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Jesse Eisenberg says he turned to directing to “keep [his] career afloat” after earning a Razzie for his performance in “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.”
The actor-turned-filmmaker won the Razzie for worst supporting actor in 2017 for his role as Lex Luthor in the 2016 superhero film, directed by Zack Snyder and starring Ben Affleck as Batman as well as Henry Cavill as Superman.
Speaking at the BFI London Film Festival on Sunday, Eisenberg, 43, said he shifted his focus away from acting after winning the award, per Variety.
“Listen, a lot of it just came from fear,” he said. “I couldn’t get into movie studio parts anymore because I had won a Raspberry Award from [being in the] ‘Batman’ movie … and I saw the trajectory.”
He went on to explain that actors are “constantly panicked about, am I on an upslope or a downslope?”
“Because there’s no plateau. Acting is just this unstable, awful industry where you are either on the treadmill and you’re doing OK and you’re running up, or you are yesterday’s news, and it’s awful,” Eisenberg continued. “And if you’re a paranoid person like me, you see it way in advance.”
“So I was like, I’ve got to direct movies. That’s why I started writing them, just to kind of keep my career afloat, really.”
The “Social Network” star is currently promoting his latest film as a director, A24’s musical comedy “The Debut,” starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti.
“Batman v Superman” led the 2017 Razzie nominations, later taking home awards for worst screenplay, worst sequel and worst screen combo.
Eisenberg said at the LFF that he took the awards as a sign that the industry “did not want [him] to be in a superhero movie.”
“The industry tells you what they want from you,” he continued. “And if you’re smart and self-aware, you learn that quickly.”
“And you know, it’s the unsuccessful actor that goes, ‘No, I want to be in more of those,'” he added. “It’s not going to happen, and they don’t want you there. And they wouldn’t have given you a Raspberry Award if they wanted you there. That’s an award for bad acting.”
“And so the industry tells you what it wants, and if you want a career in the arts, you have to follow the things that you’re being told are liked.”
Still, Eisenberg would go on to appear in “Now You See Me 2,” “Zombieland: Double Tap” and, notably, “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” before making his directorial debut with “When You Finish Saving the World.”
His second film as a director, 2024’s “A Real Pain” — which he also co-starred in alongside Kieran Culkin — earned Eisenberg an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay.
Eisenberg previously told Page Six that he felt like a “hack” after Culkin, 44, questioned his direction on the film.
“I felt immediately embarrassed,” he said in part. “I always just kind of try to consider the behavior that I can change, which is my own, and I was thinking, yeah, I’m probably in the wrong here.”