Jeremy Strong picks his 11 favourite books
Succession star Jeremy Strong has become almost as widely known for his incessant quoting as for his Emmy-winning acting performance. In what seems like every interview he is involved in, Strong delivers an effortlessly quoted line from one historical author or another.
Paired with his intense method acting, Strong’s constant references have endeared him to some while isolating him from others who find his habits pretentious. When asked about his endless supply of quotes in GQ, Strong revealed, “People have been making fun of me about it for as long as I can remember. I had an old girlfriend who used to call me Kierkegaard”.
But Strong’s eagerness to cite others seems to come from a genuine love for arts and culture and a desire to celebrate them. Strong’s love for acting began when he got into theatre in his youth. He later went on to study English at Yale, so many of his cultural influences take the form of plays and books. In an appearance in a GQ ‘Things I Can’t Live Without’ video, Strong revealed ten of his favourite books, from the poetry of T.S. Eliot to the diaries of composer Alma Mahler-Werfel.
Defying the series’ format, which asks interviewees to bring ten things they can’t live without, Strong brings 11 books alone to the interview, prefacing his discussion of them with, “I mean this is like a five-hour conversation right here. These are all books that have been really important books to me”.
Strong manages to keep the segment fairly brief, saying just a few words on why he picked each book and what it means to him. The first book he speaks to is the diary of Alma Mahler, a composer “who talks about the dichotomy inside people of what she calls the loving soul and the calculating soul”. This dichotomy is one we often saw the Roy family struggle with, particularly in Strong’s portrayal of Kendall But in Succession, the “calculating soul” always won.
He also mentions The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner, which takes place in Strong’s new hometown Denmark: “I read this before I even knew where it was on a map I think.” Clearly a fan of books that take on bold philosophical questions, Strong notes that Stegner “talks about the pain in every choice”. Throwing in his own opinion on the topic, Strong argues that “to become an adult is to collapse choices, to make choices and to lose that sense of infinite possibility.”
Strong also talks about Robert Johnson’s “Jungian dream work” book Inner Work. He notes the influence of the text on his portrayal of fail-son Kendall: “Stuff about the shadow, the part of ourselves that we’ve disavowed but is still there, always there. That’s a big part of Kendall. That’s been a lot of the subtext of the show.”
On acting, Strong picks out T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, recalling that it was a recommendation from the principal during his time at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. The principal named it “the only thing you ever need to know about acting”, and Strong agrees. He seems fond of the line about “a condition of complete simplicity costing not less than everything.”
Strong goes on to name a number of other meaningful texts, from The Caretaker by Harold Pinter, which he dubs his favourite play, to mindfulness manual Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn. But his number one pick is My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgaard for its “honest expression of life”.
Strong’s wide-ranging list demonstrates not only his wide-ranging cultural knowledge but his passion for honesty and contemplation about the world we live in within the art he makes and consumes. The list also provides a new, interesting way to further understand his performances on-screen.
Jeremy Strong’s favourite books
- The Actor and the Target by Declan Donnellan
- Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot
- Inner Work by Robert Johnson
- Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
- My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgaard
- Alma Mahler – Werfel Diaries, 1898-1902 by Alma Mahler-Werfel
- The Caretaker by Harold Pinter
- In Search of Lost Time vol. II by Marcel Proust
- Letters of Rainer Marie Rilke 1892-1910 by Rainer Marie Rilke
- Light Years by James Salter
- The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner
