Filmmaker Aaron Sorkin said Jeremy Strong treated his co-stars in The Social Reckoning “the way he imagines Mark [Zuckerberg] treats the people around him” while filming The Social Network follow-up.
During a recent interview with The New York Times, the director opened up about what Strong, a known method actor, was like on set and his acting process. The Succession alum portrays the Meta CEO in the upcoming sequel.
“Jeremy does a lot of his own work. He does a tremendous amount of work before he shows up on your set. He did not speak in his own voice on the set or walk the way Jeremy walks,” Sorkin recalled.
“I told all the other actors in his scenes: ‘Guys, he’s not going to be hanging out with you at craft service. He’s not going to be yucking it up with you between takes. He’s probably not going to speak to you at all. He is going to treat you the way he imagines Mark treats the people around him,’” the filmmaker continued. “And that’s what happened. You cannot argue with the results.”
Strong took over the role of Zuckerberg from Jesse Eisenberg, who played the billionaire in the 2010 Oscar-winning film The Social Network. The follow-up centers on the 2021 Facebook whistleblower leak and The Wall Street Journal‘s “The Facebook Files” investigation.
During an interview with GQ last month, Strong revealed that he contacted Zuckerberg after being cast in the project. “I wrote to him — I’m probably going to give Sony an aneurysm — I sent him an email. Just to say that I take this responsibility very seriously, and the veracity of it seriously, and I’m approaching it with respect,” he said. The actor wouldn’t reveal what the Meta CEO wrote in his response.
The Apprentice star added of taking on such a high-profile figure, “It feels incredibly fraught to talk about the movie, to talk about Mark and being the person who is playing Mark and representing Mark in a sense to the world and to posterity. I feel an enormous sense of weight and responsibility. My job is to understand and defend his point of view and fight his fight.”
The Social Reckoning, also starring Jeremy Allen White and Mikey Madison, arrives in theaters Oct. 9.