Before he was the perpetually sad-eyed Kendall Roy in the Emmy-winning HBO series Succession, Jeremy Strong was nearly our Steve Rogers... in all things but face.
A weird entry in the MCU’s long list of casting “what if’s,” Strong revealed that he almost took on the role of Chris Evans’ pre-Super Soldier Serum body in the 2011 superhero origin story Captain America: The First Avenger. In an interview with The Sunday Times, the Armageddon Time actor divulged that when he was “broke” and “needed the money,” he had auditioned to play a less bulked-up version of the hero, with Evan’s face CGI-ed over his own.
“OK, fuck it, I will tell you this story,” said Strong to the outlet, starting his would-be casting tale by setting up that after failing to get a part in 2011's Daniel Craig-led Cowboys & Aliens, he was offered a role in “a top-secret film about Captain America.”
“They needed someone to play Captain America’s young body, before he turns into a superhero,” said the Succession star. “They said they needed a transformational actor and would use CGI to put the actual actor’s face and voice over my own.”
Although Strong “considered it,” he decided against taking on the Marvel role.
“But that’s my story of L.A. It was just never going to happen for me here,” he added. “It didn’t feel like what I had to offer was valued. And the next day I went back to New York and did a play about a veteran from Afghanistan in a wheelchair during the blackout of 2003.”
Evans, who previously spoke about his admiration for his high school alumni in that infamous New Yorker profile on Strong, reacted to the story, seeming to also just find out about Strong’s almost casting.
“Oh no! It just goes to show the industry is so unpredictable,” said Evans to the publication. “But I’m so happy things worked out, because I don’t think there was ever plan B for Jeremy.”
Thankfully, Evans was right, as Strong would go on to receive major critical success and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Succession in 2020. With the series’ fourth season arriving in spring 2023, we’ll not have long until we see Strong once again undergoing some inner-family brawling with the Roy clan.