December 2011
46 posts
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“When I was searching for actors I was watching the reels of a lot of actresses,...”
– Jesse Eisenberg on casting Camille Mana in Asuncion
November 2011
45 posts
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MOLLY: [clue for "wedgie"] Your underwear is stuck in your buttcrack!
JESSE EISENBERG: Okay, now give me the clue.
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JESSE EISENBERG: It must be thrilling to do something different every night; we're trying to perfect one thing every night, and so it's a little stressful in that way.
JIMMY FALLON: How long do you do this for?
JESSE EISENBERG: We have another three weeks [of Asuncion].So it will be a total of two and a half months of shows.
JIMMY FALLON: Do you know how many actual shows that is?
JESSE EISENBERG: Yeah, about like, 70 shows.
JIMMY FALLON: 70 times you have to do the same dialogue, the same character, same thing and try not to go nuts and act like it's your first time doing it.
JESSE EISENBERG: There's somebody in the show "Cats" that did it for like 13 years or something, so every time I think I'm going crazy I think 'oh they must really go crazy because they're playing a cat, you know, I'm playing a person.'
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INTERVIEWER: There was also an interest [growing up] in architecture.
JESSE: In arch--sure. I mean I--well, I live in a building, but I took one architecture course one time.
INTERVIEWER: People make a big thing about the fact that you took an architecture course.
JESSE: Sure, it's a huge deal all over the internet. No, I don't know where that came from--my degree in school is anthropology, which maybe was a typo or something. But I do appreciate structures...and take shelter in one.
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INTERVIEWER: Jesse, in the past, people in New York theater brought their skills to Hollywood; recently we've seen kind of a reversal of that... Is that just a coincidence?
JESSE: No, we're taking our Hollywood skills to New York theater, so there's a lot of explosions on stage now--off Broadway--and, uh, nudity.
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“It—it’s not that I’m not nice. It’s just that I read so much into every...”
– Jesse Eisenberg, 7x7 San Francisco, August 14, 2011 (via vcamarillo)
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“There is some smart, funny writing here as well as fresh observations on racial...”
– Olivia Jane Smith on “Asuncion” by Jesse Eisenberg
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INTERVIEWER: And why are you not on Facebook?
JESSE: I'm not on Facebook because I do something that's occasionally very public--like this movie, like other movies--and people write about me on the internet already, and it's mortifying to me that people that I don't know or haven't met are writing about me online and I don't want to contribute to that, I guess.
INTERVIEWER: You've presumably seen the film [The Social Network], I mean, do you watch films that you're in?
JESSE: Yeah, I usually see a movie I've been in once. You know, a lot of times because you're kind of forced to watch it; it'd be inappropriate to leave. It's uncomfortable for me to see it because--well, primarily because it's strange to see your face from a different angle because you're so used to looking in a mirror then you see your face from a different angle because the camera is not always directly on you...and it's just a little bit jarring?
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“That feeling – of deification and then demystification – is timeless. The joy of...”
– Jesse Eisenberg (source)
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“No compliment is ever sufficient and every insult, of course, is true.”
– Jesse Eisenberg (via polihaslanded)
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“But don’t you think that’s a good thing – saying less? Don’t you think it’s...”
– Jesse Eisenberg on his candour (via andafterallimonlysleeping)
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“But it’s occurred to me that with technology everybody takes a picture on their...”
– Jesse Eisenberg (via bullfacedluck)
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INTERVIEWER: In the DVD commentary, you talk about doing a running scene when you had a pill stuck in your throat.
JESSE EISENBERG: That’s true. I swallowed several pills without water, and then I had to run through the snow. Yeah. Whoa. I should not have said that, probably. (Laughs)
INTERVIEWER: Are you sorry you told the story?
EISENBERG: Uh … No, I guess it’s probably OK. It’s just that I talked about putting an anti-depressant inside an herbal remedy pill. I don’t want to take pills, but I was taking an anti-depressant. And I was too nervous to ask anybody for water, because it was the first day of the shoot. And then after that I asked people for so many things, because I was throwing up and had to shoot more.
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Jesse Eisenberg, Camille Mana and Justin Bartha...
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“I have had friends who I… kind of idolized in a way that might not be...”
– Jesse Eisenberg on potential mentors in his life (The GreenCine Daily Podcast, May 2010)
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“I think there’s two things that account for it’s mainstream success...”
– Jesse Eisenberg on The Social Network
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INTERVIEWER: And what would you tell your former self?
JESSE EISENBERG: You know, don't worry so much. At all times and still today I'm so fearful that everything is going to fall apart and I'm never going to work again, never going to be involved with anything I like again. And if I could go back, I'd say 'don't worry so much. It's going to ebb and flow but there will be moments of flow.'
INTERVIEWER: I think that's good advice because as artists, we're always so critical of ourselves.
JESSE EISENBERG: Yeah, but the people that don't worry I'd say, 'worry more!' because it's very hard and competitive and if you're so relaxed about it and think that the world is going to come to you, it's not going to. So I would tell half the people to worry a little bit more and the other people--like me--don't take so much medicine.
INTERVIEWER: What would you tell yourself, Justin?
JUSTIN BARTHA: In the last year, you said? Because for Jesse that was like ten years ago. What would I tell myself a year ago?
JESSE EISENBERG: Dog years.
JUSTIN BARTHA: I mean, I would--what would I tell myself a year ago... probably don't invest all your money on Blockbuster Videos. I would say that would be the number one thing.
INTERVIEWER: How about your artistic self?
JUSTIN BARTHA: Don't do all those straight-to-Blockbuster Video movies. Because now there's no shelf to put them on.
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“[On Justin and Jesse] I’m sitting in between fear and worry! I think it...”
– Camille Mana; what advice she’d give her former self
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INTERVIEWER: This is your second play, correct?
JESSE: As a writer, I've written other plays. This is the first one actually to be produced and to do an interview on your station for.
INTERVIEWER: Are you working on other writing projects?
JESSE: Yeah, I'd like to. I can write most easily when I'm not being called by anybody to do anything or not being employed as an actor, but I spent the last few months just being steadily employed as an actor, so it's kind of inhibited me in a way writing. And then having the incredible fortune to have this play done with this cast at this theater at this time, um, has in a way been a little bit stifling because I feel so lucky--I feel like I don't have the fire underneath me to do something but I would love to and I just hope it's as wonderful as this experience has been.
INTERVIEWER: Is it possible that it [Asuncion] might go on after the extension?
JESSE: Yeah, we may do a show in--you know, it take place in Binghamton, New York, but because she's a Filipino actress, we were asked to do it in the Philippines. I think we're going to do it probably in 2013. Therefore a short run but it would just be kind of fun--it talks about the Philippines so much so maybe it would be interesting for people to watch. Or maybe they'll burn the theater down half way through the show, but either way there'll be some kind of reaction. With fire.
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INTERVIEWER: Justin, when you read this play that was written for you, did you see or read aspects of yourself in it?
JUSTIN BARTHA: Um, I mean, the character has developed over the years but originally the relationship between the two main characters; there's kind of shadows of Jesse and myself's own relationship that are heightened to great effect within the play. That was the main thing that I saw. That and I have a pretty serious addiction to marijuana.
INTERVIEWER: This is from Edgar: "I should really apologize for our imperialism and our ignorance; I'm embarrassed for my country." Have you met people who are like this in your life?
JUSTIN BARTHA: Uh...yes, yeah. Jesse! [Jesse laughing] The writer of those lines is very much like that.
JESSE EISENBERG: Yeah, I mean I do. When I first started traveling to countries that I felt America has exploited, I would apologize for us. On the one hand, it's coming from a good place which is 'oh, I feel bad that I'm from this place that's a world power that has maybe done some damage in your country--" but on the other hand it's coming from an ignorant place, too, because I'm not taking into account broader context. So it's kind of coming from a good place, but there's something short-sighted about it.
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“We’re talking about the provocative themes of the show and you’re...”
– Justin Bartha on Edgar and Vinny’s relationship in Asuncion
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“i catch him near the DJ booth and i go up to him and say “so have you listened...”
– David Shapiro on Jesse Eisenberg
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VINNY: Let's travel down this garden path for a minute: sex worker might be in our house. Sex worker's duty is to please the man of the house--which in this case is so obviously me--I might think of taking her "skiing".
EDGAR: Vinny, please, she is my brother's wife.
VINNY: And she's staying in my apartment! Quid pro quo!
EDGAR: Vinny, stop it!
VINNY: You might want to hit the slopes yourself.
EDGAR: This is absurd; I can't tell if you're joking!
VINNY: Of course you can't. Me neither.
EDGAR: She is my sister!
VINNY: She's not your sister; you haven't had sex for a year--it's not healthy.
EDGAR: Please stop talking like this, it's disgusting. And it's been more than a year. I haven't masturbated in three months, Vinny. The last time I did it, I did it for five hours. Five hours for one ejaculation. I hated myself for a whole week after that, Vinny, I couldn't even look in a mirror. No, I couldn't look at my naked body so I would get dressed at night in the dark and sleep in my clothes and wear them the next day so I could never see me. My penis was smaller than ever, Vinny. No, it was, like, dried and bagged like NASA ice cream. Like an apricot that occasionally pissed.
VINNY: You should cure yourself by having sex with your sister.
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“It’s hard for me to give you any sort of definitive list since I’m a...”
– Erik Davis, “The Best Celebrities to Meet in Person”
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“Well this is the 10th anniversary of the 24 hour plays but the Urban Arts...”
– Jesse Eisenberg on his involvement with 24 Hour Plays
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INTERVIEWER: You have make-out scenes with Kristen Stewart and Margarita Levieva in Adventureland. Was that awkward at all?
JESSE: 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.
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“I thought that kid f—ing brought it, and I was incredibly thankful to be able to...”
– David Fincher on Jesse Eisenberg
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“This year it seemed to me that the biggest news stories and the biggest shifts...”
– Jesse Eisenberg making his case for ‘populist movements’ for Time Magazine’s 2011 “Person of the Year”
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“We’re both such huge fans of theater and the theater community, and Jesse’s...”
– Justin Bartha on working on Asuncion with Jesse Eisenberg 