Jeremy Strong is known for his intense Method acting on set. But even “The Social Reckoning” director Aaron Sorkin was surprised by how all-in Strong went in embodying Mark Zuckerberg.
Sorkin, who had worked with the acclaimed actor on two of his previous directing efforts, “Molly’s Game” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” wasn’t shocked when Strong showed up on “The Social Reckoning” set speaking and acting like the Facebook founder.
But Sorkin never imagined Strong would end up becoming a staunch Zuckerberg defender in the process.
“I knew he’s a very immersive actor,” Sorkin told Business Insider. “I never heard him use his own voice. He only spoke as Mark, he only behaved as Mark. But I didn’t expect that he was going to be a constant defender of Mark. Not just on the set, but the emails I would get at night at the hotel.”
Sorkin said this continued even in post-production, when Strong, still in-character as Zuckerberg, argued with his director over a line in the movie.
“The Social Reckoning” tells the story of former Facebook employee turned whistleblower Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison), who leaked hundreds of thousands of documents to Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen-White) that revealed Facebook’s algorithm was designed to spread inflammatory content and encouraged extremism, at the expense of users’ safety and mental health.
Strong-as-Zuckerberg wrote Sorkin about a scene in which his character has been debating Bill Burr’s character Charlie, a fictionalized former Facebook investor, about free speech and fact-checking advertisements.
“He ends the debate by saying, ‘It’s a business, Charlie. You know why we don’t fact-check ads? Because we don’t have to. Are you new?'” Sorkin recalled.
“Jeremy felt that it was just about money. That Mark was saying this is a business, it’s about money, and that’s why we do it,” Sorkin continued.
“But that was not the argument that Mark had been making for the entire movie, which is that it’s a free speech thing. That Facebook is the town square. So my feeling was Mark isn’t saying it’s about the money, Mark actually, in that moment, is making the same argument Frances is making at the end, which is, talk to the people who make the laws. I’m not your guy, talk to Congress. Well, that line is in the movie, so I won the argument.”
Despite the challenges, Sorkin said he wouldn’t change anything about how Strong goes about his job. And it doesn’t sound like Strong has plans to.
“If some people feel that I’m taking it too seriously, or it changes the molecules in the room in a way that makes something uncomfortable, I guess that’s something that I don’t feel that I need to apologize for,” Strong said in a recent interview with The New Yorker about his acting style.
“The Social Reckoning” is in theaters now.
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