Jesse Eisenberg has spent decades successfully honing his skills as an actor and a writer. He received an Academy Award nomination for his disaffected portrayal of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, and has appeared in plenty more acclaimed films including The Squid and The Whale, Zombieland. As a writer, he’s contributed humorous essays to The New Yorker, penned several plays, and published the short story collection Bream Gives Me Hiccups & Other Stories.
His first film as director is 2022’s When You Finish Saving the World, and his latest is A Real Pain in which Eisenberg also stars alongside Kieran Culkin. The new film’s premise is simple enough on paper as it follows two cousins touring Poland in honor of their late grandmother. But as the title suggests, there are layers. Eisenberg tells The Treatment about the upside of directing and starring in the film, how easy it was to work with Culkin, and why he cast his own son.
Elvis Mitchell and Jesse Eisenberg at KCRW.