CNN
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Jesse Eisenberg portrayed Mark Zuckerberg in the 2010 film “The Social Network,” so it made sense to him that he should meet the Facebook founder in person as he was preparing for the role.
But that was not to be, Eisenberg said on the “Awards Chatter” podcast. The actor and director, who is nominated this year for an Oscar for the screenplay of “A Real Pain,” explained that he had a plan.
“I was driving up to meet him because I was told [by producers], ‘No, we’re not going to [set up a meeting for you],’” he said. “So I was literally in my car driving up. I was going to just go to the office and I figured they would let me in. [The film] was announced that I was in it. I just wanted to be in a room with him, just to see what the feeling is like. It just seemed like the bare minimum of research. How could you act in a movie [when] there’s a living person over there?”
The then 25-year-old actor received a call from a powerful producer.
“I got a call from Scott Rudin telling me: ‘Do not go there,’” Eisenberg said. “He was telling me this on behalf of Sony’s lawyers. He was telling me, ‘You can’t do that for a variety of legal reasons.’”
Eisenberg was asked about Zuckerberg’s recent decision to end fact checking on Meta’s social media platforms. He contextualized his response by sharing that he is married to “a really brilliant woman” who teaches in public schools in New York and founded Disability Justice, an awareness program, to help others.
“So when I think about people who have a lot of power and aren’t using it to help people, I’m just mystified. Why wouldn’t you just give away half your money to a good thing?” Eisenberg continued. “And why are you taking off protections for marginalized people on your website? To me, that’s mystifying. But I’d be the same person who looks at the Rockefellers at the time, go, ‘Why the hell are you doing what you’re doing?’”
“A Real Pain” centers on cousins David (Jesse Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) who reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother.
