Jesse Eisenberg, aka Facebook guru Mark Zuckerberg in the Aaron Sorkin-scripted and David Fincher-directed The Social Network, stopped by the NY Film Festival, where the film got the nod as the Opening Night Feature. Strictly offline and out of character for a little press interrogation, the quickly diversifying actor was up to mulling a bit over everything from coming clean about not being one of the 500 million on Facebook at first to showing some love for characters that have been seen by some as total assholes.
Q: Are you addicted to Facebook in the real world?
JESSE EISENBERG: I signed up for Facebook the first day of rehearsal so I could understand what my character was talking about!
Click here to view photos from The Social Network
Q: What are some of the challenges of playing guys that lots of people think are assholes?
JE: Well, it’s impossible to play a role and look at it the way you do, or objectively at all, because my main responsibility was not only to understand where my character was coming from, but to be able to defend all of his positions and his behavior and ultimately sympathize with him. Over the course of the movie—and now—I’ve developed an even greater affection for my character. You have no choice. I mean, it’s impossible to disagree with a character! You’re shooting over months and for very long days, so you’re spending a lot of time working hard to defend your character’s behavior. Even if the character is acting in a way that hurts other characters, you still have to understand all of that behavior. It’s just impossible to play it any other way.
Q: Was there something about Zuckerberg that got you hooked on this movie?
JE: I auditioned for the movie prior to looking up Mark Zuckerberg online.
Q: Well, you seemed to nail him pretty good anyway.
JE: I didn’t know what he looked like and I never heard him speak. But in order to feel more prepared and know who this guy was, I got my hands on every interview, and watched every video that was online. This is not so much a movie about Facebook, in the same way that this is not a traditional biopic, where I’m trying to do an imitation of him. I was really just focused on playing the director’s idea of Mark Zuckerberg.
Q: Were you trying to play Zuckerberg as Asperger Syndrome afflicted?
JE: Well yeah, there’s a certain kind of disengagement that you see. But frankly, it’s not unlike some of the disengagement I do during these interviews, because they can be incredibly uncomfortable! So to attribute his behavior to some kind of extreme diagnosis doesn’t feel right to me. There was this quality I wanted to bring out. You know, this difficulty connecting with others. Of course, that would make his invention so much more ironic—you know, that he created something that connects everybody else and feels perfectly comfortable in the environment of Facebook. Even though he may seem enigmatic and detached, there was still something beneath that. He’s created something out of nothing and is a billionaire, but still feels alone. So even though it may seem mysterious, it’s coming from a real place. But yeah, it was certainly something that we wanted to bring out. And it makes the character far more interesting to play, that he has trouble connecting with others. But I certainly don’t want to diagnose him!
