Nicholas Braun feels 'very proud' that he's gotten Jeremy Strong to break while filming one-on-one scenes of 'Succession'
- Nicholas Braun said he is "very proud" he's made costar Jeremy Strong "break" on set.
- Braun said he's made Strong break "two or three times" while filming "Succession."
Nicholas Braun, who stars in "Succession" as Cousin Greg, told GQ he's "very proud" of himself for getting costar Jeremy Strong to break while filming scenes for the hit HBO drama.
"I've had two or three times where he's broken, and it's been in one-on-one scenes. So I feel very proud about that," Braun told GQ. "Usually, he is unbreakable. It's incredible."
Strong plays Kendall Roy, the middle son of media titan Logan Roy, who was once set to inherit his father's empire. Throughout the series, Kendall Roy finds himself writing and performing a rap dedicated to his father's notoriety, shouting "Fuck the patriarchy" on a red carpet, and saying lines like, "I'm looking for pussy like a fuckin' techno Gatsby."
Despite the ridiculous nature of his character, it's rare Strong will break from his known seriousness in method acting on set.
Strong's method acting became a topic of interest following a December 2021 profile in the New Yorker in which he detailed his commitment to playing Kendall Roy.
"If I have any method at all, it is simply this: to clear away anything — anything — that is not the character and the circumstances of the scene," Strong said in the article. "And usually that means clearing away almost everything around and inside you, so that you can be a more complete vessel for the work at hand."
His comments about the intensity he brings to the role went viral online, particularly due to his costars' less-than-favorable responses to his behavior on set.
"The result that Jeremy gets is always pretty tremendous," Brian Cox, who plays Logan Roy, told the New Yorker at the time. "I just worry about what he does to himself. I worry about the crises he puts himself through in order to prepare."
Strong's on-set brother, Kieran Culkin, who plays Roman Roy, added: "The way Jeremy put it to me is that, like, you get in the ring, you do the scene, and at the end each actor goes to their corner. I'm, like, 'This isn't a battle. This is a dance.'"
He continued: "That might be something that helps him. I can tell you that it doesn't help me."
In a recent profile in Town & Country, Cox said it's "annoying" to be around a performer who delves deep into method acting but said Strong is a "very good actor."
"He's still that guy, because he feels if he went somewhere else he'd lose it," he told Town & Country. "But he won't! Strong is talented. He's fucking gifted. When you've got the gift, celebrate the gift. Go back to your trailer and have a hit of marijuana, you know?"