When it comes to acting, Succession star Jeremy Strong has been known to go overboard. And what is a GQ “10 Things I Can’t Live Without” video if not just another role, in which you play a celebrity promoting products and feigning intimacy by showing viewers a glimpse into your personal life? So Strong brought his trademark intensity to the project (and to his GQ cover story) — along with a few more than ten “artifacts” from his life. “I’ve clearly broken that assignment,” he jokes in the video. Here, in order of appearance, is our count of just how many things Strong can’t live without:
1. The statement he rips up at the press conference in the Succession season-two finale
2. A costume tag that says “Kendall” from the Succession season-one finale
3. A chain designed by Rashid Johnson and Liz Swig that he wore while filming Kendall’s birthday-party episode in Succession season three
4. A drink stirrer with Kendall’s face 3-D printed onto it that he asked to have custom-made for the character’s birthday party
5. A “Do not disturb” sign from the Italian hotel where he stayed while filming the end of Succession season three, which “was kind of just telling me something about ‘don’t disturb,’ like, yourself and surrender to the uncertainty and the unknown,” he says
6. A leather script binder from Robert Duvall
7. A pair of custom-designed Jacques Marie Mage sunglasses for Kendall with his initials, KLR, on the side
8. An identical pair of custom-designed Jacques Marie Mage sunglasses, also with Kendall’s initials, for Strong because “I do know where one ends and the other begins”
9. A cup from a storefront production of the play A Matter of Choice
10. A cherry bomb from The Trial of the Chicago 7
11. A watch from Humboldt County, his first movie
12. A poker chip from Molly’s Game
13. A card from the Arizona bar where Kendall relapsed in Succession season one, with “double Smirnoff rocks” written on it, after Strong asked a sober friend what they would order to relapse
14. A dog tag from Defiance, his first Off Broadway play
15. A handwritten story about the Velveteen Rabbit that Kendall reads to his children in a cut Succession scene
16. A die from a production of the play Hughie that Strong did in college, “probably the oldest thing I have,” he says
17. A costume tag that says “Vinny” from The Big Short
18. Glenn Gould’s first recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations on vinyl, which, Strong says, “probably would be the piece of music I want to listen to if I am lucky enough to choose the piece of music I want to listen to at the end”
19. A card that says “I Am the Rouletista” from magician Derek DelGaudio’s Off Broadway show In & of Itself, which DelGaudio specifically sent to Strong
20. A book of paintings by Howard Hodgkin
21. The diaries of Alma Mahler
22. The Spectator Bird, by Wallace Stegner
23. Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth, by Robert A. Johnson
24. The Caretaker, by Harold Pinter, Strong’s favorite play
25. The Actor and the Target, by Declan Donnellan, the book Strong would recommend to young actors “if I could pick one book”
26. Wherever You Go, There You Are, by Jon Kabat-Zinn
27. Four Quartets, by T.S. Eliot
28. A collection of letters by Rainer Maria Rilke, which Strong dismisses by saying, “I’ve already quoted this dude”
29. In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust
30. My Struggle, by Karl Ove Knausgaard, which is “No. 1 for me,” says Strong
Clocking in at a total of 30 things! Not even including the pinkie ring on his finger.
