Playing Donald Trumps mentor Roy Cohn inAli AbbasisThe Apprenticeis not the first timeJeremy Stronghas tackled recent American history.
Before the actor became synonymous with Kendall Roy inSuccession, he played parts inThe Big Short,SelmaandParkland.
I am happy with how it turned out and happy that I went for it, he says.
Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn in ‘The Apprentice.‘Pief Weyman/Briarcliff Entertainment/Everett Collection
DEADLINE: What made you run toward this role and this film?
Because its been done before brilliantly.
Because the picture that it offered felt so definitive and complete, how could you possibly improve upon that?
From left: Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn andSebastian Stanas Donald Trump.Briarcliff Entertainment/eEverett Collection
But I want to find a precarious limb to go out on.
I feel like thats where you grow as an artist.
And that felt terrifying in all the right ways.
And Roy Cohn just had so much pain underneath the…
I wouldnt even call it a facade because it was pretty well integrated into who he was.
I dont want to make him more or less sympathetic than I found him to be.
I guess I found an anguish and a loneliness in him as well as a brutality and a ruthlessness.
And those polarities always make the most fertile soil as an actor.
DEADLINE: What made you feel like you were safe in Alis hands?
STRONG: Ultimately it came down to that.
Its a choice, to bet on a filmmaker.
His filmBorderis so wild and visionary.
It has this phantasmagoric but very controlled quality in the filmmaking.
I thought in Alis hands it would yield an unknown variable, the punk rock sensibility that he has.
I think my approach to these things is not just learning the words on the page.
DEADLINE: In this movie, Roy Cohn starts out strong and his health and strength decline throughout.
What were the challenges in embodying him physically?
STRONG: All that stuff is challenging.
I think voice is such an important part of character.
It is like cracking a code.
That was probably the most important thing for me.
The rest is almost surface stuff.
Wardrobe is such a tool in telling a psychological story of character.
I have a belief, though, that that stuff has to be unconscious, otherwise its cheap.
Thats where it can transcend caricature.
DEADLINE: How do you feel about essence vs. accuracy?
STRONG: I feel a great responsibility to be accurate.
I dont feel like, oh, its my interpretation and I can do whatever I want.
I dont think I agree with anything Roy ever said or did.
Was it tough to nail the broadness of it?
STRONG: Its interesting because it is broad.
These are larger-than-life characters, and theyre monolithic in terms of our understanding of them.
But I think about, well, two things.
Theres something that Stella Adler said: Sometimes you have to be as large as life.
People have size and you have to be unafraid.
Thats something that Sebastian was, and this one required me to be.
So, you have to find a way for it to be both authentic and large.
DEADLINE: What did the pressure from the outside feel like?
Washington Post journalist Robert Kagan said that fascism wont come to America with jackboots and salutes.
It will come with a television huckster.
Thats what the movies about.
And thats so deadly serious right now that I almost feel conflicted doing press.
But I am happy with how it turned out and happy that I went for it.
I almost didnt do it.
DEADLINE: You almost turned it down?
I just didnt know if I could do it.
I didnt have a lot of time; I came on late.
And I knew how prepared Id have to be.
I just didnt know if Id get to the place where it caught fire.
And then I said yes.
Its also brilliant storytelling.
Did your perception of him change as a result of doing this?
Roy really believed the things he did was for the good of humanity and for the good of America.
And its scary, even as an actor, to flip over into the other side of seeing things.
And I was able to see through Roys eyes, as dark as that is.
DEADLINE: It is interesting how much conversation there is about whether or not we should humanize monstrous people.
Do we need to be that reductive?
STRONG: As an actor, you cant afford to be reductive.
And its not either/or, its both/and.
And at the same time, he could be the most vile, hateful, odious person imaginable.
DEADLINE: Youre Springsteens manager Jon Landau in the upcomingDeliver Me From Nowhere.
Has that been a something of a relief?
STRONG: I will say, Ive been deep in Springsteen World the last couple of months.
And god, Bruces gospel is a gospel of hope and redemption and love.
That has been his whole thing since the early 70s.
