Bill Burr on 'The Social Reckoning' and Jeremy Strong's Zuckerberg

Bill Burr Plays the Investor Who Pushed Zuckerberg Toward Congress in 'The Social Reckoning'

Comedian Bill Burr has joined Aaron Sorkin's "The Social Reckoning" as Charlie Garrigan, a fictional Facebook investor-turned-critic who coaches Mark Zuckerberg — played by Jeremy Strong — through congressional testimony about the company's pandemic-era misdeeds and its role in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

The film is Sorkin's follow-up to "The Social Network," set during the pandemic as an investigative journalist threatens to expose the platform.

How Did Sorkin Land Burr for the Role?

Sorkin cast Burr after seeing him play angry salesman Dave Moss in David Mamet's Broadway revival of "Glengarry Glen Ross." Burr received a call from his agent shortly after the run.

"He was so humble, and he was taking the time to pitch me the role like I'm somebody," Burr told Variety. "I thought that was hilarious, because it's like, 'Dude, you're Aaron Sorkin. I'd put up staging in the background with no lines to be in a movie that you're doing.' It made me feel good."

What Does Charlie Do in the Film?

Charlie, a composite of real figures from Zuckerberg's past, prepares the Facebook founder for testimony while also confronting him over his conduct. Burr described the character's role in three registers: business relationship, friendship, and falling out.

"I get to say the thing that everybody is talking around, which is a very stand-up thing," Burr said. "So much of comedy is you just say the thing, and then it releases all of this tension."

What Was It Like Working Opposite Jeremy Strong?

Burr and Strong filmed six consecutive days together. Burr had met Strong once before, at Strong's Broadway production of Henrik Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People."

He downplayed the Method-acting mystique around Strong. "I don't need to be playing hacky sack with somebody in between takes," Burr said. "Some people are gregarious and they shoot the breeze with you right up until they say their lines. Other people get quiet. Other people go talk to a wall. At this point, I've been doing it long enough."

Director Sorkin used blocking to manufacture the tension between Charlie and Zuckerberg. "I was way up in the bleachers, and he was down there," Burr said. "That worked. In general, I was very adversarial with everybody in the room. I was interrupting the smooth speak they were giving Zuckerberg."

Burr singled out Wunmi Mosaku's dialogue, in which her character warns Zuckerberg against saying "humans." The effect, he said, was "almost like being a defense attorney for an ax murderer, and you know he did it."

What Does Burr Think of the Tech CEOs He Mocks?

The comedian, who has spent more than three decades roasting institutions from the stand-up stage, has long argued that executives operate behind a corporate veil.

"The thing about these corporations is it's nameless and faceless," Burr said. "The general public will get mad at a singer or a golfer or a comedian, and it's like: 'All right, buddy. Name the top 10 CEOs.' They can't do it."

Pressed on whether "nerds with apps" are ruining the country, Burr was unambiguous: "Not sort of! They are absolutely doing it. And they're closing the door behind them and putting a tremendous amount of people out of work. Economically — forget environmentally — they're leading us to ruin. When it's just you making the money, how's somebody going to buy the widget you're making? Capitalism is great. Unregulated capitalism is frightening."

What Happened When He Cried in a Hotel Room?

Away from the film's politics, Burr described an unexpected emotional reckoning during the shoot. While prepping a scene that did not call for tears, he welled up uncontrollably and had to discharge the feeling alone.

"I had to cry this out by myself in a hotel room, and then the next day I was able to do the scene," Burr said. "I was in a sheer panic that I was going to go to set and fall apart."

He attributed the episode to decades of suppressed vulnerability. "The way they raised boys to be men, you weren't allowed to feel any of those feelings, so I have walled those off for so long that I don't feel those feelings," he said. "And when I act, these characters do. So then I have to open the vault to go in there to get disappointed or whatever. And when I open the door, what happens is literally a cry from 40 years ago gets out."

Burr said breathwork massages have lowered what he calls his lifelong baseline anger from an eight out of ten to zero. "I used to walk around at an eight, and now I start at zero," he said.

With "The Social Reckoning" now in theaters, Burr's dual performance — as an adversarial investor opposite Strong and as a stand-up processing four decades of suppressed feeling in real time on camera — points to a widening range for a comic whose career has run more than thirty years on stage.