 |
| Jesse Eisenberg clutching his Karlovy Vary award with a packed house cheering him on. Photo: Courtesy of Film Servis Festival Karlovy Vary |
In a volley of self-deprecating one-liners Eisenberg, 42, who is the recipient of the President’s Award at this year's Karlovy Vary International Film Festival almost feels embarrassed at talking about himself before an appreciative crowd.
He has always eschewed social media, claiming that as an actor he finds he is always talking about himself “far too much”. He added: “It’s not healthy. No human being has ever talked about themselves as much as I talk about myself. So I’m not on any [social media]. All that stuff scares me so much, you know, Facebook and social media, Twitter, whatever, because I already feel humiliated to be in public talking about myself. It’s disgusting. All that stuff terrifies me.
 |
| Karlovy Vary award-winner Jesse Eisenberg: 'I try to be as funny possible but never in a dumb comedy kind of way' Photo: Courtesy of Film Servis Festival Karlovy Vary |
Unsurprisingly, he won’t be reprising the role in Aaron Sorkin’s forthcoming sequel to Fincher’s 2010 production.
He recalled that for the first film he and his sister sent an audition tape to Fincher and then received a call to attend a meeting in California. “I think they were having difficulty in finding someone to take on the part because it’s a strange kind of role.
“They flew me out to California. I memorised 15 pages of dialogue, and then, when I got into the room with [Fincher], I said: ‘Do you want me to read anything?’ He was like, ‘Nah, put that away. I just want to tell you about this guy I knew. And he told me about this guy who was running a studio at the time and said, ‘You have to play a guy like that.’ I was like, What is he like? And he was like, ‘You just never know what he’s thinking and he could just stare at you and you have no idea what he’s thinking. It’s very unnerving.’”
Eisenberg, however, had no qualms on taking it on, simply saying: “Oh, that sounds great. I would love to do that. And that was it.” Jeremy Strong is taking on the mantle in the new film.
 |
| Jesse Eisenberg on autograph duty in Karlovy Vary Photo: Courtesy of Film Servis Festival Karlovy Vary |
Eisenberg, also known for his roles in Adventureland, Zombieland, Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice and Richard Ayoade’s The Double – presented here at the Festival in his presence – also has said: “I’m lying about 90 per cent of what I’m talking about in interviews” although his responses seem genuine and considered.
The public doesn’t engage with him and he doesn’t engage with fans, a state of affairs which suits him perfectly although he is polite to a fault with the questions from the floor.
Currently he can heard voicing a robot from the Sixties in Minions And Monsters although he pointed out to the predominantly Czech audience that a local actor would voice the role for the dubbed Czech release.
 |
| Jesse Eisenberg in full flow: 'No human being has ever talked about themselves as much as I talk about myself' Photo: Richard Mowe |
He’s not a big fan of auditions and declines to do them for participants in his string of stage productions or, indeed, for his new film due out later in the year, The Debut, starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti, and centred around behind the scenes frolics in an amateur local theatre production of a musical.
As an admirer of Woody Allen, with whom he has worked on two occasions, humour is always present in Eisenberg's own scripts right from the start. “I try to be as funny as possible but never in a dumb comedy kind of way. If you have real characters and proper psychology you can put that into anything.” He ascribes part of his sense of humour to his Jewish roots with strong family ties still to Poland – so much so that he has been awarded Polish citizenship and will receive the documentation on Monday, when he leaves the festival for Warsaw.
As a family man with other preoccupations he said: “I do not watch a lot of movies. I get distracted or feel jealous. I like my own things in my head. I get angry if something is bad, also I have never been the kind of actor who gets into auteur movies. I look at the part to see if I can do an interesting job or not”.
Because there was such a large Jewish community where he lived and grew up in New Jersey, he always saw his heritage as normal – and he never considered Woody Allen as particularly Jewish.
Not all of his projects have been harmonious. When he hired Kieran Culkin for his comedy-drama A Real Pain, the pair played two mismatched cousins who travel to Poland to trace their family's roots. Eisenberg wrote, directed, and co-starred in the film, while Culkin played his charismatic, free-spirited cousin.
“Before production Kieran would not call me for six months. I found out from Emma Stone, who was a producer on the film, that he was planning to pull out. She told him that 300 people would lose their jobs if he carried out his threat.”
Culkin objected to “taking notes from another actor. He was a pain in the ass but he was actually so good in performance even though he would not do the things I asked”.
Eisenberg finds directing is almost “totally technical. Your mind becomes obsessed with logistics and details whereas writing is pure bliss and the pure creative mode. Once you’re on the the set it is just about wanting to get this thing done”.
The Debut will be released in December 2026
