Jesse Eisenberg Used to Have “a Negative Opinion” of Acting: “They Pay Us Too Much, We’re Vain”

Everything changed when he saw Julianne Moore rehearsing for a scene in his directorial debut 'When You Finish Saving the World': "I remember looking at [the monitor], and I go, 'Oh, wait a second, that's really hard.'" Jesse Eisenberg at the San Sebastian Film Festival discussed 'The Debut' and not returning to 'The Social Reckoning' as Mark Zuckerberg. Jesse Eisenberg regaled a room of journalists with brilliant — but slightly tragic — tidbits from his childhood and career while discussing his latest feature, The Debut. Julianne Moore, Paul Giamatti, Halle Bailey, Havana Rose Liu, Bernadette Peters, Colton Ryan, Lilli Cooper, Maulik Pancholy and Bonnie Milligan join Eisenberg in The Debut, following a shy woman (Moore) who is unexpectedly cast in a local production of an original musical.

Under the spell of the strong-willed and enigmatic director (Giamatti), she loses herself in the role and the high-stakes world of this community theatre production. The film is premiering at the San Sebastian Film Festival, where an extremely polite Eisenberg (“thank you so much,” he said after each question) appeared for a press conference on Wednesday. The actor-writer-director, whose last film A Real Pain was nominated for multiple Oscars, said The Debut is partially autobiographical as it pulls on his own experience joining community theater. “The movie takes place in 1990 in central