Jeremy Strong thinks criticism of straight actors playing gay roles is 'valid'
'The Apprentice' star Jeremy Strong thinks it is "valid" to criticise straight actors who take on gay roles.
Jeremy Strong thinks it is "valid" to criticise straight actors who take on gay roles.
The 'Succession' star can next be seen playing Donald Trump's late mentor, lawyer Roy Cohn, who was a closeted homosexual, in 'The Apprentice', and while he believes all actors should be given the chance to "change the stamp of their nature" and take on parts outside of their "native habitat", he also thinks it would be good to give "more weight" to the idea of gay performers taking on those characters.
Asked about the criticism of him playing Cohn, he told the Los Angeles Times newspaper: “Yes, it’s absolutely valid.
“I’m sort of old fashioned, maybe, in the belief that, fundamentally, it’s [about] a person’s artistry, and that great artists, historically, have been able to, as it were, change the stamp of their nature. That’s your job as an actor.
"The task, in a way, is to render something that is not necessarily your native habitat.
“While I don’t think that it’s necessary [for gay roles to be played by gay performers], I think that it would be good if that were given more weight.!
After winning a string of awards in recent years, the 45-year-old star is constantly searching for new ways to push himself and "looking for a limb to go out on.”
He said: “I no longer feel thwarted in that way and I can pay my rent.
“And I don’t take any of that for granted because it happened late for me. I have the luxury of choice and the luxury, more importantly, of getting to choose things that matter most to me, things that feel meaningful.
"I want to keep pushing myself — that Simone Biles thing of finding new ways to find the frontier and work that kind of requires a radical courage to do. Which for me is most things, because I find it all pretty fearful.”
