ForgiveJeremy Strongif hes feeling like he and hisThe Apprenticecohorts are stuck in an extendedTwilight Zoneepisode.
With Oscar nominations just ahead, is there room for Strong in the role of his career so far?
We caught up over the New Year holiday to consider that.
Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn in ‘The Apprentice’Briarcliff
What has it been like, playing a laudable mentor?
JEREMY STRONG: Its honestly been one of the greatest working experiences Ive ever had.
Bruce and Jon really opened the kimono to Jeremy and me.
THE APPRENTICE, from left: Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump, Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn, 2024. © Briarcliff Entertainment / Courtesy Everett CollectionBriarcliff Entertainment/eEverett Collection
Jon offered a steady hand that helped Bruce over the years.
It seems remarkable Springsteen was able to trust another manager again.
STRONG: Greatness often comes from moments of crisis.
Emerson said every wall is a door.
I think certain people are able to, when they come up against the wall, find the opening.
Bruce was barred from recording, specifically with Jon Landau, until finally the lawsuit was wrapped up.
But in a way, its like a mirror ofThe Apprentice, another story about mentorship.
Ive been witness to their relationship now for the past seven months that Ive been preparing for this.
Ive brought them into the scenes and Scott Cooper is such an incredible collaborative director, he welcomed it.
DEADLINE: Funny you mention Springsteens Jersey Shore haunt The Stone Pony.
They played two hours of Motown songs.
A bucket list night, let me tell you.
We all have that to a degree, and I think art can thaw those frozen parts of ourselves.
Its like taking an ice pick to a big block of ice that we cant melt ourselves.
Thats the healing power of certain art and certainly of his music.
I had one of those moments.
I got in the car and drove down there.
DEADLINE: There are good mentors and bad.
Ive seen the phrase Faustian bargain said about Trump hitching his wagon to Cohn.
Coming out the other side of that film, is Faustian Bargain too simplistic in defining Cohn and Trump?
To his dying day, Cohn denied he had AIDS or that he was gay.
Hes a Citizen Kane.
COHN: I agree with everything you just said.
Hes been called one of the worst human beings of the 20th century.
Its hard to put my thumb on a kind of single descriptive term because hes such a paradox.
That made it such a rich dramatic character to play, that hes not just one thing.
Those three words are an amazing summation of him.
Hes not a victim in that sense.
And I cant think about Roy without thinking about a few things.
He resolved, Im never going to feel less than, or powerless or un-special ever again.
He sought clout in a very ruthless and unapologetic way, which is different than power.
It would be an incomplete thing to say that Roy Cohn was just this ruthless, vicious Machiavellian figure.
To me, its an almost humanistic perspective.
Hes basically saying, Im not a hypocrite.
You guys are all hypocrites.
Everyone contains some light and some darkness.
His favorite song was fromLa Cage Aux Folles, it wasI Am What I Am.
We tried to get it in the movie, but the estate wouldnt give us the rights.
DEADLINE: Youve played a lot of characters based on real people.
What was most helpful that you found on Cohn that helped you immerse yourself in him so deeply?
It sets up an equation where, if you do this, then you could do that.
DEADLINE: What does that mean?
STRONG: Something much more mysterious than just…that.
You have to absorb and learn everything and study them endlessly.
And at a certain point, something just takes over, takes possession of you.
You dont know how thats going to happen.
I feel that I dont know if I can do this.
I guess in a way, thats the thing that feels dangerous and exciting.
A mans reach should exceed his grasp, or whats a heaven for.
I think thats the whole criterion of doing anything.
It should be outside your grasp.
DEADLINE: What kind of potshots?
STRONG: The way I approach things, my process.
I feel were storytellers.
I think about those performances I just mentioned.
Those are actors telling story through character, which to me is the highest bar.
And then learning how to play it with fluency and mastery.
Shakespeare said that actors are the brief and abstract chroniclers of the time.
Thats the task I feel most excited by.
A lot of it is software of technique.
You have to change.
Thats the kind of acting that I love.
And do I feel satisfied with it?
Is it painful for me to watch?
DEADLINE: Why would the process of doing that warrant taking shots?
And to me, its anti-art and not worthy of the dignity of what were all trying to do.
DEADLINE: Messaging gaining more power than actual truth?
Truth was a plaything to Roy Cohn.
Roy Cohns relationship to truth is like Alex Jones relationship to truth.
Theres that incredible documentary where hes being confronted by one of the parents from Sandy Hook.
Theyre on the stand, looking him in the eyes and telling him about what happened to them.
Do you understand that?
DEADLINE: The Apprentice got an eight-minute standing ovation at Cannes.
STRONG: There was a feeling of excitement going into Cannes.
And then it was crickets.
Before Cannes was over, the film was untouchable.
And then the months of protracted legal negotiations with the then-financiers.
For most of the summer, I was told the movies never going to come out.
Thats what Roy Cohn was teaching.
We basically never came back from that.
Tom Ortenberg had the balls and the courage to come and champion this movie.
But Ill tell you, Mike, its one of the things thats been most challenging.
I always was an idealist about all this stuff and thought that serious work and excellence was the metric.
I learned a lot of the metric is about the horse trading and how big your coffers are.
STRONG: This movie has had this handicap where they dont have a dime.
Theres been no…anything.
So a lot of people still dont really know about the movie.
I feel so grateful to for having really put this movie out there to the community over the fall.
DEADLINE: How did Roger Stone and Steve Bannon grade the film?
STRONG: They reached out to our screenwriter Gabe Sherman because hes covered them and they praised the work.
And my answer is always, you and me both.
Not that it necessarily wouldve moved the needle.
People in our own industries, I think maybe there is nausea at humanizing these people.
I thought about this duringSuccession, this idea that behind every institution is the shadow of a man.
And I really feel that in 2025, were now living in Roy Cohns shadow.
I think thats how important and central he is.
And most people dont know anything about him or even know that he existed.
Last time, I think he had a couple of American Idol runners-up singing.
This time who knows?
Hes suddenly very popular.
STRONG: Lets take it further.
But politics aside, what I find disconcerting is what it bodes for our storytelling.
STRONG: Such a great question.
If Im honest, the answer is, nothing.
This sounds so highfalutin, but whatever.
Ive been going to some meditation retreats with this incredible teacher, Jon Kabat Zinn.
Theres nothing monumental about that moment in Kendalls life.
I mean, arguably its a big moment, but its part of a continuum of moments.
I thought it was all over for him.
I felt it was over.
Its a strange alchemy.
They take you places that you dont really understand.
Roy Cohn was as close to an Iago as Ill probably ever play.
I felt like Id been sort of preparing my whole life to do something like that.
At the end of the day, thats the stuff that matters.
But it also feels like the work itself is the reward.
And the exchanges with people that if you feel like you got something across, thats the reward.
Its like, I cant even believe this.
DEADLINE: Give an example of that validation.
STRONG: Robert Downey Jr. hosted a screening a few weeks ago and Al Pacino was there here.
I didnt come from money and my family had nothing to do with any of this.
Mom and dad both had to work overtime and extra jobs to save up money for us to come.
My dad worked as a security guard overnight.
I just thought it was the most exciting thing in the world.
I slept overnight on the bleachers with my dad, and it was freezing cold.
I dont think I fell asleep at all because it was just indescribably exciting to be there.
I remember watching these people who were larger than life to me, walk on the carpet.
It brought me back to that moment…the way I felt on those bleachers that night.
My poor dad shivering, because he gave me his jacket to keep me warm.
I still feel that way when I drive onto a lot or when I go to set.
So thats also part of why I want to give it so much.
I dont know any other way of doing it.
I want to give it everything.
