Jesse Eisenberg Says He Was ‘So Poorly Received’ in Batman v. Superman Role It ‘Hurt My Career’: ‘Embarrassing to Admit’

Jesse Eisenberg is reflecting on his portrayal of Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

On the Monday, Dec. 16 episode of the Armchair Expert podcast, the actor, 41, candidly recalled his experience participating in the 2016 film and his thoughts about its reception.

“I was in this Batman movie and the Batman movie was so poorly received, and I was so poorly received,” said Eisenberg.

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According to Variety, the film grossed $874 million at the worldwide box office. Being that reviews were mixed, however, Eisenberg said it was something that negatively impacted his career.

“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,” the A Real Pain filmmaker said, noting that “in the industry, if you’re in a huge, huge movie and not seen as good, the people who are choosing who to put next in their movie are just not gonna select you.”

“I’ve been in poorly received things that just don’t see the light of day. For the most part, no one knows,” explained Eisenberg. “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.”

Eisenberg said that the way the film was received also impacted him personally.

“I loved my role and I loved the movie, doing it and everything. So I feel just myself to blame. I’m not like they did me wrong. No. I’m like, ‘Oh, I guess I did something wrong there,’ ” he said, referring to the situation as “depressing.”

Elsewhere in the podcast, Eisenberg discussed his latest project, A Real Pain, which he wrote, directed, and starred in.

In the film, Eisenberg stars as David alongside Kieran Culkin, who plays Benji. The pair play “mismatched cousins” who reunite for a Holocaust tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother but their adventure “takes a turn when the odd-couple’s old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history,” a synopsis explains.

After podcast co-host Dax Shepard goes through the film’s plot, Eisenberg shared his personal connections to the story. His family is from Poland, but the real inspiration for the plot came from a tour in Venezuela he went on with his wife Anna Strout. They were among other English speakers and isolated from locals.

“I thought it really interesting to just have it set on a Holocaust tour, so basically the kind of humor of the movie and of the characters can just be offset against the backdrop of something quite big,” he explained.

A Real Pain is out in theaters now. The film has earned four Golden Globe nominations, including two for Eisenberg’s screenplay and lead performance. The American Film Institute also included it on its list of top 10 films of 2024.