Jeremy Strong, an American actor, sat down for a new interview with Deadline where he opened up about his career and critics.
Strong is known for his role in the HBO series Succession and famously takes a method-acting approach to his work.
Discussing his technique, he explained, “When I look at the kind of transformational work based on historical characters that I feel inspired by, from Ben Kingsley in Gandhi, or Phil Hoffman in Capote or what I witnessed Daniel Day-Lewis do in Lincoln, it’s about transcending impersonation and finding the essence in a deep, serious way.”
Moving on to his critics, which also include his Succession co-stars, Strong added, “Lately, people have felt a need to take shots at me or say disparaging things, which I don’t really think there’s any need for. The way I approach things, my process. I feel we’re storytellers. I think about those performances I just mentioned.”
He continued, “Those are actors telling story through character, which to me is the highest bar. That’s the holy grail for me, creating a character, which is sort of creating an instrument that’s never existed before… That’s the kind of acting that I love. And it does require a kind of, I don’t know, devil may care attitude towards what anybody might think of what you’re doing.”
The actor explained that he saw the attacks towards him as a product of “Trumpism” and that there has been a culture of “meanness”.
Jeremy Strong concluded by adding that “it’s anti-art and not worthy of the dignity of what we’re all trying to do,”
