It's safe to say that Jeremy Strong's spot has blown up over the last couple of years thanks to an Emmy-winning performance in HBO's hit rich-people-being-awful drama Succession. But the actor, who is far more of a self-styled serious thespian than a popcorn movie kind of guy, very nearly ended up on a different trajectory when he was offered a role in the first Captain America movie.
Strong recently reflected on the early days of his career in an interview with The Times, and shared how after he didn't get the part he auditioned for in the action sci-fi flick Cowboys & Aliens — "I got a hat, bolo tie, chaps, boots and worked on the dialect. But I pulled up to the audition and it was guys in T-shirts who looked like models" — he was told about a top-secret upcoming comic book adaptation.
While it has become common for prestige performers like Benedict Cumberbatch and Cate Blanchett to take scenery-chewing gigs in superhero movies, this was over a decade ago, when the MCU was still in its infancy. Strong was informed that he would not be playing leading man Steve Rogers, but rather, the scrawnier version of him from the first act of the movie.
"They needed someone to play Captain America’s young body, before he turns into a superhero," he explained. "They said they needed a transformational actor and would use CGI to put the actual actor’s face and voice over my own."
"I was broke," he added. "I needed money. I considered it. But that’s my story of LA. It was just never going to happen for me here. It didn’t feel like what I had to offer was valued." Ultimately, he declined the offer.
Strong and Chris Evans, who played Steve Rogers in seven MCU movies over 10 years, actually go way back, having both gone to school in Sudbury, Massachussetts. But Evans had no idea Strong almost played his body double until the Times reporter informed him — and also said he didn't know why it took such a talented actor so long to break through with the role of Kendall Roy in Succession.
"It just goes to show the industry is so unpredictable," said Evans. "But I’m so happy things worked out, because I don’t think there was ever plan B for Jeremy."
Philip Ellis is News Editor at Men's Health, covering fitness, pop culture, sex and relationships, and LGBTQ+ issues. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller and MTV, and he is the author of Love & Other Scams.
