Succession star Jeremy Strong calls controversial New Yorker profile 'a betrayal'

Jeremy Strong has broken his silence over his much-talked-about profile for The New Yorker in which his intense approach to method acting was chronicled.

The lengthy 2021 piece on the Succession star, written by Michael Schulman, led many of his high-profile Hollywood collaborators to come to Strong's defense. Now the Emmy winner has addressed the story in a new Vanity Fair interview, justifying his passionate work ethic.

"What do I say about it? It was something that, for me, felt like a pretty profound betrayal of trust," he said when asked about the profile.

He added that the views expressed in the story "ultimately said more about the person writing it and their perspective, which is a valid perspective, than it did about who I feel I am and what I'm about."

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Jeremy Strong

Strong also discussed the barrage of social media reactions he received and the debate that emerged after the piece was published, adding that he strives to protect himself from the chatter and that being perceived as "foolish" is part of the creative process.

"The noise and the fog after it: I think it's something that, I guess, what I care about ultimately is trying to feel as free as possible as an actor," he said. "Part of that is trying to insulate yourself from all of that, and what people might say about you or think about you. You have to free yourself from that. It was painful. I felt foolish. As an actor, one of the most vital secret weapons that you can have is the ability to tolerate feeling foolish."

The 43-year-old star's new movie Armageddon Time is directed by James Gray and inspired by the filmmaker's difficult childhood. Strong explained that working on such an emotional project called for him to be vulnerable, and that it's difficult not to sound "self-serious" when discussing the commitment such a film — and Succession — call for.

"Any day you walk onto a set, if you're not in a place where you're not risking that and you're not wagering enough, I'm always feeling like I might be making a big, giant f---ing fool of myself — with James's film, with the show," Strong said. "That's part of the price of admission to doing good work, which involves risk and which involves getting yourself out there. I guess I'd say that it's all fine. Acting is something that's hard to talk about without sounding self-serious, but it is something that I feel very seriously about and care about and have devoted my life to."

Jessica Chastain, Anne Hathaway, and Aaron Sorkin were just a few of Strong's former colleagues who shared their support for him at the time.

Chastain, who co-starred with him in Molly's Game, shared a statement from his Trial of the Chicago 7 director, Sorkin, who clarified quotes that he felt were unfairly taken out of context in the piece. She also knocked the story for its tone.

"The profile that came out on him was incredibly one-sided," Chastain wrote. "Don't believe everything you read, folks. Snark sells, but maybe it's time we move beyond it."

Hathaway, who appeared alongside Strong in Serenity and Armageddon Time, shared kind words about him. "I deeply value his qualities of thoughtfulness, sincerity, authenticity, sweetness, depth, kindness, generosity, as well as his powerful intelligence and extraordinary sensitivity," she wrote on Instagram. "He is an incredibly talented and inventive artist who is fully engaged and committed on set, as well as a passionate, open person in life. I find all of these things inspiring (oh, and he's fun)."

After the New Yorker story was published, a spokesperson for the magazine responded to Sorkin's comments in a statement provided to EW, saying, "This is a nuanced, multi-sided portrait of an extremely dedicated actor. It has inspired a range of reactions from people, including many who say that they are even more impressed by Jeremy Strong's artistry after having read the article."

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