Jeremy Strong tried a different, grimmer ending for his character on HBO’s hit TV show Succession, he revealed in a recent interview.
In the last shot of the series – which concluded its fourth and final season on Sunday night – a moribund Kendall Roy gazes over a river as his bodyguard Colin (Scott Nicholson) keeps watch behind him. The show then cuts to black.
But in one take on the set, Strong – who has become known for his method acting style – attempted to jump into the water.
“The water was calling to me,” he told Vanity Fair. “I tried to go into the water after we cut – I got up from that bench and went as fast as I could over the barrier and on to the pilings, and the actor playing Colin raced over.
“I didn’t know I was gonna do that, and he didn’t know, but he raced over and stopped me. I don’t know whether in that moment I felt that Kendall just wanted to die – I think he did – or if he wanted to be saved by essentially a proxy of his father.”
Strong has courted controversy for his acting style in the past. In 2021, the New Yorker published a profile that detailed his request to be sprayed with real teargas during a protest scene for the film The Trial of the Chicago 7.
“I think you have to go through whatever the ordeal is that the character has to go through,” Strong said in that interview, which became a flashpoint for online frenzy before high-profile colleagues including Jessica Chastain and Aaron Sorkin came to his defence.
On a recent episode of the pop culture podcast Las Culturistas, comedian Bowen Yang recounted a story where he was filming a different show next to the Succession set. Strong approached the crew of the neighbouring show to ask for the bathroom before it was revealed he was simply getting into character.
Strong’s method technique has been described as “annoying” by his Succession co-star Brian Cox, who plays Kendall’s father, the media mogul Logan Roy. In a 2022 interview on Late Night With Seth Meyers, Cox said, “[Jeremy] does get obsessed with the work. And I worry about what it does to him, because if you can’t separate yourself – because you’re dealing with all of this material every day. You can’t live in it. Eventually, you get worn out.
“But the result – what everyone says about Jeremy – the result is always extraordinary and excellent.”
Succession has become an awards juggernaut for HBO since its debut in 2018, with 13 Emmys under its belt, including two for Strong as lead actor.
The show tracks the feuds and fickle alliances of the billionaire Roy siblings, each of whom longs to take charge of their father’s media dynasty.
The series ends on a sour note for Kendall, who loses a board vote and control of the company.
“To me, what happens at the board vote is an extinction-level event for this character,” Strong told Vanity Fair. “There’s no coming back from that.”
The show’s last shot, he said, was a “much stronger ending philosophically” – compared with his impulsive take climbing over the railing – and left viewers with “a kind of ambivalence”.
“Kendall is trapped in this sort of silent scream,” he said.
