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Jeremy Strong director reveals actor’s latest method-acting move as he played Mark Zuckerberg
Strong is well known for his commitment to method acting
Jeremy Strong’s commitment to method acting was on full display while filming his latest role as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Reckoning, according to director Aaron Sorkin.
Strong plays the Meta CEO in Sorkin’s forthcoming follow-up to 2010’s The Social Network, taking over the role from Jesse Eisenberg.
“Jeremy does a lot of his own work. He does a tremendous amount of work before he shows up on your set,” Sorkin said in a new interview with The New York Times. “He did not speak in his own voice on the set or walk the way Jeremy walks.”
He continued, “I told all the other actors in his scenes: ‘Guys, he’s not going to be hanging out with you at craft service. He’s not going to be yucking it up with you between takes. He’s probably not going to speak to you at all. He is going to treat you the way he imagines Mark treats the people around him.’ And that’s what happened. You cannot argue with the results.”
The film follows the legal fallout after former Facebook employee Frances Haugen leaked internal documents to Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz, including research showing that the company knew its platforms, particularly Instagram, could harm users’ mental health and worsen body image issues among teenagers.
For his part, Strong studied extensive footage of Zuckerberg, watched his appearances before Congress and created a Facebook account so he could read through the tech executive’s posts.
He also contacted Zuckerberg directly after being cast.
“I sent him an email,” Strong told GQ previously. “Just to say that I take this responsibility very seriously, and the veracity of it seriously, and I’m approaching it with respect.” Zuckerberg responded, although Strong has not revealed what he said.
“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,” Strong added.
In his interview with the Times, Sorkin said Strong was “constantly defending Mark” to him.
“Not just on the set. He’d write to me late at night. And as soon as his last shot was over, on his last day of shooting, as soon as I called, ‘Cut!’ Jeremy Strong marched up to me — and this was the first time I heard him use his own voice on the set, not Mark’s voice — and in his own voice said, ‘If I’d been playing Jeff [Horwitz], I’d have been defending Jeff.’”
Strong is well known for his immersive approach to acting, having previously attracted considerable attention for the lengths he has gone to inhabit his characters.
In 2021, the actor was the subject of a now-infamous New Yorker profile by Michael Schulman, titled “On ‘Succession,’ Jeremy Strong Doesn’t Get the Joke,” which portrayed Strong as deeply serious and earnest to the point of absurdity.
The profile sparked backlash from some of Strong’s famous friends and fellow actors, with celebrities including Anne Hathaway and Sorkin coming to Strong’s defence.
Brian Cox, who played Strong’s father on Succession, was among those to publicly discuss their contrasting approaches to acting, saying he worried about the “crises” Strong put himself through in preparation for roles. Cox later described Strong’s method as “f***ing annoying,” while also praising him as a “wonderful actor.”
The Social Reckoning also stars Mikey Madison as Haugen and Jeremy Allen White as Horwitz. The film, based on the newspaper’s investigation into Facebook, is due to be released in cinemas on October 9.
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