Jeremy Strong said in a new interview with GQ magazine that his “Succession” co-star Brian Cox has earned the right to say whatever he wants about Strong in the press. Cox has publicly expressed worry over Strong’s Method acting, once telling The New Yorker, “I’ve worked with intense actors before. It’s a particularly American disease, I think, this inability to separate yourself off while you’re doing the job.”
“The result that Jeremy gets is always pretty tremendous,” Cox added. “I just worry about what he does to himself. I worry about the crises he puts himself through in order to prepare.”
Cox would later about Strong on “Late Night With Seth Meyers” as well, saying, “He does get obsessed with the work. And I worry about what it does to him, because if you can’t separate yourself — because you’re dealing with all of this material every day. You can’t live in it. Eventually, you get worn out.”
“Like, to me, Daniel Day-Lewis got worn out at 55 and decided to retire because [he] couldn’t go on doing that every day,” Cox added. “It’s too consuming. And I do worry about it. But the result — what everyone says about Jeremy — the result is always extraordinary and excellent.”
Strong, who is GQ magazine’s March 2023 cover star, told the publication he’s never spoken to Cox or other “Succession” co-stars about the constant media attention with his Method acting.
“Everyone’s entitled to have their feelings,” Strong said. “I also think Brian Cox, for example, he’s earned the right to say whatever the fuck he wants. There was no need to address that or do damage control… I feel a lot of love for my siblings and my father on the show. And it is like a family in the sense that — and I’m sure they would say this, too — you don’t always like the people that you love. I do always respect them.”
Cox also told the press that “there is a certain amount of pain at the root of Jeremy, and I just feel for that pain,” but Strong does not necessarily agree.
“You know, I don’t think so. I don’t think there is,” Strong told GQ as a rebuttal. “There’s certainly a lot of pain in Kendall, and I haven’t really met Brian outside of the confines of that.”
Through all of the headlines that pick apart his Method acting, Strong told GQ he’s never once considered changing his approach.
“Am I going to adjust or compromise the way that I’ve worked my whole life and what I believe in? There wasn’t a flicker of doubt about that,” Strong said. “I’m still going to do whatever it takes to serve whatever it is. Which is not to say that that is the same thing as riding roughshod over other people. It has to do with autonomous concentration. It’s a very solitary thing. I think there’s very low impact on others except for what they might want to project onto it and how that might make them feel.”
Strong will be front and center when HBO’s “Succession” returns for Season 4 on March 26.
