Jeremy Strong’s Rigorous Routine For ‘The Apprentice’ Makes His ‘Succession’ Role Look Like a Piece of Cake
- Jeremy Strong play attorney Roy Cohn in the movie.
- The actor goes onto detail his process of acting especially after his 2021 New Yorker Profile.
- The Apprentice comes out on October 11, 2024.
One of the hotly anticipated movies of 2024, The Apprentice, starring Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Martin Donovan, and Maria Bakalova, is a biographical drama movie. Directed by Ali Abbasi, the movie goes on to explore former president Donald Trump’s career as a real estate businessman in the 1970s and 1980s. The movie premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, where it received a positive response.
The Apprentice also sheds some light on Trump and Roy Cohn’s relationship at the time. Cohn, a New York prosecutor who worked with Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Second Red Scare. The movie was included in the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. The trailer was released on September 10, 2024, which coincided with the second presidential debate between Trump and Kamala Harris. Jeremy Strong shares his preparation for portraying Roy Cohn on screen.
The Apprentice star Jeremy Strong describes Roy Cohn as a ‘cancerous conundrum’ and ‘demonic Peter Pan’
Succession star Jeremy Strong portrays the character of Roy Cohn in the upcoming The Apprentice, starring Sebastian Stan as young Donald Trump. Cohn rose to prominence when he prosecuted Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for espionage, and later served as chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy. The Bronx-born attorney took young Donald Trump under his wing in the 1970s, and thus their journey began.
Strong shared with the LA Times,
If Roy Cohn walked into this room right now, I don’t think I would want to shake his hand. But from the distance of a piece of work and trying to understand him—humanistically and creatively. I had to find, for lack of a better word, love. Which is a bit of a grenade to say out loud.
The actor acknowledging his 2021 New Yorker profile that emphasized on him going to lengths for his roles, added that he is an honest person and is not interested in hiding himself anymore. Ahead of the release of The Apprentice, Strong goes on to describe his character Roy Cohn as a ‘cancerous conundrum’ and ‘demonic Peter Pan’.
Further in the interview, Strong was asked about his preparation for the part. He revealed that when the director offered him the role, he was familiar with Cohn as he was approached to play the same character in another movie five years ago, so he did his research.
The actor, upon signing The Apprentice, began his preparation by studying videos of Cohn to learn his voice, interviewing Cohn profiler Ken Auletta. Jeremy Strong visited a tanning booth to get the same leathery looking skin as Cohn. The actor mentioned that the role required him to transform physically as well and he underwent a doctor-supervised starvation diet.
I haven’t had to alter my body in that way. He was obsessed with his physical appearance. He had a tremendous amount of vanity.
He added that he no longer takes any of his opportunities for granted because things happened late for him. Strong added that he wants to keep pushing himself to find new ways to find the frontier and work, work that kind of requires radical courage.
Jeremy Strong shares how he feels about a straight man playing a gay character on-screen
In his interview with the LA Times, the actor was asked if he feels there is any merit to the criticism about straight actors playing gay characters on-screen and receiving praise for it. Especially when opportunities for gay actors are limited. Strong added,
Yes, it’s absolutely valid. I’m sort of old-fashioned, maybe in the belief that fundamentally, it’s about a person’s artistry, and that great artists, historically, have been able to, as it were, change the stamp of their nature. That’s your job as an actor. The task, in a way, is to render something that is not necessarily your native habit.
He mentioned that gay roles don’t need to be played by gay actors specifically. He continued that it does not matter who plays what on-screen, but the actors should take their roles seriously. The actor mentioned that portraying a character’s struggles and experiences is not a plaything, and the actors should acknowledge this.
The publication mentioned that Strong has intimate knowledge about Cohn’s nuances that could actually give Cohn’s biographers a good run for their money. They also stated that his work on The Apprentice has already got an Oscar buzz.
The Apprentice comes out on October 11, 2024.
