AceShowbiz - "Succession" star Brian Cox has skewered several big names in his candid new autobiography - including Johnny Depp and David Bowie.

The Scottish actor isn't one to mince his words, much like his media mogul character on the hit HBO TV show, but he makes particularly harsh assessments of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" actor and the late rock star.

"Personable though I'm sure he is, (he) is so overblown, so overrated," he writes of Johnny in new excerpts published by Britain's The Big Issue, noting his disdain for the star's 1990 breakthrough film directed by Tim Burton.

"I mean 'Edward Scissorhands'. Let's face it, if you come on with hands like that and pale, scarred-face make-up, you don't have to do anything. And he didn't. And subsequently, he's done even less."

Of Bowie, whose films include "The Man Who Fell to Earth" and "Labyrinth", he says, "A skinny kid, and not a particularly good actor. He made a better pop star, that much is for certain."

Nor is he impressed with director Quentin Tarantino, although he'd still work with him.

"I find his work meretricious," he gripes. "It's all surface. Plot mechanics in place of depth. Style where there should be substance. I walked out of 'Pulp Fiction'...That said, if the phone rang (with a job offer), I'd do it."

And there's no praise for Steven Seagal, either, his co-star in 1996's "The Glimmer Man".

"Steven Seagal is as ludicrous in real life as he appears on screen," he notes. "He radiates a studied serenity, as though he's on a higher plane to the rest of us, and while he's certainly on a different plane, no doubt about that, it's probably not a higher one."

Brian also tells The Big Issue he hasn't yet heard from anyone whose talent he has trashed in the book - but he thinks he might lose some pals. "I'm expecting probably never to hear from some people again. But that's the way it goes," he quips.