When it comes to Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor, fans have been unsure as to whether or not the actor can pull off the role of being Superman's arch-nemesis in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Jesse Eisenberg has played the billionaire entrepreneur before as Mark Zuckerberg in David Fincher's The Social Network, and many have wondered if the actor isn't just doing the same thing all over again. In a recent interview with Empire Magazine, Zack Snyder understands that the past can't be ignored. "Just from a pop-cultural viewpoint you can't pretend the movie doesn't exist," said Snyder, referring to Eisenberg's previous role as a cold billionaire. "Because he has played Mark Zuckerberg, Jesse represents a very contemporary sort of business model. In the sort of post-dotcom world where fortunes can be made from your basement, it is not hard to imagine Jesse-as-Lex being as powerful as he is."
Eisenberg himself also spoke about bringing his own take on Lex Luthor and how it needed to be different from his past roles and the previous incarnations of the character. "If there are some surface similarities to another role, an audience will tend to see that. An actor won't." Although many have drawn similarities between Jesse Eisenberg's interpretations of Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network with what they've seen of him as Lex Luthor, Eisenberg said that for him, "Lex feels like a totally new and unusual person." The actor then went on to talk about how reading the script opened him up to the possibility of being a comic book movie villain. "It was written in a way I would say dovetails with my skills, it was written with a real psychological underpinning, it was written with a kind of humour that I knew I could do. And with a dramatic intensity that I enjoy." He even talked about the way this version of Lex operates. "He uses wordplay and very clever allusions to other stories and myths," revealed Eisenberg, "but it never compromises what is scary about him." Eisenberg even goes on to say that his Lex is "full of rage" and that "He is the guy who won't sleep to get something done."
When it comes to Lex Luthor, as fans of the comics would know, his conviction to help humanity is clouded by his obsession with Superman, and Eisenberg is fully aware of that. "What I think, makes the story relevant is this questioning of the value of this kind of power in the real world," said Eisenberg. "So my character, who has what we would think of as modern financial success, it threatened by this guy who has power in a supernatural way. Superman is an existential threat to my character."
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice hits theaters March 25th, 2016.
Fearing the actions of a god-like super hero left unchecked, Gotham City’s own formidable, forceful vigilante takes on Metropolis’s most revered, modern-day savior, while the world wrestles with what sort of hero it really needs. And with Batman and Superman at war with one another, a new threat quickly arises, putting mankind in greater danger than it’s ever known before. Starring Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, with Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne, Diane Lane, Jesse Eisenberg, Jeremy Irons, and Holly Hunter, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is directed by Zack Snyder, written by Chris Terrio from David S. Goyer's screenplay.
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