"Succession" is a black comedy full of fast banter, but it doesn't shy away from powerfully dramatic moments. The characters are all despicable, but they are also impossibly sympathetic. The ambitious middle failson of the show's Murdoch-esque family, Kendall Roy, is at the center of most of the saddest and funniest moments of the series. His hubris and impulsivity is so pathetic that it wavers between heartbreaking and hilarious at all times. It's difficult to watch, but it's even more difficult to film for Jeremy Strong, who plays Kendall.

Season 3 was a particularly difficult season for Kendall. He launches a war against his father and quickly starts losing. He takes on a manic delusions of grandeur and figures himself a righteous messianic figure. "I thought about Kanye," he revealed to GQ.

Kendall's efforts to take down Logan fall short at every turn, which culminates in his meltdown in Italy at his mother's wedding. This scene was an extremely challenging one for Strong to shoot, likely because it is the moment where Kendall's mindset truly transforms from the gear that it is in for most of the season. In fact, Strong wasn't sure that he would be able to perform it at all.

"The end of season 3, we're in Italy," the actor set the scene in a video segment for GQ. "And every time you do a movie or every time I do a season of this there's always a scene that you think I can't do, I don't, I can't do this and I don't know how I'm going to do this."

Kendall's Meltdown In Tuscany Was A Major Challenge

Strong takes a very exhaustive approach to his "Succession" character with a burning intensity that mirrors his character's. Kendall takes his own life very seriously but has an absurd grandiosity coupled with a pathetic attempt to shield himself with self-aware irony that makes his efforts as comedic as they are deeply tragic.

"Kendall desperately wants it to be his turn," the Emmy Award-winning actor explained to The New Yorker. "To me, the stakes are life and death. I take him as seriously as I take my own life." Strong said he practices "identity diffusion" much like Daniel Day Lewis, a technique that often gets incorrectly prescribed as Method acting.

When he came back to visit set after wrapping season 1, series creator Jesse Armstrong "didn't recognize him," he confessed to GQ. "The way that he'd been carrying himself for the preceding weeks as he played Kendall in the dark place meant that his whole physicality was completely different."

Despite his commitment to staying in character, Strong doesn't always manage to pull out a perfect performance right off the bat. His Tuscan summer meltdown at the end of season 3 was a huge obstacle for the actor at first.

"I just remember being in that sort of trance in this room before we shot that scene and the feeling of peril," he recalled. In the end, he was able to over come his own mental block by switching things up, because "part of what you have to do as an actor is get out of your way."

"That was a tough day. You know, the scene didn't go so well for like 9 or 10 takes. And then on the next take, I sat down on the ground which I hadn't done before, and that's what's in the show."

But Strong Thrives Under Pressure And The Scene Turned Out Great

Some of Strong's proudest moments as an actor came from overcoming obstacles that at first felt insurmountable. One such moment came before his "Succession" audition. Strong originally wanted the role of Roman, but was denied — the part went to Kieran Culkin instead. The rejection ended up fuelling Strong's audition and bringing him closer to the character than ever.

"I've always felt like an outsider with a fire in my belly," he explained to The New Yorker. "And so the disappointment and the feeling of being thwarted — it only sharpened my need and hunger. I went in with a vengeance."

When Strong faced issues with his pivotal scene in season 3, it was coming up against his own shortcomings that drove his performance once again. "[T]hat was just a result of giving up and sort of coming face-to-face with my own, in a sense, limits," he told GQ.

His methods might raise eyebrows among his critics and coworkers, but there's no denying that Strong delivers many of the belly laughs and gut-punches that make "Succession" so great. Kendall crumpling onto the ground ended up being an incredibly powerful moment because Strong and the creative team didn't give up when the scene wasn't working, just like Kendall won't give up in his fight to claim the company for his own.

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