By Variety | Created at 2026-08-12 14:41:52 | Updated at 2026-08-12 17:54:38
5 hours ago
Jeremy Strong graces the latest cover of GQ magazine (and the first issue published under new global editorial director Adam Baidawi), in which he speaks out for the first time on taking over the role of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Jesse Eisenberg played the controversial tech titan in “The Social Network” and scored an Oscar nomination. Strong stars as Zuckerberg in writer-director Aaron Sorkin’s follow-up piece “The Social Reckoning.”
Sorkin originally asked Eisenberg if he wanted to reprise Zuckerberg in the new movie, to which the actor declined because he no longer “wants to be associated” with the Facebook co-founder. At the same time, Strong ran into Sorkin at an Oscars season party and told him to call him should Eisenberg not return.
“It’s the kind of role that fascinates me,” Strong told GQ about throwing his hat into the ring to play Zuckerberg. “It’s like Sebastian [Stan] playing Trump. You are wearing the cape. It’s like Jeremy [Allen White] playing Bruce [Springsteen]. It’s like, the perils of that could not be greater. To commit to it, and to be free within it, is a great challenge… Listen, I know that he is a reviled person and not a popular person in our culture, but I do not think you should have an actor playing him who wants to set out to condemn him.”
Strong confirmed that he reached out to Zuckerberg after accepting the role in “The Social Reckoning.” The Facebook CEO wrote back, but Strong would not reveal what he said.
“I wrote to him — I’m probably going to give Sony an aneurysm — I sent him an email,” Strong said. “Just to say that I take this responsibility very seriously, and the veracity of it seriously, and I’m approaching it with respect.”
Per GQ: “Strong wanted to absorb everything he could — podcasts, magazine interviews, tech-summit talks, and ideas-festival conversations. He watched footage of Zuckerberg testifying before Congress ‘until my eyes fell out of my head,’ trying to internalize it. He doesn’t do social media, but he signed up for a Facebook account to read through Zuckerberg’s posts from the beginning, a longitudinal record of Zuckerberg’s evolution, in the gap between the two films, into a ‘wartime CEO.'”
The first trailer for “The Social Reckoning” was released by Sony in June to a polarizing degree of responses. When it was brought to Strong’s attention that some social media users predicted an Oscar nom in his future for playing Zuckerberg while others predicted a Razzie nom, the actor responded: “I thought that was the greatest endorsement. Because to me, it was like — listen, I’ll be sad if I win a Razzie, but that’s the place you want to be. That’s the wager you have to make. To me, that means, Okay, I put it on the line enough.”
As is the case with every Strong project, the actor went full Method to play Zuckerberg and spoke only as the Facebook CEO for the entirety of production. As the actor’s friend Bradley Cooper told GQ: “I’ve talked to Mark Zuckerberg many times — I had a whole friendship with Mark Zuckerberg, and Mark Zuckerberg has no idea.”
In fact, Strong was in Method actor mode during his GQ interview and spoke only in a Polish accent amid the continued production of “The Boys from Brazil.” Strong is headlining the latest film adaptation of Ira Levin’s 1976 novel as a globe-trotting Nazi hunter. The Emmy winner spent seven months speaking in a Polish accent during filming, whether he was on set or just on the phone with friends like Cooper or collaborators like Aaron Sorkin.
“He called me six or eight weeks ago, and without any introduction, he was just speaking as an Eastern European Nazi hunter, talking to me about the movie we had just made, without saying, ‘Hey, listen, this is going to sound strange, but.…’” Sorkin noted.
“The Social Reckoning” opens in theaters Oct. 9. Head over to GQ’s website to read Strong’s cover in its entirety.
