screening
Close-Up: Jesse Eisenberg
Alternative Press - John Millin on 7/27/09 @ 4:27 PM - altpress.com
Do you have any fond or not-so-fond amusement park memories from your childhood? Like throwing up on a ride or winning a Def Leppard coke mirror?
[Laughs.] I guess I was just always frightened by the whole thing. Besides getting your body jerked around on the rides, you have to wait in line to get your body jerked around. The culture of theme parks was really accurately portrayed in Adventureland in that it's like the DMV or something. It's just a strange group of people, and then there's this weird competitiveness. Like that scene in the movie where these guys pull a knife on me so I'll give them a stuffed panda bear. [Laughs.] You don't see these people acting this way in regular society-only at amusement parks.
In one scene, your character refers to himself as a "carny," which is both funny and accurate. But it seems like that connection between amusement parks and scam artists has been lost in the public consciousness somehow.
Yeah, the crass consumerism, the fried food... There's not one redeeming thing about it, but you're supposed to enjoy yourself. But if you're not a person who can experience joy, it's a terrible thing.
Do you consider yourself one of those people?
Yeah. If I'm supposed to feel joy, I instinctively feel the opposite.
Being that Adventureland is about a guy with a shitty job, we feel compelled to ask about the shittiest job you've ever had.
We had to do publicity for the movie at Sundance [Film Festival in Park City, Utah], and I realized that this was a question that would come up. But I don't have any good anecdotes. I got into a movie [Roger Dodger] when I was 18 years old, which was an awesome movie, so I haven't had to work for money since then. I interned somewhere when I was 20 and that wasn't great, but other than that my bad jobs are un-relatable. They're, like, feeling out of place on a movie set-and you can't say that to anyone normal because they'll think you're a pretentious asshole. All the bad jobs I had were community theater related. [Laughs.] But I really should come up with something because we have a press junket coming up.
You should say you were an arms dealer in high school or something.
[Laughs.] Yeah, and then you'll come out with the hard-hitting true story.
How much do you have in common with your character in Adventureland?
Oh, so much. He's a little more green socially, I think-not that I'm a social dynamo-but in terms of the way the character is portrayed, I feel a lot closer to him than my character in The Squid And The Whale. When I met [director] Greg Mottola, everything became clear about who the character was because it's an autobiographical film for him. When I read the script, I had a sense of who Greg might be, but meeting him was maybe like meeting my character in the movie. He's earnest to the point of it being unnecessary. It's almost in excess-no one expects that level of earnestness, nor is it required for a given situation. But it's of course sincere. So I do feel similar, and for that reason it was almost a difficult movie to do. For instance, I finished a movie [Holy Rollers] two weeks ago in New York City where I play a Hasidic Jewish drug dealer, and it was almost such a relief because you're creating this other thing. In Adventureland, because the character felt close to me personally, I was that much more aware of something not being right or a scene not working exactly.
You're shooting Zombieland right now. Are you a zombie-movie fan?
No. Before this, I didn't realize there was such a big genre of zombie movies. Not to sound naïve-I know there are zombie movies-I just didn't realize there were so many of them.
So what drew you to the movie?
The script is fantastic. Of course the premise is silly-there's no way to describe it without sounding silly-but the script is great. It's really wonderful and unique, and the characters are fantastic. Woody Harrelson is in it, and the director agreed to become a vegetarian for the duration of the shoot because Woody Harrelson is vegan. The set is pretty eco-friendly, actually. We recycle a lot onset, which is good, because movies are a very wasteful industry.
Fred Durst directed you in The Education Of Charlie Banks. What was that like?
He was a great director, and he had a really good sense of music for the movie. He didn't write the music himself, but he picked some really interesting songs, not pop songs. He really wanted to separate from his music career when he was doing the movie, but I didn't know anything about his music anyway, and he never talked about it. The only time I would hear about it was when I would tell someone who I was working with. I hope it comes out, though-it's been in purgatory for, like, two-and-a-half years.
You have make-out scenes with Kristen Stewart and Margarita Levieva in Adventureland. Was that awkward at all?
Yeah, a little bit. I think Kristen had the same experience as me, because her character was cheating on my character in the movie, and then I cheat on her. We're not sociopaths or anything, but you invest in the character and you feel a little guilty when you're [doing the cheating scenes]. But also Kristen was very young when we were doing that movie-she's still young-and it's always uncomfortable to meet someone and then kiss them the next day at a bar. My girlfriend saw the movie and said, "I didn't know you had to kiss so much." [Laughs.] That's not something you report back home.
THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE
When it comes to popular music, Jesse Eisenberg is as exclusive as he is thorough. "I like one band-Ween-and I have all their CDs," the New York City native tells AP. "Quebec might be my favorite, but I like their latest one, La Cucaracha, as well. A lot of people don't like their newer stuff, but I actually prefer it."
As it turns out, Eisenberg's listening habits revolve mostly around National Public Radio, books on tape and musicals. In fact, he recently wrote his own musical, entitled Me Time. "We did a workshop on it in New York recently, so we're in the early stages of producing it," he enthuses. "It's about the most selfish woman in the world, who gets divorced, takes time for herself and neglects her son. It's a satire on modern self-indulgence."
The actor's rock concert experience is even more limited than his CD collection. "I've been to three concerts, but two were accidental," he explains. "I was in California doing a play, like, two years ago, and somebody had an extra ticket to the Dave Matthews Band concert at some huge place. I couldn't really see the band, and I don't know them at all. And then another time in New York City, someone had an extra ticket to U2, but it was the same thing-we were far away. And then I saw Ween in 2007 at this little place on the west side in New York City, and that was awesome."
INTERVIEW: J. Bennett
PHOTO: Gage Young
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