“[Jeremy] did not speak in his own voice on the set or walk the way Jeremy walks,” Sorkin, writer-director of the long-awaited sequel 2010’s The Social Network told the New York Times‘ The Interview. As Sorkin explained to other actors in the upcoming film about the fallout from a 2021 Wall Street Journal expose of Facebook, “I told all the other actors in his scenes: ‘Guys, he’s not going to be hanging out with you at craft service. He’s not going to be yucking it up with you between takes. He’s probably not going to speak to you at all,'” adding ominously, “‘He is going to treat you the way he imagines Mark treats the people around him.'”
The infamously awkward tech billionaire was notably played to twitchy, dead-eyed perfection by Oscar-nominated Jesse Eisenberg in the first film, while Strong, no stranger to imbuing characters with an eerie sense of unspoken inner weirdness, will take over for the sequel. Still, Strong’s assiduous nature when it comes to his work saw him surprise Sorkin by penning a letter to Zuckerberg before filming, promising that he would portray the controversial CEO “with respect.”
That being established, trailers for the film, which releases in theaters on October 9, do see Strong’s iteration of Zuckerberg bristling with pent-up billionaire’s fury that former Facebook employee Frances Haugen (played by Anora‘s Mikey Madison) would dare expose the ongoing harm his social network is causing to users by amplifying hate speech to increase engagement. “The debate is over,” Strong’s creepily accurate Zuckerberg snaps at one objection, in between sessions of being taught how to nod like a human being.
Keep scrolling for more great stories.