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Cindy Pearlman
NYT Syndicate
On the screen, playing characters such as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network (2010) or Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Jesse Eisenberg radiates confidence.
Offscreen, the actor insists, it's a different story.
"I love to play characters that have confidence in excess, because I'm kind of the opposite," said the 32-year-old New Yorker, who was nominated for an Oscar as Best Actor for his performance as Zuckerberg."I perform on stage and have total stage fright and anxiety.
"You play a character in a movie for several hours a day," he continued,"and you end up unconsciously taking on the feelings and experiences of that character. If you make the face of somebody confident for 12 hours a day for months, you end up tricking yourself into thinking you have all those feelings."
It doesn't seem as if Eisenberg ought to have confidence issues. He's one of Hollywood's hottest young actors, with Batman v Superman his big spring film and two more due out this summer. He co-stars in the current caper film Now You See Me 2 and has the lead in Woody Allen's Caf` Society, his second film with Allen after To Rome with Love (2012).
Set in the 1930s, Caf` Society casts Eisenberg as Bobby, a young man from the Bronx who moves to Hollywood, where his uncle (Steve Carell) is a powerful agent, and falls hard for his uncle's secretary (Kristen Stewart). When he returns to New York, Bobby is swept up in the glamorous world of high-society nightclubbing.
In Allen's To Rome with Love Eisenberg played a similar character, a cerebral, nebbishy young man tied in knots by his love life. Which raises an obvious question: Is Eisenberg playing Woody Allen?
"No, no, if there is any effort in that regard, it's to avoid that kind of thing," insisted Eisenberg, who was clad in a gray suit for an interview at a Las Vegas casino."No one can do it as well as the original. And it would be a mistake not to take on each role in their own way."
He smiled, then added one small disclaimer.
"That said, the dialogue is written by Woody," Eisenberg said."It has a certain cadence, which is a specific one. He's also directing, so, in between takes, Woody's speech and his mannerisms are the things that were most present for me.
"Added to the mix is the fact that I like Woody so much," he said."So there are all those competing interests when I work with Woody, and I'm not sure which one wins out."
The real winner might be Eisenberg, who has had a busy 2016 and will reprise his role as Lex Luthor in next year's Justice League. How does he cope with so many Jesse Eisenberg movies out there?
"I just don't see them all at the same time," he joked.
The casting of Eisenberg ” young and with hair ” as Luthor drew some Internet flak when it was announced, but the actor said that he'd tried not to pay any attention to it.
"I just try to stay in a bubble," he said,"because there is no right way to respond to people criticising you for a role you haven't yet screwed up.
"It's certainly odd to read these things," Eisenberg admitted."It's odd to even have these things out there, because everything else I'm in, you're obsequiously begging people to go see it. Then you're in this huge movie and you're actually doing the opposite: You're asking them not to write anything until they do see it."
Eisenberg is currently filming Justice League, in which he'll appear alongside Ben Affleck as Batman, Henry Cavill as Superman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman and Jason Momoa as Aquaman. The film is due in 2017, but virtually everything else about it remains under wraps.
"You're not allowed to talk about it," Eisenberg said."It's shrouded in secrecy. It's a different experience, but it doesn't affect me that much, because I really don't read what's out there anymore."
He's no stranger to sequels, having reprised his role as J Daniel Atlas in Now You See Me 2, a heist movie in which magic is the weapon.
"I loved this role because he's basically a performer and a confident one," Eisenberg said."He has worked hard establishing an incredible skill set, and doesn't apologise for it. I found his confidence interesting."
Born in Queens, New York, Eisenberg was raised in East Brunswick, New Jersey. His mother was a professional clown, his father a hospital administrator turned college professor. His younger sister, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, became a child star with roles in Bicentennial Man (1999) and The Insider (1999).
Eisenberg didn't have her out-of-the-gate success, but began to act in children's theatre. That led to an Off-Broadway role in 'The Gathering' (1999) and then the Fox series 'Get Real' (1999-2000), which lasted only one season despite an up-and-coming cast that included both Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway. During his senior year in high school, Eisenberg made his film debut in 'Roger Dodger' (2002).
There were perks to being officially in the business, starting with membership in the Screen Actors Guild.
"When I got my SAG card," Eisenberg recalled, laughing,"I told a local movie theatre that this SAG card allowed me two free tickets for any movie, anytime. I was surprised that it did work. For several months in 2001, I saw a movie every single day for free, illegally, using my SAG card.
"I still feel like I should atone for seeing America's Sweethearts (2001) and Joy Ride (2001) without paying."
His early films included playing shy, antisocial young men in such movies as The Emperor's Club (2002), The Village (2004), The Squid and the Whale (2005), Adventureland (2009) and Zombieland (2009).
Eisenberg managed to juggle his acting career with his studies at New School University, where he was a liberal-arts major.
He'd graduated by the time he was cast as Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg in David Fincher's The Social Network. It kicked his career into a new gear.
"Everyone always asks me about the great amount of takes (Fincher) likes to do, as if actors are in great opposition to doing a lot of takes," Eisenberg said."Every actor I know would stay there all day if possible. I was thrilled to spend the time acting and not just waiting to act."
His subsequent films have included Why Stop Now? (2012), To Rome with Love, Now You See Me (2013), Night Moves (2013), The Double (2013), The End of the Tour (2015) and American Ultra (2015). Besides Justice League, his upcoming films apparently will include a sequel to Zombieland, in which he and Woody Harrelson played zombie fighters in a post-apocalyptic America.
"Yes, Sony has announced Zombieland 2," Eisenberg said."That's about all I can tell you."
He's looking forward to a repeat engagement as the brilliant, sociopathic Lex Luthor, Eisenberg said.
"Those characters are the easiest to play," he said."When the character has some kind of eccentricity or some kind of strange behaviour that is very different, it feels the most comfortable. You just lose your consciousness, or should I say self-consciousness?
"If you're playing a character who is very similar to you," the actor explained,"then you're hyper-aware and second-guessing every aspect of that performance, because it seems so close to you. You can be very hyper-aware of any artifices, inconsistencies or superficialities.
"A part like Lex Luthor is so very different from me," Eisenberg said."I can just lose myself in the character, and I don't feel any of that usual self-awareness."
