Jesse Eisenberg Talks His Busy Schedule and New Film 'Cafe Society'
Eisenberg stars in the new Woody Allen movie.
— -- You might say that Jesse Eisenberg is a workaholic.
“If I don’t have about 10 things on the stove, then I’m worried that nine of them might not happen,” Eisenberg told ABC News in an interview with correspondent Alex Marquardt.
Eisenberg has a busy and varied career as an actor, playwright, author and comedian. Best known for roles such as Mark Zuckerberg in “The Social Network” and Lex Luthor in “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” he has also written numerous short stories and four plays.
The American actor is in London because of his play “The Spoils,” which is enjoying its second run at Trafalgar Studios.
“I wrote it based on a fictionalized version of a relationship I have with a young man in Nepal," Eisenberg said. It touches on issues of race, immigration and xenophobia, all through the lens of comedy. During the interview, Eisenberg also casually mentioned the 6,000-word essay he had written that morning for Tablet magazine.
Growing up in a Jewish family in New York and having studied anthropology in college triggered Eisenberg’s interest in the mixing of cultures. “I associate myself with the plight of immigrants in a country that was not necessarily thrilled to have them,” Eisenberg said.
It was partly this interest that led Eisenberg to take part in “Café Society,” directed by Woody Allen. The movie opened this year’s Cannes Film Festival and is about the experiences of the Jewish diaspora in 1930s New York City.
Eisenberg says he greatly admires Allen for his work ethic. “I’ve never met somebody who dwells less on themselves and more on their work. I’m in an industry that by virtue of there being some kind of vanity attached to the whole thing people become kind of solipsistic, and he seems to do the opposite.”
Eisenberg describes the movie as “colorful, extravagant, beautiful, funny,” a combination of “sweet romance” and an “important, interesting anthropological document.”
“Café Society” is set for a limited release in the U.S. on July 15, going into wide release July 29. “The Spoils” plays at Trafalgar Studio 1 until Aug. 13.