Jeremy Strong: The Post-Finale Interview

• Jeremy says the final scene was shot back in early February in Battery Park, on a day when other parts of the city were seeing record lows and it felt like -15 degress. Says he never been so cold in his life. The scene was supposed to end with Kendall walking with Colin behind him, but Jeremy convinced Jesse Armstrong and Mark Mylod to continue to where Ken sits down.
• Said he never seen waves in the East River like the way they were that day and scaffolding nearby was giving a terrible clang. He says the moment was biblical. They only had 8 minutes before sunset but the water was calling to him. After the cut, Jeremy says he raced over the barrier, causing the actor playing Colin to stop him. He mentions that John Berryman, whos snippets of Dream Song 29 are used as finale titles, died by jumping into a frozen river.
• He calls the board vote an extinction level event for Kendall. He doesn’t know for sure if Ken really would have jumped, but believes he wanted to die and knows the longing is there. Jeremy also says there is nowhere else for the character to go, stating that if there really was a Season 5, he wouldn’t be part of it because the story arc was over.
• Calls the episode very hard to watch, and that Kendall has become very real to him.

Other highlights:

• He hasn’t keep in touch with the rest of the cast so much since they wrapped. The final scene was the kitchen scene.
• Yes he really did drink that.
• People come up to him on the street and ask if both he and Ken are okay. He is but obvious Ken isn’t.
• The scene with Rava from last episode continued after the cut and it was “awful.” Kendall followed the car to the intersection. He opens the back door and tries pulling the kids out of the car. Rava stops him and they get into a full-on physical altercation.
• Say the show could have been called The Death of Kendall Roy, and that his demise is a mirror to the dying of society in late-stage capitalist America.
• Calls the Season 3 finale scene in the dirt parking lot the most meaningful.