Actor Jeremy Strong, best known for playing troubled media heir Kendall Roy in TV’s Succession, has told NME that he’s definitely on the cast for upcoming Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere.
Rumours first emerged in May that he was up for the part of Jon Landau, The Boss’s longtime manager, but were never officially confirmed by Strong’s team. Now he says he’s rubber-stamped the deal – and revealed his favourite Springsteen record to boot: 1982’s stark, introspective gem ‘Nebraska’.
“It just always spoke to me, there’s a melancholy to it,” he said. “I am doing [Deliver Me From Nowhere] but I’d always felt that way about that album. There’s a narrative to it that comes from a very deep place in him and you can feel that.”
Strong also singled out Van Morrison’s acclaimed 1968 release ‘Astral Weeks’ as one he always goes back to. “It’s transportive and it’s pretty perfect,” he said. You can watch the full video interview, in which Strong is joined by Sebastian Stan – his co-star from new film The Apprentice – above.
The Apprentice, out this week, details the rise of Donald Trump (Stan) from his early days as an ambitious real estate businessman in New York City to billionaire property developer. It focuses particularly on his relationship with mentor Roy Cohn (Strong), the ruthless and feared lawyer who helped Senator Joseph McCarthy jail suspected communists during the 1950s.
The film has drawn the ire of Trump supporters for its often negative portrayal of the former president and, recently, even Trump himself. “A FAKE and CLASSLESS movie written about me, called, ‘The Apprentice’ (Do they even have the right to use that name without approval?), will hopefully ‘bomb’”, he wrote on his Truth Social platform this week.
“We’re not trying to defame him or vilify him,” said Strong. “We’re trying to tell an accurate story of these historical figures.” Check out the rest of our interview below, which digs deeper into the political controversy stirred up by The Apprentice, what music the actors listened to for research and the time Stan auditioned for Bono’s disastrous Spider-Man Broadway musical in 2010.
Hey guys, were you ever worried that The Apprentice might never see the light of day?
Jeremy Strong: “It came very close to being blocked and not allowed to be shown in America – which was really unsettling and troubling. And you know, even though we narrowly escaped the jaws of censorship, it almost tipped the other way. I find that very dark.”
Is it possible that more people will see the film because of the controversy around it?
JS: “I think more people will see it because of the controversy but more people should see it because I think it’s essential if you care about this election or the United States or, for that matter, the world right now.
“I think there are things in this film that are essential to understanding who Donald Trump is and how he was made. To me, the fact that he felt compelled to call us “human scum” and denounce the film means there’s something in it that he finds threatening. That’s all the more reason for everyone to see it… If he didn’t find it threatening, then I think he just would not comment on it but something about the film has provoked him.”
Sebastian Stan: “An interesting thing about the opening weekend in the US was that actually the [box office] numbers from Friday to Sunday grew. Usually it’s the other way around. You have a Friday spike and then Saturday is a little less than Sundays, but with ours it grew. And, thanks to Donald Trump’s comments yesterday I think, more people will get to see it.”
Do you think it’s unfair for him to criticise the film?
JS: “We’re not trying to defame him or vilify him. We’re trying to tell an accurate story of these historical figures and it’s based on historical record and written by a journalist. So, you know, I think it’s a pretty responsible and even humanising portrait of Donald Trump and Roy Cohn.”
Did either of you make a playlist for your role?
JS: “I had a lot of Donna Summer [for Roy Cohn]. I had the La Cage Aux Folles original cast album from the [1983] musical. I always listen to certain music around the character.”
SS: “I played the Rocky theme quite often. Weirdly, I could see Trump doing that.”
JS: “That’s great [laughing].”
SS: “He’s always in the arena, looking at the lights.”
What’s an album you always go back to?
SS: “I think the Boogie Nights soundtrack is pretty good.”
JS: “‘Astral Weeks’ by Van Morrison. It’s transportative and it’s pretty perfect. Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska’ too. It just always spoke to me, there’s a melancholy to it.”
That’s interesting because you were rumoured to be joining the Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere…
JS: ”Yeah I am, but I’d always felt that way about that album. There’s a narrative to it that comes from a very deep place in him and you can feel that.”
Have either of you ever met any musicians you admire?
SS: “I actually auditioned, never got it, but I auditioned for the Spider-Man musical that Bono wrote the music for. I did a workshop and at one point they were like, ‘Oh, Bono is gonna be watching it. It doesn’t mean you have the part but Bono will be watching.’ Anyway, that was as close as I got. He clearly didn’t [like it because] I clearly didn’t get that part!”
That musical was as a total disaster though, so perhaps it was for the best?
SS: “Yeah!”
‘The Apprentice’ is in UK cinemas now