The actor is currently filming a limited-series reboot of ‘The Boys from Brazil’ in which he plays a Polish-born Nazi hunter
Credit: David Luraschi/GQ
NEED TO KNOW
- Jeremy Strong revealed in an interview for his new GQ cover that he has been using a Polish accent for seven months while filming The Boys from Brazil reboot
- The actor, who is playing Polish-born Nazi hunter Yakov Liebermann in the project, said, “I don’t want it to feel like an accent”
- Strong’s method acting includes staying in character off-set, even while chatting with collaborators like Aaron Sorkin and friends like Bradley Cooper
Jeremy Strong is embodying a new accent for one of his upcoming roles.
The Apprentice star, 47, revealed in an interview for his GQ cover that he has been using a Polish accent across Europe for the last seven months while shooting a limited-series reboot of The Boys from Brazil, in which he plays a Polish-born Nazi hunter, Yakov Liebermann.
“I don’t want it to feel like an accent,” Strong told the outlet, for which he conducted the entire interview also in the accent, of the decision. “I want it to just be a person, and that’s their voice—and our voice is the most individual thing about us.”
Credit: David Luraschi/GQ
The actor noted that he hasn’t dropped the accent — even in between filming — as “once he’s got a character’s voice dialed in he never turns it off until the project wraps,” per GQ.
And Strong has stayed true to that, even keeping it while speaking with friends and colleagues. The Social Reckoning director Aaron Sorkin told the outlet that the actor had called him “six or eight weeks ago” and just started “speaking as an Eastern European Nazi hunter” without addressing his accent.
Strong’s friend Bradley Cooper, 51, told GQ that he wasn’t as surprised by the accent shift, as this wasn’t the first time The Big Short actor did something like this. He said, “I enjoy very much talking to him when he’s in the throes of these other people.”
“I love it. I’ve talked to Mark Zuckerberg many times—I had a whole friendship with Mark Zuckerberg, and Mark Zuckerberg has no idea,” he added, referring to Strong’s method acting while starring as the Meta CEO in The Social Reckoning.
Credit: David Luraschi/GQ
Strong told GQ that he wasn’t afraid to take on challenging roles — even ones that required him to take on a new person’s lifestyle and history — because he enjoyed the process.
“I think the point is the try. The size of the try. Not even the result,” he explained. “Even though it’s heartbreaking if the result isn’t good, or people don’t like it, or worse than that, if you don’t feel like you were able to get there.”
“When I come home at night, or at the end of one of these things, I just wanted to feel like, Yeah—I leveled up as much as I possibly could,” he added.
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When asked about how he re-engages with the “real world” after wrapping intense shoots and embodying multi-faceted characters, the actor admitted to GQ, “I wish I knew.”
“I think it’s always a bit of a hard reentry, and a feeling of loss,” he said. “You’ve invested so much into something on a deep level, and then all of a sudden it’s gone, because it’s a dream. It’s just a dream. It’s not real.”
Strong next stars in The Social Reckoning, in theaters Oct. 9.
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