If you were shocked to hear Jeremy Strong‘s voice as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Reckoning trailer, Jeremy Allen White was right there with you.
While premiering the fifth and final season of FX’s The Bear on Monday night in New York City, White also took a moment to discuss the highly anticipated film. Strong stars as Zuckerberg, but because the two actors never overlapped on set, the trailer marked White’s first glimpse of Strong’s portrayal.
“Jeremy and I spent zero time together filming — we were totally separate,” White told The Hollywood Reporter. “So the first I heard was the trailer with you guys, but it’s incredible.”
The Emmy winner added of Strong’s performance, “I thought it was great, but that’s what I expect of Jeremy. He’s so talented. He works so hard. It makes perfect sense to me.”
The Social Reckoning is a follow-up to the Oscar-winning 2010 film The Social Network, which starred Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg and chronicled the creation of Facebook, as well as the lawsuits brought by co-founder and former best friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) and the Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer). The film was directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, who won an Academy Award for his screenplay.
This time, Sorkin returns to write and direct the sequel, which is set 17 years after the events of the original film. In addition to Strong’s Zuckerberg, White plays Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz, who works with former Facebook employee Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison) on a mission to expose the social network’s biggest secrets.
While The Social Network followed Facebook’s rise, the sequel centers on the consequences and controversies surrounding social media as it has evolved.
But for White, working on the film didn’t necessarily change his relationship with social media or his views on its impact.
“I don’t know if it changed,” he said. “I think I have always held similar feelings to what we’re trying to provoke with the film, so I don’t think it changed my mind in any way. But it definitely strengthened my opinions. There’s a lot of proof about the addictive aspects of this stuff, and we should all take a step back.”
Sony Pictures’ The Social Reckoning opens in theaters Oct. 9.
