Yahoo Lifestyle Jesse Eisenberg Says ‘I Was So Poorly Received’ as Lex Luthor That ‘It Actually Hurt My Career in a Real Way’ and It’s ‘Embarrassing to Admit’
The teaser trailer for James Gunn’s “Superman” brought with it the first footage of Nicholas Hoult as the villainous Lex Luthor, a role Oscar nominee Jesse Eisenberg knows well having played the infamous DC comics bad guy in Zack Snyder’s 2016 tentpole “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” In a recent interview on the “Armchair Expert” podcast (via The Playlist), the actor opened up about the downside of his short-lived tenure as Lex Luthor.
“I was in this Batman movie and the Batman movie was so poorly received, and I was so poorly received,” Eisenberg said. “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.”
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“I’ve been in poorly received things that just don’t see the light of day, and for the most part, no one knows,” he added. “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.”
While “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” grossed a mighty $874 million at the worldwide box office, it was ripped to shreds by film critics and not especially loved by comic book movie fans either. The film’s negative public reception was the beginning of the end for Zack Snyder’s DC Universe, which flatlined in 2017 with the flop that was “Justice League.”
Eisenberg told Variety earlier this year that he enjoyed playing Lex Luthor because “whenever you play a role you feel connected to it,” adding: “There’s no way around it. Any time you do anything, even if it’s a movie that’s a Hollywood kind of thing, you connect.”
When asked if he had any advice for Hoult about playing the Superman villain role, Eisenberg quipped: “Don’t watch me!”
Hoult has said in past interviews that the “All-Star Superman” comic book served as his inspiration for Lex Luthor, explaining: “I have been working out. There’s that bit in ‘All-Star Superman’ where he talks about his muscles being real and hard work and all that,” Hoult said. “I kind of took that as a little bit of a fuel for the fire.”
Comic book movie fans can check out Hoult’s interpretation of Lex Luthor when Gunn’s “Superman” opens in theaters July 11 from Warner Bros.
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