Jeremy Strong | |
---|---|
![]() Strong in 2014 | |
Born | Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. | December 25, 1978
Education | Yale University (BA) |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 2004–present |
Spouse(s) | Emma Wall (m. 2016) |
Children | 3 |
Jeremy Strong (born December 25, 1978) is an American actor.[1] He is best known for his role as Kendall Roy in the HBO television series Succession (2018–present), for which he has won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2020 and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama in 2022.[2][3] Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022.[4]
Strong started his acting career at Yale School of Drama. After briefly studying at both the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London and the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago he acted in various plays at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. His first off-Broadway performance was in John Patrick Shanley's Defiance in 2006. His Broadway debut came portraying Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich in 2008 revival of A Man for All Seasons. That same year Strong made his film debut in Humboldt County.
Strong has since appeared in a number of acclaimed films portraying real life people such as John George Nicolay in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln (2012), Lee Harvey Oswald in Peter Landesman's Parkland (2013), James Reeb in Ava DuVernay's Selma (2014), and Jerry Rubin in Aaron Sorkin's The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020). He has also appeared in Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Adam McKay's The Big Short (2015), and Sorkin's Molly's Game (2017).
Early life and education
Strong was born in Boston on Christmas Day in 1978 to a father who works in juvenile justice and a hospice nurse mother. He attended public schools in the city's Jamaica Plain neighborhood, a place he often regarded as "somewhere to get out of" until he was 10. Since his parents could not afford to go on vacations outside the Boston area, they put a canoe on cinder blocks in the family's backyard; Strong and his brothers would often sit in it and pretend to take trips.[5]
When Strong was 10, his parents moved the family to the suburb of Sudbury,[6] for better schools. Strong recalls Sudbury as "a kind of country-club town where we didn't belong to the country club". His interest in acting began there, as he became involved with a children's theater group and performing in musicals.[5]
Among his costars was Chris Evans' older sister; Evans remembers being impressed by Strong's performances even then. He would later act opposite Strong himself, playing Demetrius to Strong's Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream. "He was a little bit of a celebrity in my mind", says Evans. During a performance of a Carlo Goldoni play where Strong played identical twins, "[t]he cast would poke their heads through the curtain, just to watch him do his thing."[5]
Strong particularly idolized actors Daniel Day-Lewis, Al Pacino, and Dustin Hoffman, —all famous for the lengths they went to preparing for roles— putting posters of their films on his bedroom wall and avidly following news of their careers as well as reading every interview they gave. When the 1996 film version of Arthur Miller's The Crucible was filmed near Boston, starring Day-Lewis, Strong got a job on the film's greenery crew—at one point holding up a branch outside a window during the filming of a scene. Later he worked on the Amistad sound crew, holding a boom mike over Anthony Hopkins as he made a speech, and helped to edit Pacino's directorial debut, Looking for Richard.[5]
After high school, Strong applied to colleges with a letter of recommendation from DreamWorks, which had made Amistad. He was accepted at Yale University and granted a scholarship, intending to study drama.[7] On his first day in class, he found the professor's discussions of Konstantin Stanislavski and accompanying blackboard illustrations so alienating that he decided immediately to change his major to English.[5]
Strong continued to act and starred in a number of plays at Yale, all of them produced through the student-run Yale Dramatic Association, known as Dramat, all of them plays Pacino had performed in such as American Buffalo, The Indian Wants the Bronx and Hughie. Offstage, Strong was later responsible for putting together a dinner with Pacino that other members of the organization, which Strong says he never really felt a part of, claim did not go well and was so extravagantly budgeted that it left Dramat in dire financial straits, a claim Strong denies while admitting to being a "rogue agent" in planning the event.[5]
During one summer at Yale, Strong got an internship with Hoffman's production company. He also studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago.[5]
Career
2001–2008: Early years on stage
After Yale, Strong moved to New York in 2001. He lived in a small apartment in SoHo, above a restaurant where he waited tables (among other jobs). Strong described it as a state of "gilded squalor" in the words of Francis Bacon, with little but his bed, books, and a closet with expensive clothing. When not working he persuaded local FedEx offices to give him some free envelopes in which he put headshots and recordings of himself performing monologues to personally distribute them to talent agencies. For almost a year he got no calls for auditions. To him it felt like "being cut off from your oxygen supply". Evans, who had become successful in Not Another Teen Movie, unsuccessfully attempted to get Strong representation through Creative Artists Agency, who represented him.[5]
The following summer Strong got a spot in the summer company at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in western Massachusetts. Strong continued to work offstage in theater and film. In 2003 his position as an assistant at an independent film production company led to him turning down Williamstown that summer to serve as Day-Lewis's personal assistant on The Ballad of Jack and Rose, released two years later. He drove up from Massachusetts in his father's car with Day-Lewis's prop mandolin for the film strapped firmly in the passenger seat. On set he was so devoted to attending to Day-Lewis, who lived apart from his family during the shoot, that crewmembers nicknamed him "Cletus", after the Simpsons character, for his focus on menial tasks. Strong says that at the end of the shoot, Day-Lewis wrote him a note that "that contains many of what have become my most deeply held precepts and beliefs about this work" which he has kept personal out of respect for the older actor.[5]
Strong returned to Williamstown in 2004, when he was cast with Jessica Chastain, Chris Messina and Michelle Williams in The Cherry Orchard. He became friends with Williams, and for intermittent periods in the late 2000s lived in the basement of her townhouse in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Boerum Hill when he could not afford to live anywhere else.[5] During the mid-2000s he worked as a typist for playwright Wendy Wasserstein, typing up her manuscripts. At night he performed the role of an alcoholic Irishman in a one-man Conor McPherson play in a small Midtown bar; after Wasserstein discovered how much time Strong was spending observing her building's Irish doorman for the part, she considered writing a play based on Strong and the doorman but was unable to proceed with it before her death in 2006.[5]
By that time, Strong had begun getting off-Broadway roles. He took part in Army weapons training at Camp Lejeune to prepare for his role as a soldier in John Patrick Shanley's Defiance and immersed himself in early 17th-century Dutch philosophy to play a young Baruch Spinoza in David Ives's New Jerusalem in 2008. He received favorable notice, and was finally able to hire an agent, when the night after being called into understudy with six hours' notice for an actor who had a family emergency he had memorized all the character's lines.[5]
2009–present: Film and Succession
Later in 2008 Strong made his Broadway debut in A Man for All Seasons.[7] He was chosen as the 2008/2009 Leonore Annenberg Fellow by Lincoln Center Theater, and nominated for the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actor twice within a three-year period.[8][9] Strong's Defiance role helped secure his first film role in Humboldt County.[6] He has subsequently appeared in films such as Lincoln alongside Day-Lewis as Lincoln's secretary John George Nicolay, Zero Dark Thirty, Selma, and The Trial of the Chicago 7.
Not all of Strong's film appearances have gone well. He was set to play a leading role in a major film for the first time in Kathryn Bigelow's Detroit as a soldier and practiced his marksmanship in preparation, but was fired from the film after the first day of shooting since, according to the director, his character was not working in the film. Strong later persuaded her to give him another, smaller part. He told The New Yorker that he did not care to discuss Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen on the record, after the magazine noted that Danish youth seemed to recognize him most from it.[5]
Strong's role in the Adam McKay film The Big Short led McKay to offer him a part in the HBO series Succession.[6] Initially he had been interested in playing Roman Roy, the family's wisecracking youngest son, but after the part was given to Kieran Culkin, Strong was asked if there was another part he was interested in and chose Kendall, the middle son, whose struggles to get his own moment to shine he could relate to. Strong's performance in the role has received universal acclaim from critics, and won him a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2020.[5]
In November 2021, it was reported that Strong was to star in and produce The Best of Us, about the 9/11 first responders.[10]
Acting philosophy and technique
Like Day-Lewis and Hoffman, Strong prepares intensely for his roles, often to replicate some aspect of the character whether or not it is prominent in his portrayal. "I think you have to go through whatever the ordeal is that the character has to go through", he says. For The Judge, where he played the main character's autistic younger brother, he spent time with an autistic man, as Hoffman had for Rain Man, and insisted on getting personal props for the character that are not depicted in the film. "All I know is, he crosses the Rubicon," Robert Downey Jr, his friend, has stated.[5] In preparation for his Succession audition for Kendall, he read Michael Wolff's biography of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his family, in which he read that Murdoch's son James is known for lacing his shoes very tightly; Strong thus did the same for the audition, believing that it expressed the character's "inner tensile strength."[5]
Sometimes Strong's devotion to his craft has led to personal injury. In the first season of Succession Kendall had to run a considerable distance to be present at an important corporate board meeting after his limousine gets stuck in traffic. Because Strong wanted to be genuinely sweaty and breathless in every take, he ran as fast and far as he could in Tom Ford dress shoes and fractured his foot. Two seasons later he jumped off a 5-foot-high (1.5 m) platform, wearing Gucci shoes while filming "Too Much Birthday",[11] impacting his tibia and femur and requiring a leg brace (the take was not used). "It's the cost to himself that worries me", said his costar Brian Cox, who plays Kendall's father, Logan Roy, and has been greatly impressed with Strong's performance. "He just has to be kinder to himself".[5] Cox has further clarified that he does not have a personal problem or annoyance with Strong: "The thing about Jeremy's approach is it works in terms of what comes out the other end... My problem—and, it's not a problem, I don't have a problem with Jeremy because he's delightful.... He's an extraordinary dad. He's a pretty unique individual. But he does get obsessed with the work."[12]
Strong seldom rehearses, saying he wants "every scene to feel like I'm encountering a bear in the woods", an approach he admits may not be popular with his costars. Culkin describes his costar as being in "a bubble" before shoots. "It's hard for me to actually describe his process, because I don't really see it". On Succession, Strong intentionally deepens his alienation from the rest of the cast by timing his visits to the makeup trailer such that he is the only one there at the time.[5] Culkin also stated that Strong's methods are not intrusive to his process. "When it comes to like, you know, so Jeremy's process, which is like saying Brian or Matthew is as long as we're getting the result, who gives a shit? ...it's not like, you know, Jeremy's being a burden or because he has a very specific process that sometimes requires a little like adjustment, which is fine because you want to help."[13]
Such techniques are often referred to as method acting, but Strong says that does not apply. He prefers the term "identity diffusion" since he does not draw on his own life experience. "If I have any method at all, it is simply this: to clear away anything—anything—that is not the character and the circumstances of the scene ... And usually that means clearing away almost everything around and inside you, so that you can be a more complete vessel for the work at hand." Strong quotes jazz pianist Keith Jarrett to further explain his approach to acting: "I connect every music-making experience I have, including every day here in the studio, with a great power, and if I do not surrender to it nothing happens."[5]
Strong admits the intensity he brings to his work might cause him problems with his work/life balance. "I don't know if I even believe in balance ... I believe in extremity." Emma Wall, his wife, says in her professional opinion as a psychiatrist she has seen that he can effectively balance both, particularly when he is with the couple's daughters.[5]
Personal life
In 2016, Strong married Emma Wall, a Danish psychiatrist; they had met four years earlier at a party in New York during Hurricane Sandy.[5] They have three daughters, born in April 2018, November 2019, and September 2021.[6][14][15][16][17] They reside in New York and have a home in Copenhagen,[17][18] as well as a vacation home on the Danish coast in Tisvilde. "I don't feel stress there", he says. "I don't feel colonized by all the wanting and needing."[5]
Filmography
Film
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2008 | Humboldt County | Peter | |
The Happening | Private Auster | ||
2009 | The Messenger | Return soldier | |
Kill Daddy Good Night | Bruce | ||
Contact High | Carlos | ||
2010 | The Romantics | Pete | |
Yes | Man | Short film | |
2011 | Love Is Like Life But Longer | Blind man | Short film |
2012 | Lincoln | John George Nicolay | |
Robot & Frank | Jake | ||
Please, Alfonso | Alfonso | Short film | |
See Girl Run | Brandon | ||
Zero Dark Thirty | Thomas | ||
2013 | Parkland | Lee Harvey Oswald | |
2014 | The Judge | Dale Palmer | |
Time Out of Mind | Jack | ||
Selma | James Reeb | ||
2015 | Black Mass | Josh Bond | |
The Big Short | Vinny Daniel | ||
2017 | Detroit | Attorney Lang | |
Molly's Game | Dean Keith | ||
2019 | Serenity | Reid Miller | |
The Gentlemen | Matthew Berger | ||
2020 | The Trial of the Chicago 7 | Jerry Rubin | |
2022 | Armageddon Time | Irving | |
TBA | Maestro | John Gruen | Filming |
Television
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2011–2013 | The Good Wife | Matt Becker | 5 episodes |
2013 | Mob City | Mike Hendry | 4 episodes |
2016 | Masters of Sex | Art Dreesen | 9 episodes |
2018–present | Succession | Kendall Roy | 29 episodes |
TBA | The Best of Us | TBA |
Theater
Year | Production | Role | Venue |
---|---|---|---|
2004 | Haroun and the Sea of Stories | Mr. Sengupta / Khattam-Shud / Walrus | Williamstown Theatre Festival |
2005 | Defiance | P.F.C. Evan Davis | Hallie Flanagan Davis Powerhouse Theater |
2006 | Manhattan Theatre Club | ||
Frank's Home | William | Playwrights Horizons | |
2007 | New Jerusalem | Baruch de Spinoza | Classic Stage Company |
2008 | A Man for All Seasons | Master Richard Rich | American Airlines Theatre |
2009 | Our House | Merv | Playwrights Horizons |
2010 | The Coward | Lucidus Culling | The Duke on 42nd Street |
2011 | The Hallway Trilogy | Lucas | Rattlestick Playwrights Theater |
2012 | A Month in the Country | Mikhail Alexandrovitch Rakitin | Williamstown Theatre Festival |
The Great God Pan | Jamie | Playwrights Horizons |
Awards and nominations
Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
2008 | Lucille Lortel Awards | Outstanding Lead Actor | New Jerusalem | Nominated |
2011 | The Coward | Nominated | ||
2015 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture | The Big Short | Nominated |
2016 | Palm Springs International Film Festival | Ensemble Cast Award | Won | |
2020 | Critics' Choice Awards | Best Actor in a Drama Series | Succession | Won |
Satellite Awards | Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film | Won | ||
Television Critics Association Awards | Individual Achievement in Drama | Nominated | ||
Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series | Won | ||
2021 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture | The Trial of the Chicago 7 | Won |
2022 | Golden Globe Awards | Best Actor - Television Series Drama | Succession | Won |
Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series | Nominated | ||
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | Won |
References
- ^ "Jeremy Strong goes from 'Humboldt' to 'Seasons'". New York Daily News. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
- ^ "72nd Emmy Awards Complete Nomination List" (PDF). Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
- ^ "Golden Globes 2022: Full List of Nominees and Winners". Us Weekly. January 10, 2022. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
- ^ "Jeremy Strong Is on the 2022 TIME 100 List". Time. May 23, 2022. Retrieved May 31, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Schulman, Michael (December 5, 2021). "On "Succession," Jeremy Strong Doesn't Get the Joke". The New Yorker. Vol. 97, no. 41. pp. 50–57. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
- ^ a b c d McGovern, Kyle (August 8, 2019). "For Succession's Jeremy Strong, Acting Isn't About Having Fun". GQ. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
- ^ a b Rochlin, Margy (December 23, 2015). "Jeremy Strong of 'The Big Short,' Acting and Chewing Gum at the Same Time". The New York Times. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
- ^ "2008 Nominees — The Lucille Lortel Awards". Lucille Lortel Awards. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
- ^ "2011 Nominees — The Lucille Lortel Awards". Lucille Lortel Awards. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
- ^ White, Peter (November 9, 2021). "Jeremy Strong To Star In & Produce 9/11 Responders Drama From Tobias Lindholm & Sister As Part Of First-Look Deal With 'A War' Director". Deadline. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
- ^ "'Succession' cast reveals all about shooting Kendall's bonkers birthday party". Entertainment Weekly.
- ^ "Succession's Brian Cox Is Worried That Co-Star Jeremy Strong Will Get "Worn Out"". E! Online. December 10, 2021. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
- ^ "Transcript of Episode 1150 - Kieran ..." Happy Scribe. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
- ^ Mulkerrins, Jane (August 3, 2019). "Who wants to be a billionaire? Succession star Jeremy Strong on playing the ultimate anti-hero". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on January 12, 2022. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
- ^ Nicholson, Rebecca (December 24, 2019). "'They're damaged': Succession's Jeremy Strong on sibling hell – and that cringey rap". The Guardian. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
- ^ Renard, David (August 5, 2018). "'Succession' Finale: Jeremy Strong on Kendall's Struggles and What Comes Next". The New York Times. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
- ^ a b Freeman, Hadley (October 2, 2021). "'His rage, his pain, his shame, they're all mine': Jeremy Strong on playing Succession's Kendall Roy". The Guardian. Retrieved November 17, 2021.
- ^ Bjerge, Rikke (February 29, 2020). "Hollywood-stjerne har bosat sig i Danmark: 'Det er kommet til at føles som mit hjem'". DR (in Danish). Retrieved May 27, 2020.