Benjamin
Jesse Eisenberg is opening up about his shift to writing and directing movies.
The 43-year-old actor has starred in several movies over the years, but around ten years ago, he started to be shut out of being cast in big studio movies.
While attending a screen talk at the 2026 BFI London Film Festival this weekend, Jesse revealed why this was happening and the one thing that caused it, leading him to start writing and directing films.
Jesse Eisenberg says winning a Razzie haulted his film acting career
Back in 2017, Jesse was awarded Worst Supporting Actor at the Golden Raspberry Awards (the Razzies), for his turn as Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. He then reprised the role in Justice League.
“Listen, a lot of it just came from fear,” he said at the film festival, via Variety. “I couldn’t get into movie studio parts anymore because I had won a Raspberry Award from [being in the] ‘Batman’ movie … and I saw the trajectory.”
“If you’re an actor, you’re constantly panicked about ‘Am I on an upslope or a downslope?’” Jesse continued. “Because there’s no plateau. Acting is just this unstable, awful industry where you are either on the treadmill and you’re doing okay and you’re running up or you are yesterday’s news and it’s awful. And if you’re a paranoid person like me, you see it way in advance.”
“So I was like, I’ve got to direct movies. That’s why I started writing them, just to kind of keep my career afloat, really.”
At his BFI London Film Festival talk, the actor/director shared what he took from that whole situation – no more superhero movies.
“The industry tells you what they want from you,” he shared. “The industry did not want me to be in a superhero movie, and if you’re smart and self-aware, you learn that quickly. And you know, it’s the unsuccessful actor that goes ‘No, I want to be in more of those.’ It’s not going to happen and they don’t want you there and they wouldn’t have given you a Raspberry Award if they wanted you there. That’s an award for bad acting. And so the industry tells you what it wants and if you want a career in the arts you have to follow the things that you’re being told are liked.”
If you missed it, director Aaron Sorkin recently explained trying to get Jesse to reprise his Mark Zuckerberg role for The Social Reckoning.
On Sunday (October 18), Jesse walked the red carpet at the 2026 BFI London Film Festival closing night gala premiere of his new movie The Debut, which he wrote, directed and stars in. He was joined by co-star Julianne Moore.
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