Whereas Oscar nominee Jeremy Robust (“The Apprentice”) might be again on the Oscars for the second yr in a row for his refined, transferring efficiency as supervisor Jon Landau in “Bruce Springsteen: Ship Me from Nowhere,” he’s neither rooting for himself nor for one more character actor he admires, Sean Penn in “One Battle After One other.” As a member of this yr’s Cannes jury, Robust is an unabashed fan of Norway’s Cannes prize-winning Oscar entry, “Sentimental Worth.” “Give Stellan Skarsgård the Oscar, please,” he mentioned as we sat down on the 4 Seasons in Los Angeles.
I can’t assist however discover his rusty, close-cropped haircut. He’s in prep to play Mark Zuckerberg in author/director Aaron Sorkin’s sequel to 2010’s “The Social Community,” “The Social Reckoning” (October 9, 2026), set 17 years later and with out Jesse Eisenberg. It covers a stretch between 2018 and 2021, when Fb moved from “transfer quick and break issues,” mentioned Robust, to “transfer quick with secure infrastructure. This additionally tells the story of the Wall Avenue Journal’s reporting on the Fb Information.” (He reunites with Jeremy Allen White, who performs Springsteen in “Ship Me from Nowhere.”)
As quickly as Robust obtained wind of a follow-up to “The Social Community,” he informed Sorkin that he had at all times wished to play Zuckerberg. Robust performed Jerry Rubin in Greatest Image nominee “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” which Sorkin wrote and directed, and starred in Sorkin’s directorial debut “Molly’s Recreation.” “The Social Reckoning” screenplay is “top-of-the-line scripts I’ve ever learn,” mentioned Robust. “It touches the third rail, the axis of a lot of the problems and maladies of our time.”
Per standard, Robust is hoovering up all the pieces he can about Zuckerberg. His prep, influenced by early mentor Daniel Day-Lewis, entails a “deep dive on all the pieces,” he mentioned, “making an attempt to know and defend a perspective of a personality, what it’s they consider in, what they’re combating for, perhaps perceive what is perhaps blind spots. However an important factor for me is an empathic connection to an individual. We reside in an age when there’s a whole lot of judgment, a whole lot of maligning of individuals. We’d all do nicely to stroll a day in anyone’s footwear earlier than casting aspersions and judgment.”
Zuckerberg, who at 41 continues to be working Fb, is “an actual individual with a household,” mentioned Robust, who’s 46 and has three children. “He’s somebody who has formed the world we reside in. I really feel an infinite accountability for accuracy and understanding.”
Zuckerberg is only one of a gallery of actual those who Robust has taken on, together with powerbroker Roy Cohn, probably the most maligned figures in New York, who Robust not solely made plausible however empathetic in “The Apprentice.” “I discover Roy’s journey a tragic journey,” he mentioned. “I discover Kendall Roy’s journey [in the Emmy-winning ‘Succession’], though he’s a composite character, a tragic journey.”
Day-Lewis gave Robust “a type of permission,” he mentioned, “by witnessing a degree of dedication and a degree of preparation and braveness and a willingness to only go method the fuck out on the limb,” he mentioned. Robust additionally admires Anthony Hopkins, his co-star on James Grey’s “Armageddon Time,” who has performed Richard Nixon, Adolf Hitler, Pablo Picasso, C.S. Lewis, and John Quincy Adams. Robust is drawn to historic characters, he mentioned: “These are the very best tales with essentially the most complicated tales and the best stakes.”
In “Ship Me from Nowhere,” Robust performs an actual individual, Jon Landau, an influential music critic who proclaimed Springsteen as the way forward for rock within the pages of Rolling Stone and quietly and firmly, behind the scenes, helped his buddy to handle his profession and get better from debilitating melancholy. The movie is about in the course of the 1982 recording of “Nebraska,” a bare-bones acoustic album of darkish songs that Springsteen wanted to get off his chest earlier than he might publish such rock anthems as “Born in the united statesA.,” which he had already written, that might make him a rock legend.
Having gotten to work carefully with Springsteen on “Ship Me from Nowhere,” Robust is a fan: “I’ve simply come out of this press convention with Bruce, who provides 10,000 p.c. I love him maybe greater than I love anybody on this earth: his humility, his devotion, his dedication. It’s about how a lot he provides, his sincerity, his generosity of spirit.”
Movingly, “Ship Me from Nowhere” exhibits how Landau cares for Springsteen and stands up for him at a time when he wants help. “At this second in time, 1982, it isn’t a provided that Bruce would go on to be the Bruce Springsteen we all know him to be as we speak,” mentioned Robust, “merely due to his struggles with psychological well being and melancholy, as William Styron mentioned, ‘a darkness seen,’ and that darkness was urgent down on him, and he didn’t have the gear internally to deal with it. It’s not one thing anybody can deal with on their very own.”
A number of years older than Springsteen, Landau “was a father determine to Bruce right now,” mentioned Robust, “had been in remedy, had had a broader training, was steeped in literature and the historical past of artwork and the historical past of music, and he was capable of assist Bruce take this step to getting skilled assist. He was nearly like a therapist himself, and he understood that the one method out is thru. This film that Scott Cooper has made is the story of Bruce shaking fingers together with his personal previous, his trauma, the injuries that all of us carry and that usually stay untreated or buried. And so that is concerning the album ‘Nebraska,’ the unearthing of that trauma and the repairing of trauma by way of artwork.”
“Nebraska” additionally marked a second in time earlier than Springsteen was about to hit massive. “James Baldwin as soon as used the phrase ‘looking for an trustworthy place to face,’” mentioned Robust. “Bruce was trying to discover that trustworthy place to face. He was misplaced within the vortex of this world that we’re in, the pressures and expectations of success, fame. And Bruce wanted to find. Bruce mentioned as soon as that every one of his songs are about an individual looking for and avoid wasting a part of himself. And Bruce, right now in 1982, wanted to seek out and avoid wasting a part of himself. And Jon Landau had the compassion, love, devotion, depth of understanding, and perception to help and allow that.”
Landau additionally needed to be savvy sufficient to handle CBS Information. It’s shocking the executives went together with “Nebraska” in any respect. Landau needed to coax them into it. “‘The River’ was a large album,” mentioned Robust, “however he wasn’t but within the stratosphere that he then went on to be. When Jon Landau goes into Columbia Information and sits down with Al Teller, folks hearken to Jon Landau. He had an authority, however he additionally was a bodyguard for what’s sacred. Jon was perceiving what was important in that document and why it was important for fertilizing the expansion of Bruce Springsteen, the artist. He was not perceiving in a calculated method why this may or wouldn’t be a savvy profession transfer — not that he didn’t give a shit about profession, as a result of he did.”
Robust and Jeremy Allen White as Springsteen bonded successfully to create this shut relationship. “Simply and nearly with out phrases,” mentioned Robust. “I’ve admired Jeremy for a very long time. A part of what you do is you create a dynamic that mirrors a dynamic, and it was simple for me to really feel a devotion and a love for Jeremy, additionally given what was at stake, just like Sebastian [Stan] having to play Donald Trump, a personality that’s an iconic, monolithic character. You’re susceptible. You’re up there like Philippe Petit, strolling on that prime wire. So it was simple for me to really feel a solicitude, a protectiveness, and an empathy and look after him. You take care of him a bit with out phrases, let him know that you simply’re there for him, which is what Jon does. They don’t speak lots.”
One key scene between the 2 males entails a chunk of music, instigated by Robust. “Within the early ’70s, they used to return over to one another’s home and hearken to information,” mentioned Robust. “They might play one another music all evening. And it was the evening earlier than we have been capturing this scene, the place Jon goes over to Bruce’s home in Colts Neck, a fantastically scripted scene the place they are saying the issues that they’re feeling to one another. Jon expresses his deep concern for Bruce, his want for what the highway journey will likely be. I felt a way that the Jon that I had come to know won’t have worded all these issues as overtly, and I had an intuition that perhaps I ought to play him a track within the scene. I despatched Bruce and Jon some texts. I requested them: ‘I’m pondering of enjoying a document for you within the scene tomorrow. For those who have been going to play a track, in the event you have been making an attempt to save lots of your buddy’s life, what track would you play?’”
The three males exchanged texts for 3 hours. Robust listened to every track suggestion. Springsteen went to mattress. About 45 minutes later, he texted Robust and Landau: Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers’ “Final Mile of the Approach.” “I listened to it,” mentioned Robust, “and was floored. It’s emotionally enormous, and it’s the story of the film. It’s about passing by way of a darkish valley earlier than you get to reach someplace.”
The subsequent day, Scott Cooper shot the scene as scripted. Robust had secretly requested the sound mixer and prop division to arrange a cassette with the track on it and have the growth field within the room. And after they shot the scene, he mentioned, “Scott, can I attempt one thing?” And Cooper mentioned, “Are you able to inform me what it’s?” And I mentioned, “No, I’d moderately not.”
Robust additionally requested White if he wished to know what he was going to do. He mentioned, “No.” “That’s what’s within the film,” mentioned Robust. “It’s a big-budget Disney studio film, nevertheless it has a Cassavetes soul. There’s a religious dimension to that track and that sequence within the film. It captured one thing about them and their essence and their journey.”
Subsequent up: Robust performs the lead within the remake of “The Boys from Brazil,” a restricted collection written by Peter Morgan (“The Crown”). “It’s a five-hour movie that Bob Elswit is capturing, an allegory of the rise of fascism on this planet.” Additionally within the works is a Paramount six-hour restricted collection created by Tobias Lindholm about September 11 first responders. “There’s a humiliation of riches proper now,” mentioned Robust, “and I don’t take it as a right.”
