Batman v Superman: Jesse Eisenberg Talks Expectations

Batman v Superman’s Jesse Eisenberg isn’t too worried about expectations of his performance

Jesse Esienberg will be the latest actor to take on the role of evil billionaire Lex Luthor, Superman’s mortal enemy, in Batman v Superman. But the Lex Luthor of Batman v Superman is different from previous ones. He’s a more modern kind of business mogul, and one in a darker grittier DC world than has been previously portrayed in Superman films. Jesse Eisenberg talked with Entertainment Weekly about the expectations people have of the role of Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman and how he dealt with that and what Lex Luthor is like in the film.

"Well, I don’t really have to necessarily account for what is expected. When I read the script, I thought, this character is rendered so incredibly well that I just have to do what I know I do well, and it will be a great character because the character is full of interesting, contradictory, realistic elements that make a character wonderful. And as an actor, those are the most comfortable and convenient characters to play. The difficult characters to play are the ones where it doesn’t seem like the character has been rendered realistically or with human feelings behind them. That wasn’t the case with this character.He has a kind of charming public persona, and then a deeply private rage. And this is not only interesting as an actor to play, but I would say more realistic to how extroverted people like this, who are kind of leaders of big organizations, probably feel. You have to kind of put on a public front that appears genial and appears accessible, but you’re likely — if you’re very ambitious — harboring feelings of competitiveness, envy, and all these other things we try to avoid in public. So stuff like that was very interesting as an actor to explore. And then kind of coloring in that framework is somebody who’s also very clever and funny and emotional and vengeful."

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I mean, it’s good to know that Luthor isn’t just a one-dimensional villain, and this will probably be his most nuanced portrayal to date. And while it’s good not to completely bow to expectations, some of those expectations are being true to the core of what makes that character. So hopefully that comes across in Batman v Superman. We’ll find out March 25th.