How Jeremy Strong ‘lost touch with joy’ as Succession’s Kendall Roy

As if playing Kendall Roy during the award-winning run of Succession did not mess with Jeremy Strong enough, the character is still taking a toll on the actor.

The part “f***** me up,” Strong, 45, recently told British newspaper The Sunday Times, describing how he was overwhelmed by the tortured son he embodied from 2018 to 2023 – on screen and off. Strong’s notorious acting methods also landed him in the cross hairs of his co-star and on-screen patriarch, Brian Cox, and “terrified” the HBO show’s creator, Jesse Armstrong.

Fresh off a silent retreat to reset, the actor said he would imagine terrible things happening to him to mentally prepare to play Kendall. He “sometimes lost touch with joy” while working on the series and only recently “rediscovered play”.

“That show was an incalculable gift. The material a banquet. So I miss that. But Kendall’s struggle was difficult to carry for seven years. And there’s just so much more I want to do,” said Strong, who has also let go of the idea of a Kendall spin-off.