Method actor Jeremy Strong, best known for “Succession” and “The Apprentice,” is set to portray Meta/Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in the follow-up to “The Social Network” with Aaron Sorkin‘s highly anticipated tech-world drama “The Social Reckoning,” and we’re learning about his minor interaction with the subject of his new film.
Speaking with GQ Magazine (via Variety), Strong reveals that he sent Zuckerberg an email despite knowing that he’s “revilved person” basically telling him he would be taking the part seriously (alluding to not wanting to do a blatant parody or mockery or even condem him) and admits that this revelation could end up giving the film’s backer/distributor, Sony Pictures, an “aneurysm,” mainly because of the optics of doing that.
“I wrote to [Mark Zuckerberg], I’m probably going to give Sony an aneurysm, I sent him an email. Just to say that I take this responsibility very seriously, and the veracity of it seriously, and I’m approaching it with respect.” Strong added that playing the CEO is “the kind of role that fascinates me. It’s like Sebastian [Stan] playing [Donald] Trump. You are wearing the cape. It’s like Jeremy [Allen White] playing Bruce [Springsteen]. It’s like, the perils of that could not be greater. To commit to it, and to be free within it, is a great challenge…Listen, I know that he is a reviled person and not a popular person in our culture, but I do not think you should have an actor playing him who wants to set out to condemn him.”
If you weren’t already aware, Strong was offered the role of Zuckerberg after multiple attempts by Sorkin to convince Jesse Esinberg to come back to the part, but it simply failed as he turned it down. The actor wasn’t interested in reprising the role, given that he didn’t want to keep continuing the association with the controversial tech-bro.
Another interesting tidbit revealed in that GQ piece is that he’s been deep in prep for another project, a Netflix series remake of the Nazi-hunting film “The Boys From Brazil,” where Strong plays a Nazi Hunter named Yakov Liebermann in the Peter Morgan (“The Crown”) project (based on the Ira Levin novel) and is said to have spent an impressive seven months attempting to perfect his accent/cadence for that role. Sorkin told the outlet that Strong had interactions with him in-character as Liebermann (the method of it all): “He called me six or eight weeks ago, and without any introduction, he was just speaking as an Eastern European Nazi hunter, talking to me about the movie we had just made, without saying, ‘Hey, listen, this is going to sound strange, but…'”
He’ll be joined by Gillian Anderson (“The Crown,” “Sex Education”), Daniel Brühl (“Rush,” “Inglourious Basterds”), August Diehl (“A Hidden Life,” “Inglourious Basterds”), Shira Haas (“Unorthodox,” “Captain America: Brave New World”) will play Anna Koehler, and Lizzy Caplan (“Masters of Sex”, Fleishman is in Trouble”) in the part of Hannah Liebermann in that stellar cast.
We’re very keen to see Strong’s performances in both “The Social Reckoning” and “The Boys From Brazil,” although the former is going to debut later this year on October 9, and we’ll have to be a tad patient for the latter.
