Movies.com: Woody gets elliptical in this movie, bringing back the “ozymandias melancholia” phrase that he used in Stardust Memories – is there anything you do to ensure you don’t come down with a permanent case of that, as an artist?

Eisenberg: Yeah, it’s strange – it always feels a little Faustian, going to some of these events and parties, because it feels you must be testing fate – like you’re going to get into a car accident on the way home from them, or something. Because it just feels, like, creepily exciting. But it’s probably best to suffer in some way, at least to compensate for the good things that occur. So I don’t know if that means getting a cat that you’re allergic to, or something – just to make yourself aware that there’s still suffering and asphyxiation to be had.

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At the Paris Theatre screening, Greta Gerwig said that meals on Italian film sets do not consist of regular craft-services fare. “First of all, I ate so much pasta. I was so lucky, all the costumes were big and flowy,” she said. “And also, we had these three-hour lunch breaks. I’m not kidding, me, Jesse, Ellen [Page], and our driver, Spartacus, would go in the Italian countryside to eat pasta and drink wine, in the middle of a shoot day! And that was totally normal. It was the most amazing thing.”

Gerwig also said that in their downtime, Eisenberg had difficulty going incognito around Rome. “Our first couple days we didn’t have a lot to do, so we went to the Coliseum, and we stuck out because everybody recognized Jesse,” she said, laughing. “So that was its own level of, like, not only are you an American, but there’s this other level.”  

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• MOVIEFONE: What does a Woody Allen script look like?
• JESSE: I’ve heard the stories about being on-set and him telling the actors to say whatever you want and don’t worry about the script. But at the same time, his dialogue is so famous and specific and original and unique to him… and obviously his prose is so wonderful as well. I was curious to see how it looks and it looked a lot more normal than I expected. It looked kind of just like a normal script. But I guess because the movie scripts, in his case, are not a blueprint for investors, he can get away with saying things like, "They go to a beautiful site and there’s a beautiful shot of Rome." Whereas scripts that [are] blueprint[s] for investors have to say things like, "The sexiest woman in the world comes out and sleeps with this average man," so the audience can live vicariously through him.

• MOVIEFONE: I always took you for more of a young Woody, rather than a young Baldwin...
• JESSE: Yeah, but I guess... Having not seen it, I don’t know if it plays like [Alec Baldwin] is my conscious or if it plays as though he’s just a guy, because, you know, it takes place both in the same time period. So, I don’t know. I can’t really figure out what the myth of our storyline was. I think it was kind of supposed to be vague, and so I don’t really look at [Alec] as my future -- although, I’ve told my girlfriend that it’s a very authentic replication of what’s to come.

• MOVIEFONE: You seem sort of like minded -- I know you aren’t terribly interested in pop culture, and I don’t think he is either -- were you trying to befriend him?
• JESSE: No, because... I think it would feel too forced. I’ve idolized him since I was very young and now I’m working for him so it feels a little gross to force a relationship or something and really the most exciting thing was just to be in the same room and just to hear him speak. My friend said, "It’s like going to a concert of your favorite band"... I didn’t assume he’s looking for a new best friend and I’m trying to fill the void. That said, since the movie has come out, and we’ve done press things together, I’ve gotten to go out to dinner with him a few times and he’s invited me to his shows on Monday night in New York, so we got to go see him and eat with him and I’ve now gotten to know him... To me, I don’t really like to socialize too much because it takes me out of the movie circumstances of it. But, anyway, I guess this was doubly intimidating.

• MOVIEFONE: Still, filming “To Rome With Love” with Woody Allen, Alec Baldwin, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page -- in Italy -- sounds like a dream. Did you ever stop and think, "This is really amazing"?
• JESSE: Yeah. Every single day. We couldn’t stop laughing. It felt rude to smile like an idiot every time Woody Allen would speak to us because it was just a shocking experience to be in the same room. Luckily, we all kind of felt it, so it felt like we could at least commiserate with feeling so uncomfortable and it was great... I imagine that’s what it must be like for anybody who goes onto a set of his. I mean, it’s impossible to be in this business and not in some way idolize him. So, yeah, it was like, every day -- really thrilling.