Jesse Eisenberg Thinks Playing Lex Luthor “Hurt My Career”

deadline.com:

As Nicholas Hoult‘s Lex Luthor is revealed in the first teaser for James Gunn‘s Superman, Jesse Eisenberg is lamenting his own stint as the supervillain.

The Oscar nominee recently reflected on his “poorly received” turn as Lex in Zack Snyder‘s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Justice League (2017), explaining how it “hurt” his career. “I was in this Batman movie and the Batman movie was so poorly received, and I was so poorly received,” he said on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast. “I’ve never said this before and it’s kind of embarrassing to admit, but I genuinely think it actually hurt my career in a real way, because I was poorly received in something so public.” Although Batman v.

Superman flopped among critics with a 29% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, it soared at the box office with a $874 million global haul.

Justice League continued the streak with a slightly better Tomatometer rating at 39% and $661 million worldwide. “I’ve been in poorly received things that just don’t see the light of day, and for the most part, no one knows,” explained Eisenberg. “But this was so public, and I don’t read notices or reviews or movie press or anything, so I was unaware of how poorly it was received.” Regardless of the DC movies’ impact on his career, Eisenberg appears to have bounced back, recently securing two Golden Globe nominations for his film A Real Pain, including Best Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy and Best Screenplay.