Cox describes working with someone who is always in character as “f****** annoying,” but explains that the rest of the cast tolerates it as well and it’s not just a matter of being annoyed by working with Kendall Roy instead of Jeremy Strong — he also thinks that method acting is just silly, basically. He recalled a 2009 video where he taught Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy to a toddler, which he believes proves that acting is an innate ability and not “a big f****** religious experience” and that Strong doesn’t need to stay in character to do his job well.
“He’s still that guy, because he feels if he went somewhere else he’d lose it. But he won’t! Strong is talented. He’s f****** gifted. When you’ve got the gift, celebrate the gift. Go back to your trailer and have a hit of marijuana, you know?”
While that’s not exactly the kind of fatherly advice I can imagine Logan giving to Kendall, it might not be terrible advice for Strong, who seems to take his work exceptionally seriously. It can’t be healthy to stay in the mindset of a character as traumatized and conflicted as Kendall for any amount of time, no matter how good a performance it helps to create.