Jeremy Strong, who earned an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Donald Trump’s lawyer Roy Cohn in The Apprentice, has unveiled his uncanny impression of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
In the trailer for the upcoming The Social Reckoning—a sequel to the acclaimed The Social Network—Strong, 47, dons the tech billionaire’s mishapen Caesar haircut and portrays his social-stiltedness while practicing for his infamous 2018 congressional hearing testimony.
“I’m a professional defendant,” Strong quips with a slight smirk when asked what his profession is in the mock trial.
Throughout his much-mocked congressional hearing on Facebook’s data breach, which saw Cambridge Analytica improperly harvest personal information from up to 87 million Facebook users in advance of the 2016 presidential election, Zuckerberg attempted several times to joke during the very serious grilling.
In one exchange, Sen. Orrin Hatch asked the tech mogul how Facebook makes money without charging its users.
“Senator, we run ads,” Zuckerberg quipped, stonefaced.
In another, when asked if Facebook’s motto was still “move fast and break things,” Zuckerberg said the phrase had evolved with the company.
“The mantra is currently ‘move fast with stable infrastructure,’ which is a much less sexy mantra,” he joked, eliciting sparse laughs from the audience.
The film, directed by Oscar-winning Social Network screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, follows Zuckerberg as he prepares for his first congressional hearing in eight years. In tandem, a Wall Street Journal reporter (Jeremy Allen White) works with Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison) to uncover the company’s willful avoidance of addressing its known societal harms.
Whereas Jessie Eisenberg’s Zuckerberg portrayal in The Social Network frames the Facebook founder as an equally ruthless and awkward college prodigy, Strong’s portrayal shows the now-tech billionaire wielding his power with purpose.
“Enough!” Strong yells at Bill Burr, who plays a fictional press relations aide tasked with prepping him for the hearing. “People around here understand that when I say no, that’s the end of the debate! I’m not two years out of a dorm room anymore, Charlie. Look around.”
After earning an Emmy for his breakout role as the neurotic Kendall Roy on HBO’s Succession, Strong has increasingly taken on political roles. His portrayal of Cohn drew criticism for “humanizing” the controversial Trump figure too greatly.
“I think [the movie] is not a polemic. It is not partisan. It’s not trying to tell you who to vote for. It’s trying to examine these individuals and take them seriously as human beings, which is not something we tend to do,” he told Stephen Colbert. “We tend to otherize and demonize and mock these people.”
The highly controversial film drew the wrath of Trump, 79, who attempted to block its release with threats of lawsuits, to no avail. Strong could face an equally strong rebuke from Zuckerberg, who condemned The Social Network, saying it inaccurately represented his actions and motivations.
The Social Reckoning premieres in theaters on October 9.
