“Succession” actor Jeremy Strong said in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he takes his profession so seriously that it’s actually like a religion.
Strong became a household name thanks to his leading role in the Emmy-winning HBO drama, which he personally received a Best Actor award for in 2020. He has also appeared in Stephen Spielberg’s 2012 drama “Lincoln” and in “Zero Dark Thirty.” The 43-year-old star will also star in the upcoming period drama “Armageddon Time.”
When asked by the interviewer point blank if acting was his religion, Strong said in a way it was.
“It might come off sounding a certain way if I were to say that, but yes,” he replied.
“I think it is a sacramental activity expressing a faith, if that’s what a religion is. I feel wary of saying that because religion is religion and I don’t want to diminish what religion is. But for me, certainly. Theaters have always been a place that feel kind of holy. And the communicative and healing power of film is completely profound and mysterious. So, yeah, I’m a devout devotee of that. Yeah.”
Strong has been criticized for method acting in the past and his overall intensity for acting.
A December 2021 New Yorker profile on the actor went viral once fans realized the extremes he went to for the roles he played. “To me, the stakes are life and death,” he said of playing Kendall Roy in “Succession.”
“I take him as seriously as I take my own life.”
His co-star, British actor Brian Cox, was outspoken in his criticism of that approach. “I don’t hold a lot of the American sh**, having to have a religious experience every time you play a part. It’s crap,” he said at the Toronto Film Festival. “I don’t hang onto the characters I play. I let them go through me. The thing is to be ready to accept, as an actor. You stand there, you’re ready to accept whatever is thrown at you.”
Meanwhile, Strong is hesitant to talk about what happened as the result of that New Yorker interview, while still acknowledging how seriously he takes his work.
“There’s a lot of mythologizing about my process,” Strong told THR of the aftermath. “But it’s very unremarkable and is really just about concentration.”
“I’m just an actor trying to work hard and take risks,” he continued. “And the drama of all that I feel is just noise.”
