Jeremy Strong Says He Was Determined to “Achieve Exit Velocity” From ‘Succession’
Jeremy Strong is opening up about how he felt following the end of Succession and then diving right into Roy Cohn in The Apprentice.
Strong spoke with The New York Times Magazine ahead of the opening of An Enemy of the People, a new Broadway adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 play, in which he stars alongside Michael Imperioli and Victoria Pedretti.
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During the conversation, the Emmy-winning actor noted that after the hit HBO series ended, he felt a “profound sense of, Was this the thing? Was this the event of my life? And then a great determination to achieve exit velocity from it so I could attempt to do more.”
When asked if he was worried about always being known as his Succession character, Kendall Roy, Strong explained that he hasn’t spent much time thinking or worrying about that because he went right into his next onscreen role as Cohn, which was intentional, “just to sort of shake it off.”
“Roy Cohn, you can’t overstate his influence in our country, his legacy of the denial of reality and certain things that he imparted to Donald Trump,” he told the publication. “His playbook has a tentacular reach that is staggering — the most fascinating person I’ve ever tried to inhabit. I should say a disclaimer: My job is to be a humanistic investigator of a subject and to withhold judgment. So while I personally might have a lot of judgment about Roy Cohn, that is not the part of me that engages in the creative work.”
Strong’s upcoming Broadway role marks his return to the theater, which the actor previously revealed he was “terrified” about. He portrays Dr. Stockmann, the main character in the play, whom he sees as a “reluctant hero.”
An Enemy of a People runs from March 18 to June 16.
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