Jeremy Strong on Playing Mark Zuckerberg and Other Unpopular Characters
The New Yorker Radio Hour
In this episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour, David Remnick interviews actor Jeremy Strong about his portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg in Aaron Sorkin's new film, The Social
Key takeaways
- Jeremy Strong portrays Mark Zuckerberg in Aaron Sorkin's sequel film set around 2021 amid federal investigations and whistleblower leaks.
- Strong emailed Zuckerberg directly to convey his serious, respectful approach to the role, receiving a cautious but responsive reply.
Main topics
- Method acting and character preparation
- Portraying real-life controversial figures
Notable quotes
"My task is to kind of surround the subject as completely as possible, leave no stone unturned in a kind of investigative mission."
Conclusion
The episode provides a compelling look into the psychological demands of method acting while examining
Transcript preview
Speaker 4 (0:02) The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC and The New Yorker. Speaker 2 (0:07) Welcome to the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. Speaker 2 (0:11) In 2010, when the film The Social Network came out, Facebook itself was only six years old. YouTube and Twitter, they were even younger. Social media was remaking the Internet as we knew it, and the whiz kid Mark Zuckerberg, who famously dropped out of Harvard to launch Facebook to the world when he was barely old enough to drink, he was hailed as a genius. 16 years later, the world looks very different because of social media, and the pushback against Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms is obviously enormous. Mark Zuckerberg, in some quarters, looks like public enemy number one. The 2010 film was written by Aaron Sorkin, and Sorkin brings us back to Zuckerberg's story now in a sequel, The Social Reckoning. Speaker 5 (0:56) I am here to help Facebook, not hurt it. Okay? Speaker 2 (1:00) You send me a message. What would you like to talk about? That film is set around 2021, as Facebook was dealing with leaks from a whistleblower about the harm it was causing. Public perception was beginning to turn severely for the worse. Speaker 1 (1:15) People around here understand that when I say no, that's the end of the debate. I'm not two years out of a dorm room anymore, Charlie. Look around. And Speaker 2 (1:23) playing Mark Zuckerberg is one of the best actors working today. Somebody who thinks very, very hard, very seriously about how to inhabit a complicated character. Jeremy Strong. Speaker 2 (1:37) I go to a screening of this new movie. Speaker 2 (1:41) And you haven't even opened your mouth where I was thrown back in my chair. Just the physicality of you, your posture, your physical bearing. And then, of course, it's interacting with my memory of him testifying in Congress and all this kind of thing. There's a certain kind of magic that's already happened. without you opening your mouth yet. And I want to know what goes into that. Speaker 1 (2:12) Well, first of all, that means the absolute world to me coming from you. Thank you. Speaker 1 (2:20) My task? Speaker 1 (2:24) is to kind of surround the subject as completely as possible. leave no stone unturned in a kind of investigative mission. To learn everything about them, both intellectually and viscerally. And the visceral part is more important because it's ultimately a non-intellectual process, unconscious process. I'm not thinking about my posture, how I hold my... or jawline. I'm not thinking about the voice. All of that, by the time you walk onto a set, and if it hasn't, you're in trouble, has to have become second skin. Speaker 2 (3:06) There's another aspect here, is that you've got another performance of Mark Zuckerberg as a younger man by Jesse Eisenberg in an earlier film written by your director, Aaron Sorkin. Yeah. I'd love to know what role that plays and what role Aaron Sorkin, your director, plays, or does he leave creating the character entirely to you? Speaker 1 (3:27) I loved the first movie, and I think Jesse's a great actor. I didn't really think about what he did in that film. That wasn't really something I ever thought about. I thought only about Mark Zuckerberg. In the same way that when I played Roy Cohn, I didn't go back and look at James Woods. I didn't go back and look at Pacino. If anything, because the anxiety of influence might, you know, that might have an effect. And I think the goal is to own it and to find your version and to connect to your own inchoate. and let your intuition guide you. Is Speaker 2 (4:10) this Speaker 1 (4:10) a Speaker 2 (4:10) harder thing to do when you're playing somebody who's quote-unquote real as opposed to somebody who's made Speaker 1 (4:15) up by a screenwriter? Yeah, I think it's a different set of challenges. And in this case... I mean, I have to attempt to create a character or embody a character with such belief and conviction that you might accept it and you might suspend your disbelief. You might forget about Jesse. You might even forget about what Mark looked like in 2019 in front of Congress. And so that's my only goal. I think by now, a lot of people are... to put it Speaker 2 (4:52) mildly, fed up with Mark Zuckerberg in a way they weren't necessarily when they went to see the first movie. The first movie. And by now, he's at a different level of wealth and power and influence that was unimaginable even to him. Speaker 2 (5:10) and you reach out to him. You write him a letter, is that right? I wrote him an email. And what did it say, and what were you looking for? Speaker 1 (5:20) I essentially said, you've probably heard that I'm going to be portraying you in this film or a character based on you. And I just want you to know that I take this very seriously. that I'm trying to learn. Speaker 1 (5:37) everything, and that I'm going to approach it with respect. And... as much as possible. Speaker 2 (5:46) And Speaker 1 (5:46) what do you hear from him? Well, the response, I don't feel that I can speak to that because it was private and I don't want to Speaker 2 (5:54) violate that. What was Speaker 1 (5:55) the spirit of the Speaker 2 (5:56) response? Speaker 1 (5:57) I think the spirit of the response was hedged but responsive. Speaker 1 (6:07) I wouldn't say that he was grateful. I think if I were Mark, I would be rightly cautious and wary of another film being made, given that there's a lot about the first film that is fictional. This is Aaron Sorkin's version. For sure. And you can hear Speaker 2 (6:23) it in the speech rhythms and the way that it's very Sorkinian. Yes. So I'm Speaker 4 (6:29) playing— Speaker 2 (6:29) Even Speaker 4 (6:29) to the Speaker 2 (6:29) point where he parodies himself a couple of times and, you know— You know, can we have the room, I think somebody Speaker 1 (6:35) says at some point in a kind of West Wing-y way of self-awareness. You know, I think one of the things that I was trying to understand was this transition into a wartime CEO, essentially. Somebody who's besieged and embattled and yet determined. Someone who... It is my belief is idealistic and principled, if wrong. At the time the movie starts, you know, we've had 2016 election interference by state actors. We've had the Macedonian trolls misinformation campaign. We've had Rohingya violence against the Rohingyas, Muslims