Of course, Jeremy Strong learned how to fix a refrigerator to play a plumber
The Succession star went all in to prepare for his role in Armageddon Time
Aux News Refrigerator
Last year, a New Yorker profile of Jeremy Strong set the internet ablaze with its details on the lengths the actor goes to inhabit his roles. Though undeniably intense–he fractured his foot from running in Tom Ford dress shoes on the set of Succession–his eccentricities seemed pretty unobtrusive to other people, considering everything Jared Leto inflicted on his Suicide Squad co-stars. (Well, other than when Strong asked to be sprayed with actual tear gas during an extras-heavy scene in The Trial Of The Chicago 7.)
While the article was a fascinating, nuanced look at a guy who works hard and also really loves burgers and Prada, it was interpreted by some readers as being a total hit piece. His previous collaborators Jessica Chastain, Aaron Sorkin, and Anne Hathaway leapt to his defense on social media.
Now, Strong and Hathaway have been reunited in a conversation for Variety, discussing their roles on Succession and WeCrashed as Emmy nominations approach. Naturally, the subject of process came up, and Hathaway offered up a fresh anecdote about her friend’s approach to getting into character.
“[When] we worked together in Armageddon Time, your character was a plumber,” she says. “And you went to learn how to fix a refrigerator. It was a humbling moment for me as an actor to realize that you have more children than I do, and you were coming off of this huge lift. Plumber is a trade. It’s something that you can go and learn.”
The two actors are co-starring in James Gray’s new semi-autobiographical film about growing up in Queens, playing versions of the writer/director’s parents. They also previously worked together in the deeply bonkers noir Serenity, which gave Hathaway an early look at Strong’s willingness to get lost in a role.
“I remember you just appearing next to me, and you said, ‘I think I need to come up for air,’” the Princess Diaries star recalls.
This is truly an incredible amount of commitment to a character that, spoiler alert, is the personification of the rules in a video game that a kid makes as a fantasy about killing his stepfather. Learning how to be a plumber must have been comparatively simple.
While it’s a level of dedication that a lot of people wouldn’t reach, being able to fix a refrigerator is ultimately just a practical skill. Your move, Chris Pratt!
37 Comments
Hard to knock an actor for method acting when they actually learn a valuable skill and become more humble from it.
Do y’all Google shit? Like, ever?
Call me when your local HVAC installer wins a Tony for MacBeth, then I’ll be impressed.
Do people actually think plumbers fix refrigerators?
As part of their union profession, no. But I bet there are a lot of plumbers who are also general repairmen.
Just by the nature of being a tradesman, I am sure most plumbers can figure out a fridge repair but I feel like most of them would tell you to call an appliance repair guy.
I am basing my statement on the fixit guys I used to use for my former home which became a rental property. Their name was sopmething Plumbing (I want to say All Clear) but they also replaced my furnace and did some other non-plumbing jobs.
nah its a totally different specialty. My grandfather had a phd in electrical engineering and could also screw n a light bulb but he couldn’t wire a house like an electrician
In general I adhere to the transitive property of celebrity stupidity. If one Anne Hathaway implies plumbers fix refrigerators then there are at least 24m stupid people who believe that to be correct. I’m just glad it wasn’t Taylor Swift…
I didn’t even recognize Anne Hathaway. Has she had work done?
If you call having 5 needles full of botox jammed in your forehead “work” then yes.
It counts.
Gordon Jump could fix anything!
But never had to!
Well, yeah.
He is aware that plumber and appliance repair tech are different jobs right? That’s like learning to repair elevators in order to play a member of a pit crew for a car racing movie.
nice
It’s like finding out Tom Cruise prepared for his role in Top Gun by learning how to pilot a submarine.
I am now picturing this as some totally out of touch rich person thing. Like I can easily imagine Lucille Bluth noticing her refrigerator wasn’t keeping her vodka cold so she tells the maid to call a plumber or something.
brauchen für Geschwindigkeit!
I had to use google translate but this joke was worth it!
Does everything in the German language have more syllables than it needs to?
Yes. In college, my German language instructor once said his theory was that the German language was invented so that the English and French could make fun of it. He was a good teacher. He also told us to watch Hogan’s Heroes and emulate Colonel Klink to work on our accents.Of course seeing as I had to use google translate to get the joke above, maybe he was not THAT great of a teacher 🙂
I guess that’s not making fun as Werner Klemperer and John Banner were German Jews who got out of there in time.
If it helps, his character in the movie is *not* a plumber, he’s an engineer.
I’m honestly not sure if that makes it better, just pointing it out.
I misread that as Jeremy Irons and felt the faintest tingling in my nethers.
“My dear boy, why don’t you just try acting?”
Why though? Refrigeration repair has nothing to do with plumbing, bar maybe doing drain work for larger installations.
Keeps me employed. A good portion of my job is people shooting from the hip. They buy home repairs based on what their friends on Facebook think they should do. The world’s knowledge at their fingertips for free…
I own refrigeration repair company in the UK and like i said the only time we’d even go near anything to do with plumbing is for drainage on bigger walk in systems where plastic pipework is needed.
I thought the general prerequisite for playing a plumber in the movies was simply to be hung like a horse and able to shoot on demand?
Unless it’s the female plumber who chews out Nina Hartley for putting apples down the garbage disposal.
What’s simple about that?
So, is he acting as a refrigerator repairman who acts like a plumber? OR is he acting as a plumber who acts like a refrigerator repairman? Either way, that’s some next-level shit.
Jeremy Strong is a good actor who is fun to watch. He’s great on Succession, he was great on the Trial of the Chicago 7, and I’ve liked him in everything else I’ve seen. Why does his process matter at all to a viewer? Especially when media writers misrepresent interviews (as was clearly done with Sorkin).
Because people hate someone who seems to try too hard at something. Indifference is preferred.
I first noticed him in The Big Short, where his intensity was put to great use.
I also read he got a phd in electrical engineering for his next role as electrician. He’s the next jared leto.