This year, Succession achieved the impossible by keeping a mass audience at the edge of their seats in a time where television is extremely saturated and competitive. Despite us binging something new every single week, Succession has been the clear leading favourite with last night’s finale bringing us all to our knees.
And our favourite actor from the series, Jeremy Strong, who plays Kendall Roy in the show, has shared an interesting anecdote from his childhood and revealed an unlikely friendship with Marvel superhero Chris Evans. Yes, actual Captain America is friends with Kendall Roy!
In an interview with The New Yorker, the actor shared that his parents had moved him and his family to the suburb of Sudbury so that he and his siblings would have a better chance of gaining acting jobs, which he described as a huge ‘culture shock.’
But, Strong immediately started doing some ‘quick character work’ and he became involved in ‘Act/Tunes’ during fifth grade, which was a children’s theatre group. Mostly, the group hosted performances of classic musicals like Oliver! (Strong played the Artful Dodger, of course) while his father paid a scammy manager to help Jeremy get acting auditions.
But Strong’s involvement in the group introduced an unlikely friendship too. One of the other kids in Act/Tunes was the older sister of Chris Evans, the future Captain America. The two later attended the same high school too.
Speaking about Jeremy Strong, Chris Evans said of Strong, ‘I was probably nine, ten, going to my sister’s shows, and even then thinking, Damn, this kid is great!’ When the two attended the same school later on, Evans had said ‘He was a little bit of a celebrity in my mind.’
The two even starred in a school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with Strong playing Bottom to Evans portraying the role of Demetrius. ‘The cast would poke their heads through the curtain, just to watch him do his thing,’ Evans said. ‘In the end, one of his characters drinks poison. I think every night the death scene grew by about thirty seconds.’
The two seemingly drifted apart after high school, with Chris Evans propelling into stardom, starting his career in television series like Opposite Sex and breaking out with ‘not another teen movie.’ Eventually, Evans became Captain America and starred in over seven Marvel films.
When Chris Evans’ ‘Not Another Teen Movie’ hit cinema screens, he received a call from Strong, who was looking for help getting representation. Evans had said to Strong, ‘Holy shit, Jeremy! First of all, I can’t believe that. Second of all, this is your lucky day.'
Evans had Strong meet his own agent, but the man never followed up with Strong. It was not his lucky day after all.
Strong’s career was quiet - especially in comparison to the immensely famous Evans - but six years later, when he was cast in ‘Succession,’ he told The New Yorker that he felt ‘a sense of inevitability.’
Clearly, Strong and the Succession role were meant-to-be. And though it didn’t quite work out, we’re glad to hear that his old friend Chris Evans was happy to help him out, and is still a fan of Strong from his high-school Shakespeare days.