When casting the net in search of inspiration for a challenging, multi-faceted role, actors often cite a variety of sources as inspiration – be it past interpretations of a character or a particular performance. For Jesse Eisenberg, he’s on the verge of taking on a crucial role in Zack Snyder’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, and from the trailers released thus far and the unofficial plot synopsis that debuted yesterday, we know that he’ll be stirring the tension between the Last Son of Krypton and the Caped Crusader.
But how did Eisenberg prepare for the role? Well, according to the man himself, The Social Network star channeled his own personality for the part, as he moulded his own individual interpretation of the famed supervillain.
[zerg]It’s fair to say that the casting of Eisenberg proved polarizing amongst the DC faithful, through slowly but surely the actor is beginning to win over many naysayers with his comments relating to the role of Lex Luthor.
Here, in an interview with The Diane Rehm Show, Eisenberg went into detail about the nuances of the part:
“I’ve always noticed the best thing to channel, as an actor, is yourself. To figure out what makes you angry, what makes you feel vengeful or righteous. Those are the feelings that Lex Luthor has. And use that as opposed to kind of watching Gene Hackman, who’s a great actor obviously and played that part originally, and think, ‘How can I kind of mirror that?'”
“Because the truth is, me mirroring him would just come off weird. We have different faces, different life experiences, different emotions, but what I do have – that I have more than anybody – is my own feelings, and so I use those, and then the character seems not only real, but emotional and just. He believes he’s the hero of his own story – is the kind of the actor cliche – when you’re playing the villain, you’re the hero of your own story. That’s the kind of most interesting way for me as an actor, and I think, for an audience to appreciate as well.”
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice will touch down in theaters on March 25, 2016.
