Jesse Eisenberg Thinks Zack Snyder’s ‘Batman v Superman’ Hurt His Career

Life comes at you fast. Once upon a time, actor Jesse Eisenberg wasn’t known for anything other than his work as a scrawny character in movies like Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale and Greg Motala’s Adventureland. In fact, the biggest cause of concern for him in those days was the accusation that he was the same guy who played Napoleon Dynamite. (“Please Abraham, I’m not the right person” (he recalled praying during one interview, setting off a thousand memes in the process.) And then The Social Network happened, which earned him a Best Actor nomination and ultimately put him on the path to becoming the latest actor to writer/director from this year’s brilliant A Real Pain (which premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival).

But one particularly polarizing role may have caused serious bumps along the way – his role as Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which Eisenberg admits set his career back in a big way. Refreshingly honest comments come from recent podcast appearance on Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard during which Eisenberg addressed his, ah, separable performance as Superman’s nemesis. Reimagined by director Zack Snyder as a tech tycoon with serious daddy issues and a nervous tic, critics and audiences all but rejected this unusually unbridled approach. The scale of the blockbuster meant that all eyes were on it … for better or worse, as Eisenberg explained:

“I was in this Batman movie and the Batman movie was so poorly received and I was so poorly received. I’ve never said this before, and I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I honestly think it hurt my career in a real sense because I was poorly received in something so public, I was in poorly received things that just weren’t see the light, and for the most part, no one. knows But it was so public and I don’t read notices or reviews or the press or anything, so I didn’t know how badly it was received.’

Grandma’s peach tea. All those weird, nervous laughs and neurotic defeats in public. The scene where Lex Luthor’s head was shaved in prison is too serious. And, it must be emphasized, Grandma’s peach tea. These are probably just some of the craziest moments that come to mind when the average person thinks of Jesse Eisenberg in 2016’s Batman v Superman. With everything working against him, it’s not surprising to hear that the actor felt that being associated with the role held him back in some way. But don’t mistake such stark sincerity for regret. As he went on to say, he has no malice towards the film or Zack Snyder:

“I loved my role and I love the movie (…), so I just feel guilty, not like they did me wrong. No, I’m like, “Oh, I guess I did something wrong.” And so it felt like I had to get out again, but I’m always depressed, “Oh, yeah, sure, I had this great opportunity.” it didn’t go well.” Just pessimism.”

Eisenberg has spoken about how much he dislikes the more public aspects of acting in major films, which would seem to make him ill-suited for a role as massive as the cursed Lex Luthor. Still, despite the end result, you have to give credit to Snyder and his creative team: their instinct to turn the supervillain into a whiny tech bro with no social skills or creative flair was spot on. (See: Elon Musk.) The mere execution of it and the lack of fences for its personality traits—not to mention the script it was saddled with—doomed this leaky ship to a watery grave.

in any case, James Gunn’s Superman Movie Trailer Today brought us our first look at our the newest Lex, portrayed by Nicholas Hoult. This reboot will hit theaters on July 11, 2025. Let’s hope things go better here than last time.