Interview: Jesse Eisenberg Hones his Comedic Chops
BY BOB THOMPSON, POSTMEDIA NEWS AUGUST 8, 2011
NEW YORK - Jesse Eisenberg likes to keep it real, because he's good at acting naturally.
"I like those characters who have a real inner life," said Eisenberg at a Manhattan hotel recently
Outwardly, it's paid off for the 27-year-old. He earned a best actor Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network.
He just wrapped Predisposed in New York with Melissa Leo (who won a best-supporting actress Oscar for The Fighter), and he's currently filming the Woody Allen comedy, The Bop Decameron, with Ellen Page, Penelope Cruz, and Alec Baldwin, in Rome.
On stage, Eisenberg starred opposite Al Pacino in the Lyle Kessler play, Orphans, in 2009, and he will showcase his own play, Asuncion, off Broadway at The Cherry Lane Theater this fall.
Next up is his lead role in the Ruben Fleischer-directed farce, 30 Minutes or Less, which opens Aug. 12.
In the action-comedy, Eisenberg plays Nick, a small-town pizza delivery dude, who smokes dope and doesn't care how apathetic he has become in what appears to be a mundane, post-college drop-out existence.
All that changes, when two low-life nitwits, Dwayne (Danny McBride) and Travis (Nick Swardson), kidnap Nick, strap a homemade time bomb to him, and order the slacker to rob a bank before the bomb explodes.
You see, Dwayne needs cash to pay off a hit man (Michael Pena) hired to knock off his father (Fred Ward), who is frittering away his son's supposed inheritance from a lottery jackpot.
Not much goes according to plan, as Nick enlists his best friend and part-time teacher, Chet (Aziz Ansari) to help him with the heist, just as Dwayne and Travis stumble through a series of miscalculations and misunderstandings.
Director Fleischer calls 30 Minutes or Less "a double-buddy comedy," acknowledging that Eisenberg had the difficult task of grounding the farce.
"Jesse's really funny, but also an amazing actor," says Fleischer, who worked with him on 2009's Zombieland. "He can add to the gravity of the situation, walking a fine line between showing his fear, but also allowing the comedy to play."
Showing fear was never a concern. "It always helped to have that bomb vest constricting me," admits Eisenberg. "I had the luxury of that, so I could relate physically to everything I did."
He keeps it real in another way, as well. Eisenberg did most of his own stunt driving in a vintage Mustang and a Datsun 280Z during the film's chase sequences. "I had to unlearn everything I had been taught about driving during the shoot."
Mostly, he counted on Fleischer and Ansari, who co-stars in the sitcom Parks and Recreation, to gauge the humour of a scene.
McBride and Swardson say they went the R-rated free-form route. Like Ansari, and unlike Eisenberg, they come from standup and sketch-comedy backgrounds.
McBride, who currently stars in HBO's raunchy series, Eastbound & Down, had memorable roles in Tropic Thunder and Pineapple Express. "I just love low-brow, juvenile humour," admits McBride.
Swardson is a comic best known for his roller-skating male prostitute in the cop spoof Reno 911, and he's also part of Adam Sandler's movie-ensemble gang. He connected instantly with McBride, so it was easy for them to improvise most of their dialogue.
"Ruben was like a parent with us," Swardson says of the director. "He had to police us, so we wouldn't get too crazy."
Ansari, a standup, as well, usually kept to the script with Eisenberg, although both winged it from time to time.
"When I am in the moment, it can be hard for me to determine if something is funny or goes too far," Eisenberg says. "But Aziz (Ansari) is thinking about that stuff all the time."
Born and raised in Queens, New York, Eisenberg managed his first professional acting role at age 10 in the off-Broadway play, The Gathering. He made his Broadway debut a few years later as an understudy in the revival of Summer and Smoke.
From 1999 to 2002, he co-starred in the series Get Real. His film debut arrived with 2002's Roger Dodger, and in 2004, he managed smaller parts in M. Night Shyamalan's The Village and Wes Craven's Cursed.
Always on the fringes but well respected, he finally had his break out performance in 2005's The Squid and the Whale as the teen son of parents (Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels) in the throes of divorce.
In 2009, high-profile performances in Adventureland and Zombieland led to last year's The Social Network, which elevated his ranking in the film industry.
Despite the outlandish antics in 30 Minutes or Less, Eisenberg insists the film meets his requirements.
"When I look for something that is most relevant to me," he says, "the concept is less important than the characters."