Jeremy Strong talks about Succession Season Four. Image Source: GQ
Jeremy Strong talks about Succession Season Four.
Actor Jeremy Strong recently spoke with GQ about the return of Succession, in which he plays Kendall Roy, and his exhaustive style of method acting on set.
To prepare for the role, Jeremy is known to detach himself from the rest of the cast, and this season is no exception. Strong must prepare different manners for each season of Succession and to stay in Kendall's headspace, he even made a playlist with songs by A$AP Ferg, Kanye West, and Phil Collins. In defense, Jeremy told GQ that it would have been one thing if he was continuing to work on Friends or something, but he worked on a Guy Ritchie film, and he tried to approach it very differently.
The actor said that he wishes he had the freedom to just shoot himself out of various cannons noting that he feels Kendall sometimes feels like the same cannon every time. Jeremy Strong has arrived at an entirely new and unfamiliar crossroads adding that when he was younger, he saw the future as a target and doesn't feel that any longer. There's a sense of 'Now what?' that Jeremy says that he doesn't know how to answer.
Brian Cox, who plays Roy's father Logan Roy on the show said that it can be frustrating at times but that doesn't detract from his co-performance. He said during Town & Country interview that it's fucking irritating adding that people should not get him to start on it. The veteran actor does admit that Jeremy Strong is a very good actor, and the rest of the cast agrees but recognizing a personality and what the protagonist does is only part of the skill set.
Co-star Nicholas Braun, who plays Greg, Kendall Roy's goofy cousin said that there have been two or three instances where Jeremy has broken, and they've all happened in one-on-one scenes adding that so he is very proud of that. Nicholas said that Jeremy is usually unbreakable and it's incredible. Braun told the publication about a time during season four when to get his co-stars in the mood for a scene, Jeremy Strong found a YouTube video of horrendous crashes and ruination from, maybe, Transformers and had the sound department play it loud on the speakers so they could hear it. That, he believes, is the mindset: "Why not try something to see if it changes the energy in the room and a performance?"
Jesse Armstrong recalled a scene from the first season in which Jeremy Strong arrived on set with his wife on one of his days off. Jesse said he didn't know who he was and the way he'd been trying to carry himself for the preceding weeks as he did play Kendall in the darkness meant that his entire physicality was different.
Jeremy Strong worked closely with costume designer Michelle Matland on the character, and as a result, he has become a fashion icon in his own right. Loro Piana sent Strong a custom jacket and Richard Mille a watch for season four. He said those are all things that he does on his own because those details just feel important to him, and so he takes initiative in that area adding that for most of season three, Kendall was on a manic high and he thought about Kanye.
The actor said he has no idea how Kendall's story will indeed end while filming Season 4 explaining that he has a broad sense of things but he didn't want to know more often this season. Jeremy Strong explained that he feels a sense of really wanting to, now that they're at the one-yard line, finish this season and potentially the show in a manner that provides a real payload of what this journey has been.
Jeremy Strong has considered what it will mean to say goodbye to Kendall Roy, the tormented billionaire scion he's been inhabiting for the past five years. About whether this marks the pinnacle of his career, the actor said that in some ways, it will appear to be dead and he thinks his mother is probably upset by it. When asked if his parents are watching him on Succession, Jeremy Strong said that his mother is struggling with the darkness of Succession.
The actor's family relocated to the wealthier suburb of Sudbury when he was ten years old and they struggled to fit in, but it provided Jeremy Strong with the opportunities he desired. Acting became a way for him to feel valuable, to have self-esteem, and to feel seen and valued in a community where he didn't feel he belonged. He adds that his parents have lived for a very long time but there was a sense that they gave everything to his brother but didn't give much to themselves or follow their dreams so he would see ways in which people stop themselves or succumb to their inner resistance. Jeremy says that resistance he saw as the enemy.
He mentions it to himself, and he brings it again and again, so there's no point in skirting around it. Jeremy Strong was the topic of an infamous profile in The New Yorker in late 2021 and on asking about it he said the whole matter was "15 minutes of shame with a long tail."
