jesse eisenberg
Actor, author, playwright. Gill Pringle tries her hand at unravelling the mystery behind this enigmatic multi-hyphenate
Nothing is off-limits for this down-to-earth actor.
Who doesn’t love a guy who can express his feelings? Take Jesse Eisenberg, who has no taboo topics, happily chatting about everything and anything, long sentences tumbling from his mouth. His body pulsates with nervous energy, his fingers constantly touching, which he explains is a product of his OCD. In comparison, his idol Woody Allen, who he worked with on To Rome With Love and the upcoming Café Society, seems positively laid-back.
His rapid speech, he says, is a result of growing up in a family of talkers. “It’s hard to get a word in edgeways, so if you don’t speak quickly, you won’t speak,” says the actor, who has two sisters, Hallie and Kerri. “It’s a survival thing; it’s not a talent. I didn’t talk until I was three and then I immediately started at this pace. I’m still making up for the first three years of silence.”
Eisenberg’s relationship with Australian actress Mia Wasikowska, who he met when they co-starred in The Double three years ago, seemed ideal. She, shy and quiet, and him, filling in the silence. He even accompanied her to our shores in 2014, concluding, “It’s the most beautiful place in the world. The only downside is that it’s so far away, so that’s why it hasn’t been overrun by people wanting to live there.”
The long-distance relationship has since cooled, and Eisenberg admits he’s uncomfortable about commitment. “When you’re with somebody in a relationship, in a way it’s your responsibility to make them happy all the time,” says the 32-year-old. “Luckily I have no real responsibilities in my life, like children or a family that expects me to help them with anything. I’m a selfish person when it comes to that stuff.”
Raised in a Jewish family, guilt is practically in his DNA, which makes for interesting family dinners. “Everyone’s just kind of apologising and passing food. I feel guilty about owning a T-shirt, so being in movies is kind of like the iceberg. It takes very little for me to find something to feel bad about. I could feel guilty about this tablecloth, just give me a minute,” he says, hands hovering above the table where we sit at a hotel in LA.
It should be said that he doesn’t enjoy this city, despite it being the home of movie-making – he much prefers the hectic pace of New York, where he calls home. “Everyone is so slow, I can’t stand it. I go crazy after a day [in LA].
The only people who move at a good pace are those who are being chased by the police.”
His mother Amy was a kids’ party clown and, surprisingly, an irrational fear of clowns is not among his many phobias. “My dad [Barry] is a professor of social psychology so he used his insight to figure out how to make her not terrifying, so there was no red nose or big wig. My mum came out of the hippie movement so she was like a Marxist hippie clown.”
As a child he struggled with anxiety, his parents suggesting drama as an outlet. He took to the stage like the proverbial fish. Cast in the lead role in a theatre
“I DIDN’T LIKE MY ANONYMITY JUST AS MUCH AS I DON’T LIKE BEING RECOGNISED ON THE STREET. BOTH ARE UNCOMFORTABLE AND EMBARRASSING ALTHOUGH THE PERKS ARE BETTER WITH FAME”
production of the musical Oliver! at age seven, he was an understudy on Broadway at 12, made his TV debut on the US series Get Real by 16, while simultaneously writing screenplays that would be optioned by major film studios.
Though most celebrities complain about how success translates to a loss of anonymity, Eisenberg is divided. “I didn’t like my anonymity just as much as I don’t like being recognised on the street. Both are uncomfortable and embarrassing although the perks are better with fame.”
Best known for his Oscarnominated performance as Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg in 2010’s The Social Network, he had already established a strong screen presence before then, working steadily over the previous five years in Zombieland, The Squid And The Whale and The Hunting
Party among other largely independent films, as well as writing humorous pieces for The
New Yorker, penning a collection of short stories and writing three critically acclaimed plays, staged in London, New York and Los Angeles.
If it seems like he’s impossibly busy, he begs to differ. “When you’re an actor, it looks like you’re busy because your face is on a poster, but you have a lot of time off and I think that’s why some actors get into self-destructive habits. Time off is a dangerous thing so I need hobbies,” he says.
When we meet, he’s sporting a newly cropped haircut and dressed in customary black, less fashion statement and more about utility. His preferred mode of transport is a bicycle. “I ride very quickly so you’d be hard-pressed to find me because I’m darting in and out of buses. It means I never have to wait on the subway or get stuck in traffic. I’m impatient and don’t like to waste time.”
In writing this article, it’s with the sure knowledge that he will not be among ELLE’S readers. “I don’t watch my movies or read reviews, mainly because I’m very self-critical and it can be disappointing so I stay inside my own bubble.” Nevertheless, he’s fascinated by the written word. “The paradox of fiction is you end up expressing yourself in a more personal way than you might even speaking personally, because there’s a safe cloak of fiction to express very intimate feelings. In my most recent play, The Spoils, the character has these deep, weird, sexual fantasies. I don’t personally have those fantasies, but I relate to having embarrassing thoughts. We all relate to being ashamed of certain thoughts.”
Right now, he’s reprising his role as slick magician J Daniel Atlas in Now You See Me 2, a sequel to the original hit three years ago. “I like playing this character who has worked really hard on his skill set and yet feels no guilt about his success, all stuff that I aspire to but don’t feel. All my other characters tend to be tortured, angry, depressed, put-upon people,” he says, having earlier described himself as “exceedingly average”.
He rarely watches TV or takes holidays. “If I haven’t worked enough, I don’t feel I’ve earned the right to relax. I recognise it’s probably a problem. I only travel for work. I’ve been all over the world but prefer developing countries because they’re more interesting, otherwise everything looks like America.”
Eisenberg doesn’t welcome newcomers into his inner circle easily, although his Now You See
Me 2 co-star Daniel Radcliffe is an exception. “He has become a friend. We both work in the New York theatre community and his girlfriend was in my last play. For someone who has been given this insanely massive international platform, to go do a musical downtown in New York City is just the bravest thing in the world and totally unnecessary.”
As for his favourite leading lady, it’s without doubt Kristen Stewart, his co-star in Adventureland, American Ultra and Café Society. “We’re two actors who prefer to face away from the camera. Not because we’re so humble or modest, but because we’re more interested in presenting a realistic character than stealing the spotlight.”
Now You See Me 2 is in cinemas now