Jeremy Strong Just Wants Something to Believe In

Jeremy Strong is known for fully immersing himself in his work—a seriousness he brought even to the set of W’s Best Performances shoot, where he played a deranged rabbit. For his role as Jon Landau, Bruce Springsteen’s longtime creative partner, in Scott Cooper’s Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, Strong traveled to Denmark to watch not just the Boss performing, but Landau watching him perform. “I got almost everything I needed from that experience,” Strong says. “Jon watched his friend of 50 years playing songs he’s heard thousands of times, but he was taking it in as if it were the first time. The only word for it is ‘love.’” Next, Strong will portray Mark Zuckerberg in Aaron Sorkin’s follow-up to The Social Network, the latest in a run of real-life figures following his Emmy-winning turn as Succession’s “number one boy,” Kendall Roy.

How did Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere first enter your life?

I was doing an Ibsen play, An Enemy of the People, in New York, and Scott Cooper came to see it. He told me he was making this film about the making of Nebraska, and he wanted me to play Jon Landau. I've always loved Nebraska. It's a bone marrow, honest, raw record, and one of the albums I've listened to for most of my life.

Did you know anything about Jon Landau before playing him?

All I knew was that, in 1974, Jon Landau wrote an essay where he said, “I saw rock and roll’s future and its name is Bruce Springsteen.” That essay was the shot heard around the world, and it altered the trajectory of his and Bruce’s life. I spent a year doing a deep dive into Jon and Bruce; it’s really a love story between these two artists.

You and Jon seem to share a passion for art and artists.

Jon is a very devotional person and has an almost religious feeling about music and art. He once wrote, "Without passion, there is no commitment, and without commitment, there is no rigor, no energy, no intensity, and ultimately, no honesty." I believe all of those things. I think for Jon Landau, Bruce was something to believe in. I'm always looking for something to believe in. And whatever I'm working on at the moment becomes the thing I believe in.

In 2024, you played prosecutor Roy Cohn, another mentor.

Yes. Unlike Jon Landau, whose gospel is love, unity, and tenderness, Roy Cohn was a mentor who preached vitriol, lies, darkness, cynicism, and nihilism. But I have to withhold my judgment about people. You have to fight for your characters, fight to understand their point of view.

You’ve portrayed many real people: Lee Harvey Oswald, Jerry Rubin, Roy Cohn, Jon Landau, and you’re currently playing Mark Zuckerberg. How do you choose these characters?

They’ve chosen me! One of the things that’s interesting about all these people is a level of conviction, a singularity of vision—and in certain cases, myopia. They have blind spots, and I find that to be a very rich place as an actor to explore.

Do you have a favorite Springsteen song?

I’ve been thinking about “Hunter of Invisible Game” a lot. As an actor, you’re a hunter of invisible game. You’re trying to touch the third rail of a nerve. And I like that idea of being a hunter—the focus, the intensity, and need. Otherwise, the thing isn’t alive.

Which song makes you cry?

A lot of songs. If I had to pick a piece of music to listen to at the end of my life, for a long time, it would've been Glenn Gould playing Bach. Now it would be a song of Bruce’s. It’s always changing, though. “Thunder Road” or “Racing in the Street.” “Nothing Man” really affects me because I feel like a nothing man.

Are you superstitious?

I have this ring that I had made by a jeweler in London. It has a guardian angel on it. I’ve got my rituals. I used to do more things before going onstage or set. To be honest, being a parent has made me more present in my life. Rituals come out of a need to control things. These days, I just try to surrender, which has been a good place to be.

For this shoot, you chose to wear a giant pair of bunny ears.

The bunny ears found me from a pile on the table. I started applying makeup to see what might emerge. And somehow, what emerged was a demented bunny.

What sign are you?

I’m a Capricorn. My birthday is on Christmas Day. We’re determined and tenacious. There’s a thing where you can look up your primal astrological sign, and mine is a salmon. Which means, essentially, that you are devoted to one thing, and you swim upstream for your whole life. You get shredded, take a beating, reach fruition, and then you die. I'm a salmon.

Style Director: Allia Alliata di Montereale. Codirector: Frank Lebon. Director of photography: André Chemetoff. Hair by Jawara for L’Oréal Professional at Art Partner; makeup by Lauren Parsons for Sisley Paris at Art Partner; manicure by Jolene Brodeur for Dazzle Dry at the Wall Group. Set design by David White at Streeters.