Jesse Eisenberg
Jesse Adam Eisenberg (/ˈaɪzənbɜːrɡ/ EYE-zən-burg; born October 5, 1983[1]) is an American actor. He has received numerous accolades, including nominations for an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards, and a Golden Globe Award.
Jesse Eisenberg
October 5, 1983
- Actor
- writer
- director
1996–present
1
Hallie Eisenberg (sister)
Eisenberg made his television debut with the short-lived comedy-drama series Get Real (1999–2000). Following his first leading role in the film Roger Dodger (2002), he appeared in the films The Village (2004) and The Squid and the Whale (2005) and led the 2009 comedies Adventureland and Zombieland. He gained wider recognition for starring as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in David Fincher's film The Social Network (2010), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Eisenberg has since starred in the Woody Allen films To Rome with Love (2012) and Café Society (2016), the heist films Now You See Me (2013), its 2016 sequel and the drama The Double (2013). In 2016, he portrayed Lex Luthor in the superhero film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. He also voiced Blu in the animated films Rio (2011) and Rio 2 (2014). In 2022, he starred in the FX / Hulu miniseries Fleishman Is in Trouble and made his film directorial debut with the black comedy When You Finish Saving the World.
Eisenberg has contributed pieces to The New Yorker and McSweeney's websites. He has written and starred in three plays for the New York stage: Asuncion, The Revisionist, and The Spoils. He released his first book, Bream Gives Me Hiccups: and Other Stories in 2015.[2]
Career[edit]
1999–2008: Early work[edit]
Eisenberg made his television debut in the series Get Real, from 1999 to 2000. In 2001, he appeared in a UK Dr Pepper commercial as "Butt Naked Boy".[36] After appearing in the made-for-television film Lightning: Fire from the Sky at 18, he starred in the independent film Roger Dodger (for which he won an award at the San Diego Film Festival for Most Promising New Actor), and in The Emperor's Club, both of which were released in 2002 to generally positive reviews. Eisenberg was sick for the majority of the nightclub scene and can be seen sweating in different shots.[37]
In 2005, Eisenberg appeared in Cursed, a horror film directed by Wes Craven, and The Squid and the Whale, a well-reviewed independent drama starring Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels.[25] In 2007, he starred opposite Richard Gere and Terrence Howard in The Hunting Party, a comic thriller in which he plays an American journalist reporting from Bosnia and was also cast in the indie comic-drama Holy Rollers alongside his sister, Hallie Eisenberg, who played his fictional sister in the film. He played a young Hasidic Jew who becomes involved in the ecstasy smuggling trade, using his religion as a disguise to deal without suspicion. Filming took place in New York in 2008.[38] In 2009, Eisenberg played the lead role alongside Kristen Stewart which would be the first of many collaborations between them in Adventureland, a comedy directed by Greg Mottola and filmed in Kennywood Park, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Filming wrapped in October 2007,[39] and the film had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009. During the late 2000s, he also had roles in the independent films Solitary Man, playing college student Daniel, and Camp Hell, a horror film directed by George Van Buskirk.[40][41]
Personal life[edit]
Eisenberg dated Anna Strout from 2002 to 2012 after they met on the set of The Emperor's Club,[115] where she worked as an assistant to Lisa Bruce.[116] He then dated Mia Wasikowska, his co-star in The Double, from 2013 to 2015.[117] He later resumed his relationship with Strout,[118] and they married in 2017.[119][120][121] Their son, Banner, was born in April 2017.[122] Eisenberg lived in New York City with his younger sister Hallie and her boyfriend, singer-songwriter Owen Danoff,[123][124] until June 2016, when Hallie and Danoff moved to Nashville, Tennessee.[125]
Eisenberg had enjoyed playing the drums since he was eight years old.[37] His favorite band is Ween.[126]
In 2007, Eisenberg started an online wordplay website with his cousin, a social design evangelist at Facebook, called OneUpMe. They re-launched the site in 2010, instead exclusively formatted for Facebook users.[127][128] Despite portraying Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in one of his most prominent film roles, Eisenberg does not use social media and said in 2016, "I'm terrified of that stuff. I live inside a bubble on purpose."[7] When asked if he used Facebook to prepare for his role as Zuckerberg, he said that he "signed on for, like, 20 seconds one time".[7]
Eisenberg is an alumnus of the Bloomington Playwrights Project,[129] and has become deeply involved with the city of Bloomington, Indiana, showing support for Indiana University Bloomington and donating thousands of dollars to Bloomington's Middle Way House.[130] He lived in the city at one point during the COVID-19 pandemic.[131] He is a fan of the Indiana Pacers basketball team.[132] For an article he wrote for InStyle magazine, he played a game of one-on-one with an Indiana University MVP point guard.[133] He is also a long-time fan of the Indy Thunder beep baseball team and its founder Darnell Booker.[134]
Charity work and other interests[edit]
Eisenberg collaborated with Child Mind Institute in their #MyYoungerSelf project, where "each day in May a prominent individual will speak to his or her younger self about growing up with a mental health or learning disorder." In a video published on May 2, he spoke about his OCD and anxiety growing up.[135] Eisenberg is fond of cats and has been involved in fostering animals.[136] He has been associated with Farm Sanctuary and has presented at several of their galas.[137] In 2015 he stated, "I'm like 95% vegetarian."[138]
In September 2015, Eisenberg announced that from November, he would match donations made to Middle Way House, a domestic violence shelter in Bloomington, Indiana, up to $100,000 until April 3, 2016. All contributions made went towards the organization's mortgage payment fund that was matched by a committee, led by Eisenberg.[139] "It's an incredible collective," Eisenberg told a reporter. "It's the kind of place where the residents go through their wonderful program and end up working there. It's saved so many lives."[140] In an interview with Variety in March 2018, Eisenberg stated that he has raised almost $1 million for the shelter.[97]
Eisenberg is a cast member with Theater of War, a performing arts non-profit that presents readings of Sophocles's Ajax and Philoctetes to military and civilian communities across the United States and Europe.[141] "As an actor, sometimes you feel limited by the role you're in; stories without much meaning. [Theatre of War] allows you do something that has more substance and benefits people ... It's a greater purpose than just entertainment," Eisenberg said of the organization.[142]
Eisenberg also works in performing for Voices of a People's History of the United States, which is an organization that works to "encourage civic engagement and to further history education by bringing the rich history of the United States to life through public readings of primary source materials."[143] He read Howard Zinn's "The Problem is Civil Obedience" (1970) for Voices of a People's History as part of "NYU Portraits" 2011 event.[144] Eisenberg is involved with Keep America Beautiful, which "[engages] individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community environments,"[145] as well as Shoe Revolt, a "hybrid start-up company that auctions celeb shoes to raise funds to deploy a social franchising model which aims to educate, engage, and empower youth to take the lead in the fight against domestic sex trafficking through peer-to-peer involvement, training, activism and social enterprise development."[146]
On September 12, 2016, Eisenberg, Cate Blanchett, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Peter Capaldi, Douglas Booth, Neil Gaiman, Keira Knightley, Juliet Stevenson, Kit Harington, and Stanley Tucci were featured in a video from the United Nations' refugee agency UNHCR to help raise awareness about the global refugee crisis. The video, titled "What They Took With Them", has the actors reading a poem, written by Jenifer Toksvig and inspired by primary accounts of refugees, and is part of UNHCR's #WithRefugees campaign, which also includes a petition to governments to expand asylum to provide further shelter, integrating job opportunities, and education.[147][148]
Eisenberg participated in the inaugural "The 24 Hour Musicals: Los Angeles" on July 17, 2017, at the United Artists Theater, Ace Hotel.[121][149] He composed the music and co-wrote, alongside his writing partner, Elizabeth Meriweather, Shoshana and Her Lovers, a musical about four lesbian sisters. The event proceeds went to the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund, a "nonprofit arm of the Dramatists Guild of America which advocates for the freedom of expression and advocates on behalf of all who are confronting censorship on stages across America."[150] He previously acted in 24 Hour Plays: On Broadway 2011 and 2015, both times for New York's Urban Arts Partnership.[151] He was a special guest at the 2011 Urban Arts Partnership Prom, and was an Honorary Chair on the organisation's 25th Anniversary Gala Benefit Committee.[152][153] On March 29, Urban Arts Partnership announced Eisenberg as a special guest for its 2018 gala AmplifiED, dedicated to New Yorkers fighting inequality in public education.[154]
Eisenberg was among a small group of actors and musicians who performed at The People's Summit 2017 in June, "a three-day conference of 4,000 left-wing activists and progressive political groups", as part of an adaptation of Howard Zinn's Voices of a People's History of the United States''. The production, titled "The People Speak", was performed after Senator Bernie Sanders's keynote address. Eisenberg was cast by brother-in-law Anthony Arnove, who along with Zinn edited Voices of a People's History of the United States.[155]
Eisenberg spoke at a rally in support of Democratic Illinois gubernatorial candidate Daniel Biss on March 10, 2018, as well as at a meet and greet hosted by Reclaim Chicago and University of Chicago Student Action the day before, alongside State Representative Will Guzzardi.[156] He filmed two videos for the campaign, one for Biss's Facebook account and one for the Biss For Illinois YouTube platform.[157][158]