It’s been almost five years since Michael Schulman profiled Jeremy Strong in The New Yorker. We were all still mostly stuck at home during COVID. And that may have had something to do with the chaos that ensued over that piece. The internet devoured it. And that followed him around for a couple of years but then he became a fashion icon, arguably Loro Piana’s most notable celebrity ambassador.

Plus, now that we’ve been back outside for almost four years, people stopped reading. So I’m curious how many will be reading this new profile in GQ, written by Alex Pappademas, that is just as unhinged but, perhaps, arguably more sympathetic.

This, and The New Yorker article that it was descended from, are what celebrity profiles should be: dense, at times hilarious, at times indulgently descriptive, and thoroughly immersive. While I was reading it I was conscious about enjoying it, not rushing through it, because they just don’t happen like this anymore. And for that, both the writer and the subject deserve equal credit. Say what you will about Jeremy Strong – and they will – but at least he shows up and he serves. No matter the consequences… even though he has, clearly, tasted the consequences from five years ago when his extreme method approach to acting was clowned all over the culture and then defended and then clowned and then celebrated again, both by the pop culture consuming public and his actual peers.

Jeremy Strong felt that burn, and talked about the embarrassment that came from it, but ultimately decided that he wouldn’t let that scar tissue change the way he approached future promotion. And I respect it! I would rather Jeremy Strong become Polish and stay Polish for an extended interview with GQ than Bradley Cooper agree to do an interview with Taffy Brodesser-Akner for the NYT and say nothing. Which is kinda ironic because Bradley, who is close with Jeremy, is quoted several times in the GQ profile about Jeremy, expressing only admiration for his work.

Yes, Jeremy Strong was Polish for almost a year in preparation for a project. Jeremy Strong being Polish is a scream. The entire opening section of the profile, in which Jeremy Strong is Polish, will be the most delightful thing I read probably all week. And this might be because I am married to a Polish person and therefore related to several persons who speak in thick Polish accents. Picturing Polish Jeremy Strong speaking in his very Polish accent with my family and their authentic Polish accents is now currently my favourite fantasy. I cannot wait to watch this series, The Boys From Brazil, with my Polish husband so that, together, we can lose our minds over how much more Polish Jeremy Strong is than Jacek.

But I also can’t wait to watch Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg in Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning, opening this fall and already predicted to be one of the most polarising films of the year, a possible Oscar contender in several categories, which is why he’s doing this interview. Between Jeremy as Zuckerberg, and Tom Cruise as Digger, billionaire villains will be trying to take down Greek mythological heroes this award season so we might as well enjoy the Polish accent before the Discourse depresses all our f-cking timelines.

And also, now that we’re five years older and hopefully five years wiser, maybe a more nuanced take on Jeremy Strong and his method. Speaking in a Polish accent that is more Polish than legit Polish people is extreme, maybe unnecessary, but it’s necessary for him, and while it might be annoying to Brian Cox and Kieran Culkin, it’s not harmful to anyone. He’s not faking a disability and making people wheelchair him to the bathroom and taking up extra time in production between scenes like f-ckass Jared Leto. But I am curious about what it’s like for his kids when their dad is Mark Zuckerberg one year and Polish the following year. And what the world might say about a woman who goes in and out of characters while raising her children.

What’s less polarising and debatable about Jeremy Strong’s process, or at least the way he articulates it, is that he is honest about where it comes from: fear. He seems to be exclusively taking on parts that are monstrous and the only way he can get there is to overprepare. There’s a little Tai Chi in that approach if you want to see it. It’s the principle of training so hard, full submersion, and then forgetting because it becomes natural. Which is why acting and theatre is such a strange and fascinating artform, because at the end of the day, it’s really just a simulacrum of normal. And if we’re getting pretentious here, that might be the threshold, the membrane, between real and artificial, that Jeremy Strong wants to live in. Like, do you think he became an accomplished archer just for this photo shoot?

Photo credits: David Luraschi/GQ

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