Jeremy Strong sent an email to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg regarding his portrayal in the upcoming film The Social Reckoning.
Strong assured Zuckerberg that he takes the responsibility and veracity of the role seriously, approaching the character with respect.
The Oscar nominee emphasized that an actor playing Zuckerberg should not set out to condemn him despite his controversial public image.
Actor Jeremy Strong stars as Mark Zuckerberg in Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning, a sequel to the 2010 Oscar-winning drama The Social Network. Did you know Jeremy emailed Zuckerberg regarding his portrayal in the film? The Oscar nominee reached out to the Facebook co-founder and Meta CEO to assure him of his commitment to the role.
Why Jeremy Strong emailed Mark Zuckerberg
Zuckerberg responded to his mail. Strong declined to reveal the details of the response.
“I wrote to him—I’m probably going to give Sony an aneurysm—I sent him an email,” Strong told GQ. “Just to say that I take this responsibility very seriously, and the veracity of it seriously, and I’m approaching it with respect.”
Approaching the role
On the role, Strong said “it’s crazy to take this on at all,” acknowledging the difficulty of portraying a controversial public figure without bias. He outlined his artistic approach to the character.
“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.”
“It feels incredibly fraught to talk about the movie, to talk about Mark and being the person who is playing Mark and representing Mark in a sense to the world and to posterity; I feel an enormous sense of weight and responsibility,” added Strong. “And listen, my job is to understand and defend his point of view and fight his fight.”
The Social Reckoning release date and cast
The film will hit the screens on October 9. Sorkin has also written it apart from directing.
The project follows the events of The Social Network. The 2010 film covered Zuckerberg’s creation of Facebook and the subsequent controversies. The upcoming sequel focuses on a 2021 document leak that exposed the harm Facebook caused on society.
Mikey Madison stars as Facebook engineer Frances Haugen and Jeremy Allen White plays Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz. Bill Burr, Wunmi Mosaku, Billy Magnussen and Betty Gilpin round out the cast.
