Is Jeremy Strong okay?

December 25, 2020

First, we want to say Merry Christmas to everyone celebrating (and perhaps more importantly happy birthday to Jeremy Strong)! We hope you are indulging in some good food and the cheesiest Christmas movie that’s available on Netflix. One of the greatest gifts for us has been starting this newsletter and creating a community of people who are also obsessed with pop culture garbage. 

In our final issue of 2020, Hannah explains why Little Women (2019) belongs in the classic Christmas movie canon and Daysia dishes on her love for disco-revival pop (we are excited to tear up the dance floor hopefully someday soon). Also, as a gift to you we have created a quiz where you can figure out what Pop Cult inspired gift would be under your tree. Finally, there’s some actual Lorde news and we leave you with enough great reads to last until 2021 (also as a bonus gift here is a lifehack to cure having too many tabs). 

Wishing you a safe, healthy and happy end of 2020 and start of 2021! There will be no newsletter next Friday. See you in the new year!

Love and light, 

<3 Hannah and Daysia 

This Week’s Fixations 

What’s taking up our brain space this week?

Hannah: It’s hard to believe that it has been one year since Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Little Women was released in theaters and completely changed my life. I saw the movie six times (which is well-documented on my Twitter) in theaters in three different cities, dragging friends who hadn’t seen it and going alone more than once. The film is a precious gift as Gerwig takes the classic story and weaves it into something that feels both modern and timeless. And the performances! My heart still breaks and I get tears in my eyes when Saoirse performs Jo’s monologue in the attic or literally any time Timmy is on screen. 

Little Women is the perfect Christmas movie, not just because we get the gift of Saoirse as Jo whispering, “Merry Christmas, world” to us, but because it is like a warm hug that shows how family and love get us through hard times (you can also make the argument that Little Women is a war movie). I think at the end of a hard year that’s something we can all use. So whether you have never seen it or you’re going on your seventh rewatch, make yourself a cup of hot chocolate, pop some popcorn and enjoy Little Women. Think of it as my gift to you. 

Daysia: Despite such a dark, bleak year, I was incredibly pleased with the number of disco-revival pop albums that came out this year! Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia AND Club Future Nostalgia DJ Mix (if you haven’t listened, it is good), Jessie Ware’s What’s Your Pleasure? (my personal fav of the year!), Kylie Minogue’s DISCO— the list goes on. Yes, it’s strange that all of these certified dance club hits were released while we were all stuck inside. As Justin Curto wrote in Vulture, dance music and public health crises have a connected history; the prospect of our own mortalities makes us yearn for each other. Dancing makes us feel alive and it brings us together in such a specific, joyful way. I am longing for the days I get to dance, or even just touch, my beloved friends again. But for now, with the end of the crisis in sight (albeit, still far away), I’m just absolutely buzzin’ at the stockpile of songs that will fuel many a late, messy night in the future. ICYMI, here are some of my favorite dance pop bangers from this year.

In other news, Liz Gillies did a “Song Association” video with Ellelast week and it is the greatest gift I could have received this holiday season. It is quite literally the opposite of all of the music listed above. Unsurprisingly, she mostly chose songs that predate my existence by decades (she’s famously an old soul) but I could listen to this woman sing for hours. Also, she did this to promote her new album with Seth MacFarlane, and I’m kind of surprised they’re friends? I don’t know, maybe it’s a well-known fact, but it caught me off guard! They’ve been singing together since at least 2015. 

Lastly (and speaking of Liz Gillies), don’t forget to listen to her and Ariana Grande’s rendition of Santa Baby today <3.

A Serious Actor 

Celebrating Jeremy Strong’s birthday by recognizing his dedication to The Craft 

Spoilers for Succession seasons 1 and 2 ahead. You’ve been warned!

We love Jeremy Strong. We are firmly Team Kendall at Pop Cult and patiently awaiting season three of Succession to see if our boy successfully commits (metaphorical) patricide. We don’t really know why we love him so much, since his personality centers solely around his love and commitment to Acting— typically a trait that can go off the rails very easily. But his devotion is not quite the Jared-Leto-creepy-I’m-sending-you-rats-type-beat, ya know? He rejects the term “method acting” wholeheartedly, but that’s the best way to describe his approach. He’s an intense guy who has done some crazy things to get into character, which seems to be paying off given that he just won an Emmy for his performance as Kendall in Succession’s second season.

Anyways, to honor our favorite Boston boy (he’s from Jamaica Plain, near where we used to live 😌), we are rounding up the most unhinged ways Strong has dedicated himself to his craft. These are the moments that make us ask: is Jeremy Strong okay?

Mentored by Daniel Day-Lewis

It should be no surprise that Strong was a personal assistant for thee method actor Daniel Day-Lewis during production on The Ballad of Jack and Rose. There is no better way to learn about intense commitment to the craft than observing someone who is famous for going to extreme lengths to get into character.He talked to Deadline about what he learned from watching Day-Lewis on set: 

“What I saw in him was a willingness to make a fool of himself on the day in front of the crew and the other actors so that he could really believe in the thing and commit to it. I think commitment is a worthy goal; you have to leave everything else at the gate.”

“L to the OG”

A-N he playin / HBO / @nocontextroyco

It is the rap that inspired Halloween costumes. It is a scene that made Daysia walk away from the television out of secondhand embarrassment. No one on set had heard the infamous “L to the OG” song until Strong shot the take for the first time. Those reactions around the room are real. This performance, perhaps, is the bravest thing Strong has ever done as a Very Serious actor. Absolutely humiliating. In his own words, he told The Wrap that it felt like “walking the plank” and wanted to cut the scene. Thank god they kept it in.

Begging Aaron Sorkin to tear gas him

Jeremy Strong in TheTrial of the Chicago 7 / Netflix

Strong, who plays anti-war activist Jerry Rubin in The Trial of the Chicago 7, asked director Sorkin to tear gas him during production. He wanted to be totally immersed in the scene. According to Vanity Fair, Sorkin declined to do so (for obvious reasons). Strong did, however, get one of the cop extras to throw him to the ground during each take for the riot scenes.

Taking a cold plunge at the end of Succession season 1

Season 1 of Succession ends with Kendall crashing a car in a (cold) river and in true Jeremy Strong fashion he committed to the bit and worked in a water tank and an actual lake. In an interview with IndieWirehe said:

“That was very scary, just letting the air run out in my own lungs to the point where I felt just enough in jeopardy and in danger so that I was really in the situation and then trying to extract myself from it… I don’t think you can really skirt the danger and get some sort of E-ZPass through it. I think you have to commit to the ordeal.”

Talking about Craft in Backstage

We know Mr. Strong is an Actor but his passion really comes through whenever he talks about his process and acting in general as exemplified by this interview in Backstage where he references Zen philosophy and this one where he says that you should know your audition material well enough to be able to perform it in a cyclone. Okay!

But all his hard work paid off this year with an Emmy win!

Jeremy Strong smiling with his Emmy for Lead Actor in a Drama Series / Vanity Fair

Has Lorde dropped a new album? 

There’s actually some news. In fact, there are two pieces of news. The first is that Lorde has revived her alt Instagram where she reviews onion rings. (Joseph Longo did an incredible analysis of what her most recent posts could mean for the new music). So we are finally getting some content from Miss Yelich-O’Connor (I guess it’s like her equivalent to a Rihanna Caribbean food cookbook?). 

But perhaps more importantly Lorde has revealed that her album has a name, which is inspired by her trip to Antarctica. Has she shared that name? Of course not! But I consider this small bit of news from her my Christmas gift. Here’s hoping that we’ll get a more concrete announcement in early 2021. 

In the meantime, prepare yourselves for getting the version of “Potential Breakup Song” we have always deserved. Aly & AJ announced that they will be releasing an explicit version of the song on 12/29. Count on one of the most underrated pop duos to help us close out 2020 with this gift. And while we are in our former Disney star bag this is a good reminder to listen to  “Best Time of the Year” by Christy Carlson Romano.

Too Many Tabs 

Our fave reads of the week

Daysia Tolentino (yes, as in half of Pop Cult!) explains how her heart broke in 2015 when Zayn and Perrie called off their engagement for InStyle’s “Breakups That Broke Us” column. 

Matt Donnelly profiles Steven Yeun, who took inspiration from James Dean for Minari, for Variety (plus amazing photos). 

Who would have thought that one of the year’s most relatable influencers would be Miss Molly-Mae Hague (of Love Island fame)? Moya Lothian-McLean and Diyora Shadijanova investigate the “people’s influencer” and why people of color are so charmed by her in gal-dem. 

Ariana surprised us not only with an album but an engagement and the NYT Styles Desk breaks down her IG announcement from the photo dump to that ring. 

We were thrilled about Ayo Edebiri’s new gig on Big Mouth! Claire Valentine interviews the comedian for NYLON.

It was the year of the surprise album drop, Justin Curto examines what it means for future album rollouts in Vulture. 

Kerensa Cadenas interviews Hollywood’s best Chris, Christine Baranski, in The Cut.