For American actor Jeremy Strong, taking risks isn&#39;t a choice. It&#39;s a way of life. &quot;I&#39;m aware that there are opinions about me, but I try not to think too much about how I&#39;m perceived. I think it&#39;s such a waste of time,&quot; he says.

Text by SAMANTHA SIMON Photography BOBY Styling FERNANDO ECHEVERRÍA

By Hollywood standards, Jeremy Strong is an enigma. He&#39;s as well known for immersing himself in his roles as he is for showing up on a red carpet in a head-to-toe monochrome look, bucket hat included. He&#39;s also something of a literary sponge, famous for quoting, word for word, those who inspire him; during our 45-minute conversation, he references six legends in their respective fields, from painter Frank Stella to philosopher Francis Bacon . But while the internet may report on his every interview or fashion choice, the 46-year-old actor prefers to ignore the conversation altogether.

“I’m aware that there are opinions about me, but I try not to think too much about how I’m perceived. I think it’s such a waste of time,” he says, connecting via Zoom from Copenhagen , where he lives with his wife, Danish psychiatrist and documentary filmmaker Emma Wall, and their three children. These days, Strong barely has a moment off. Last year, he won a Tony Award for his role in Broadway’s “An Enemy of the People” and earned an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Trump advisor Roy Cohn in “The Apprentice.” And fall has begun with a busy schedule. The Bruce Springsteen biopic “Deliver Me from Nowhere,” in which he plays the mentor of musician and Rolling Stone critic Jon Landau, will be released on October 24. He will also be shooting two films and, in between productions, will be busy on the set of Peter Morgan’s Netflix miniseries “The Boys from Brazil.”

The series, &quot;an allegory about the rise of fascism,&quot; Strong says, marks his return to television after &quot;Succession&quot; ended in 2023. His portrayal of Kendall Roy, the brooding #EldestBoy, earned him an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and a Critics&#39; Choice Award, in addition to inspiring thousands of memes. Two years after hanging up his ever-present cashmere hat, Strong has moved on. Today, he shares little with Kendall, except a taste for luxury clothing, though he tends to incorporate those pieces into his own wardrobe differently. &quot;I don&#39;t think I personally share Kendall Roy&#39;s tastes,&quot; Strong says. &quot;I don&#39;t dress for Sun Valley or Davos. I don&#39;t dress for anything. Unlike his attention-seeking alter ego, the actor has no interest in what&#39;s said about his most controversial looks. &quot;I know some of the fashion choices I&#39;ve made on the red carpet have garnered a lot of attention, but honestly, it&#39;s not something I&#39;ve ever sought,&quot; he says.

“I’ve always been interested in clothes as a form of expression; I don’t have any philosophy or specific rules. I think everything in my life is very intuitive. I think I’m not afraid to push myself to the limit.” While he doesn’t follow trends—“I have no interest in what’s in fashion”—he appreciates consistency. “I think uniforms are underrated. Right now, I’m oscillating between Haans Nicholas Mott (the New York-based designer famous for his looks for Brad Pitt) and Loro Piana.” Strong is an ambassador for Loro Piana, which he first wore in “Succession.” He has an ongoing collaboration with Jacques Marie Mage and Richard Mille. “Whether it’s my art, clothing, watches, or the culinary world, I like to really immerse myself in those things,” he says. “I’m interested in the process.” Strong has been passionate about acting since college, when he was part of the Yale University student theater group. During rehearsals for “Marat/Sade,” he recalls “sitting in a bathtub writing with a quill pen for hours, trying to understand the mental state of someone who was in the Charenton asylum.”

After graduating with a degree in English, he studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London before joining the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago. &quot;Over time, I learned to trust my instincts more and more, and perhaps that gave me the courage to commit to working in the way I understand best,&quot; he says. &quot;I think there&#39;s a lot of misunderstanding and mythologizing about what actors do, but ultimately, it all comes down to commitment.&quot; As an actor, Strong is certainly not afraid to commit himself fully. When asked about the immersive nature of his approach, he paraphrases Francis Bacon: &quot;All art is a game, and the thing about modern art is that you have to go deep into the game,&quot; he says.

“For me, it’s all about this: delving deeper into the game. I’m very aware, when I do these things, that it’s artifice, but essentially you’re telling the truth through a lie. I think I’ve always felt the need to be—as you say—immersive, to believe in what I’m doing and make it meaningful,” he explains. “I immerse myself in these experiences that for me are profound, liminal, that take me beyond myself. It’s something very private; I’m not even fully aware of how it happens or what I’m actually doing. You get lost in all of this, and then, when you resurface like some kind of diver coming back to the surface, other people project all sorts of things onto you. And I feel flattered by that projection.” However, the process can come at a price.

“There’s a beautiful poem about artistic creation that says you’re only called to make sacrifice; it’s not for your own personal glory or your own inner peace, and that’s something I believe in,” he says. “Often it’s a sacrifice—not in the context of actual sacrifices in the real world, mind you—but you test yourself, you go through fire to do this work, and you do it for an audience.” He then discusses the “troubling” discovery made by famed method actor Dustin Hoffman, who felt more comfortable pretending to be someone else, describing it as “the nature of the beast,” before comparing his own work ethic to that of Bruce Springsteen, played by Jeremy Allen White in the film “Deliver Me from Nowhere.”

“Bruce is often on my mind,” says Strong. “He talks about how deeply you can inhabit a song, and I think I try to do the same. In my case, the song is a character in a movie, a play, or a television series, but it’s about how completely and deeply you can embody yourself in it.” Strong also identifies with his character’s passion. “As a critic, Jon Landau wrote about the dangers of becoming a professional, about how, when we stop loving something and it becomes just a job, we have to go back and rediscover what we loved in the first place,” he says, calling Landau and Springsteen’s fifty years of work “an artistic pursuit.” “When they talk about music, it’s not about a job or a business: it’s a reason for living. That’s how I feel about acting: it’s not a job, it’s not a career. It’s my reason for being.” Complex characters captivate him.

&quot;If something comes easy to me, I&#39;m not interested in doing it,&quot; he says, quoting Frank Stella, who believed it&#39;s only worthwhile to focus on what you can&#39;t do. &quot;I&#39;m interested in difficulty. When I read scripts and consider roles, the degree of danger and risk are essential components: when I&#39;m faced with a challenge, that&#39;s the only thing that makes it vital. There&#39;s this common denominator: the desire to find a new impossible wave to ride, or a different mountain to climb, which remains constant, and there&#39;s always the feeling of being a beginner. You&#39;re always starting from scratch, because you&#39;ve never done it before.&quot; Perhaps it&#39;s precisely this hunger that leads Strong—notoriously influenced by Daniel Day-Lewis and Al Pacino—to react with incredulity at the idea that, one day, future generations of actors might regard him with the same reverence. &quot;It&#39;s hard for me to accept that,&quot; he says, quoting a quote from D.H. Lawrence, who said that one artist&#39;s work is another&#39;s salvation. &quot;I don&#39;t think I see myself the way I see those actors I&#39;ve worked with, worked for, or sought out as mentors in some way. They&#39;re like North Stars, beacons of light that guide me. But there&#39;s a limit to how much you can internalize from others, from their values, and from their way of working.

In my twenties and thirties, I was still absorbing a lot of lessons from the great masters, but then, at a certain point, you have to let go of everything and throw it away to find your own line, your own path.” Recently, Strong has taken on mentor roles one after another, going from the role of Jon Landau to last year’s portrayal of Donald Trump’s lawyer and advisor, Roy Cohn, in the film “The Apprentice.” “These two mentoring relationships are like night and day, and it wasn’t a deliberate choice, but one was a kind of antidote to the other,” he says. “Jon told me he was there to help Bruce define the nature of his vision; Roy Cohn—the progenitor of fake news, who taught Trump denialism, something we now see accelerating at a dizzying speed—was there to help his apprentice define what, to me, is a malignant vision. So one is uplifting and beautiful, the other is a nihilistic vision, a journey into the heart of darkness.&quot;

The contrast between the two characters—and the opportunity to explore both on screen—is what Strong finds most inspiring. &quot;Right now, Bruce is out there speaking truth to the power that Roy Cohn helped create,&quot; she says, praising Springsteen&#39;s willingness to be vulnerable as &quot;the opposite of self-preservation or self-protection.&quot; Strong recalls the singer&#39;s concert in Milan, which she attended last July: &quot;I don&#39;t know if you&#39;ve ever been to a Bruce concert, but it&#39;s like going to church. There&#39;s something deeply spiritual and uplifting, and he really puts his heart into it. He cares about our common humanity and sings for both the left and the right. He&#39;s there for everyone and brings powerful medicine to the world.&quot;

The state of the world weighs on Strong&#39;s mind as he prepares for &quot;The Boys from Brazil.&quot; Based on Ira Levin&#39;s 1976 novel of the same name—later adapted into a film starring Gregory Peck—Peter Morgan&#39;s miniseries stars Strong as a Nazi hunter, loosely based on Simon Wiesenthal. &quot;It&#39;s about the state of the world, which is ripe for a revival and a resurgence of fascism,&quot; the actor explains. &quot;It seems clear to me that we&#39;re in that moment in history again, and that we&#39;ve forgotten the lessons of the past, which we&#39;re doomed to repeat if we don&#39;t wake up. It&#39;s a profound moral parable, wrapped in a high-concept dramatic thriller.&quot; When asked how he feels about returning to the small screen, Strong is nonchalant. He calls himself a &quot;platform agnostic&quot; and emphasizes that, after all, it is a miniseries. What really matters to him is only the quality of the material: &quot;Peter is a colossus and one of the greatest living playwrights. Even though this is a science fiction story about cloned Hitler, it has a decidedly bold starting idea. Yes, it&#39;s a very ambitious project.&quot; Whatever the final outcome, Strong is simply happy to be part of the project.

“There’s never any certainty or certainty at any point,” he says of the entertainment industry. “None of this is a given, and what I’ve done before doesn’t guarantee that anything else will be successful. There’s always a constant act of surrender and humility in the face of the unknown.” Perhaps this very ambiguity is the real reason he chooses to focus on his own creative desires rather than public perception. “It may seem a little abstract, but follow me,” he says, laughing. “I believe we can be either the seer or the seen. If we’re in a position to see our lives and pay attention to the things that matter to us, I think that’s a place of great strength. But if we’re in a position to be seen, then everything becomes tied to what others think of us, and I think we could all worry a little less about how we’re perceived and focus more on what we see.” He pauses for a moment. “Of course, doing this interview right now, I’m also kind of in a position to ask myself, ‘What do you think of what I’m saying?’ Are people going to read this and think I’m a certain way?”

<div class="page" title="Page 5"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"> GROOMING Mads Stig Studio PRODUCER Narrow Agency PHOTO ASSISTANT Tobias Hoffmann SPECIAL THANKS Soho House Copenhagen</div></div></div>

Jeremy Strong, from “Succession” to “Springsteen”: “I’m not afraid to go beyond my limits”

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