awkwafina winning a Golden Globe for her turn in “The Farewell,” “Parasite” making history as the first foreign film to win the SAG ensemble award, and the sunglasses that seem to be attached to Brian Cox’s face, even when he’s indoors at these shows. 

The “Succession” patriarch took home his first Golden Globe this year for his performance as Logan Roy. He has both accepted awards and attended the shows looking cooler than Shiv in a turtleneck, thanks to a few choice pairs of Garrett Leight sunglasses.

Here he is looking dapper on the Golden Globes red carpet in a pair of $645 Mr. Leight Coopers:

Here he is in a pair of Garrett Leight Aces on stage at the Critics’ Choice Awards:

He went even darker lensed for the American Film Institute Awards with a navy-and-red checked suit, our favorite look of all. Here he is with Rom ― er, Kieran Culkin: 

And with the rest of his bearded sons:

And, arguably most importantly, with freaking Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Billy Porter and then with Andrew Scott. 

Fashion or function? An investigative report via an email to his manager Matthew Lesher found us the answer.

“He has blue eyes and he’s light-sensitive,” Lesher graciously told HuffPost. “The glasses were from Garrett Leight.” 

Dr. Anupama Horne, a Duke Health ophthalmologist, confirmed in a 2013 blog post that this explanation checks out.

“Photophobia, the term used to describe light sensitivity, typically affects people with light eyes because they have less pigmentation in multiple layers of the eye than those with darker eyes,” she said. “Because of this, they are unable to block out the effects of harsh lights like sunlight and fluorescent lights.” 

According to our own scientific findings, they are also just too cool for (the Logan Roy) school.