YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT
QUIRKY Jesse Eisenberg finds himself in a hairy situation in the recently released Sasquatch Sunset. As the patriarch of a tribe of Bigfoots facing a changing world, fur-suited Jesse doesn’t utter a word onscreen. Instead, he and his cryptid comedy co-stars Riley Keough, Christophe Zajac-Denek and Nathan Zellner grunt and scream. The oddball role is a far cry from his Oscar-nominated turn as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network. Here are ten things you don’t know about the 40-year-old performer. 1Jesse J was born b i in th the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, N.Y., to a birthday party clown mother and sociology professor father.
2His mom wanted him to become a doctor.
3He
began acting in plays to overcome his anxiety and appeared in Arje Shaw’s Off-Broadway play The Gathering at age 16.
4As
a high school senior, he scuttled his plan to enroll at New York University to accept a role in the indie flick Roger Dodger — but later studied contemporary architecture at The New School. 5Jesse
is proficient in French.
6After
being raised a secular Jew, he had a quickie bar mitzvah while preparing to play a member of the Hasidic community in 2010’s Holy Rollers — but jokes, “I didn’t get any checks from my grandmother.”
7His favorite movie is Woody Allen’s 1989 comedy-drama Crimes and Misdemeanors.
8He
has fostered abandoned cats while they wait to be adopted into forever homes.
9He
is a fan of the Indiana Pacers NBA team.
10The occasional playwright runs the word game website OneUpMe.