Jesse Eisenberg Admits ‘Poorly Received’ Lex Luthor Performance ‘Hurt His Career’

The actor played the supervillain in 2016’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and 2017’s “Justice League”

Jesse Eisenberg
Jesse Eisenberg at the "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" premiere (Credit: Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)

Jesse Eisenberg believes that his “poorly received” performance as Lex Luthor in Zack Snyder’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Justice League” hurt 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,” he recently told Dax Shepard on his “Armchair Expert” podcast.

The actor, who just received two Golden Globe nominations for his film “A Real Pain” with Kieran Culkin, said, “I’ve been in poorly received things that just don’t see the light of day, and for the most part, no one knows. 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.”

At the time, the film’s poor reception also came as a shock to Ben Affleck, who made his debut as Batman in the superhero movie. A video of Affleck reacting in real time about the movie’s terrible reviews went viral, often with Affleck’s downcast look scored to Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence.

Eisenberg said he doesn’t have any regrets, though. “To me, it was a chance to play this great character that this great writer wrote, and I loved doing that,” he explained saying that comic book movies aren’t “an important genre in my lilfe.”

“To play it is a joy, and to not play it isn’t something that I’m going to be ashamed to tell my kids about, because that is not an important genre in my life, even though I loved doing that movie,” he said.

“Nosferatu” star Nicholas Hoult takes on the role of the supervillain in James Gunn’s “Superman,” which will hit theaters July 11. The first trailer showing the actor with the character’s trademark bald head was released Thursday.

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