Jesse Eisenberg on 'A Real Pain'

Summary

All Of It: Jesse Eisenberg on 'A Real Pain'
Host: Alison Stewart | Release Date: January 16, 2025 | Available on Hulu

Introduction to 'A Real Pain'
In this engaging episode of All Of It, host Alison Stewart welcomes Jesse Eisenberg, the multifaceted writer, director, and star of his acclaimed new film, A Real Pain. The conversation delves deep into the creative process behind the film, Eisenberg’s personal experiences that influenced its narrative, and his reflections on balancing a burgeoning career with personal life.

Exploring the Film's Premise and Characters
Eisenberg introduces A Real Pain as a delicate blend of comedy and Holocaust-themed drama. The film centers on two cousins, David (played by Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin), embarking on a transformative trip to Poland to explore their grandmother’s hometown, a place laden with historical trauma.

[00:37] Alison Stewart: "A Real Pain balances humor with the profound weight of Holocaust history through its characters."

Innovative Scriptwriting: The Email Method
Eisenberg shares his unconventional approach to scriptwriting, opting to draft the script via emails rather than traditional screenwriting software. This method, he explains, fosters greater creative freedom and allows the ideas to flow more organically without the constraints of formatting.

[02:43] Jesse Eisenberg: "Writing in an email form allows me to think of my scripts more as diary entries, fostering creative openness without self-censorship."

He acknowledges the downside of this method, noting the occasional loss of work due to misplaced emails. However, he values the spontaneous and genuine content that emerges from this process.

Character Dynamics: Benji vs. David
A significant portion of the discussion focuses on the contrasting personalities of Benji and David. Benji is portrayed as charming, gregarious, and emotionally volatile, while David embodies anxiety, shyness, and stability. Eisenberg draws parallels between his own life and the characters, highlighting his internal battle between an extroverted public persona and a reserved private nature.

[04:14] Jesse Eisenberg: "I'm constantly doing battle in my head with the outgoing version of myself versus the part that just wants to hide away."

He further illustrates these dynamics through anecdotes about traveling with his wife, emphasizing how different personalities interact in social settings.

Filming in Poland: Personal and Historical Connections
Eisenberg recounts his personal trip to Poland with his wife in 2008, which profoundly influenced the making of A Real Pain. Visiting his family's ancestral home and witnessing the remnants of World War II trauma provided a realistic backdrop for the film’s narrative.

[07:00] Jesse Eisenberg: "Standing outside my family's former home was a stark reminder of the challenging process of connecting with one's history."

He discusses the challenges of filming in historically significant sites like the Majdanek concentration camp, ensuring respectful and authentic representation.

[19:02] Jesse Eisenberg: "We negotiated deeply to ensure the film celebrated the educational work being done at these memorial sites without exploiting their painful history."

Casting Kieran Culkin: A Serendipitous Choice
Initially intending to play Benji himself, Eisenberg credits Kieran Culkin for bringing unparalleled depth and spontaneity to the role. Culkin’s dedication, including sleeping on the hotel room floor to embody his character, impressed Eisenberg and elevated the film’s authenticity.

[19:47] Jesse Eisenberg: "Kieran was living in the spirit of Benji in a way that would have been impossible for me, and he brought the character to life brilliantly."

Lessons from Past Work: 'Saving the World' to 'A Real Pain'
Reflecting on his directorial debut with Saving the World, Eisenberg acknowledges previous shortcomings in connecting audiences with flawed characters. This introspection informed his approach to A Real Pain, where he consciously crafted characters that audiences could empathize with despite their imperfections.

[22:14] Jesse Eisenberg: "I learned that audiences need reassurance that it's okay to love flawed characters, something I didn't emphasize enough in my first film."

Balancing Success with Personal Life
Eisenberg discusses the impact of his professional success on his personal life, emphasizing the privilege of maintaining a relatively private existence compared to his peers. He highlights the importance of continuing to create, regardless of external acclaim.

[23:33] Jesse Eisenberg: "I want to make a movie every year. The success of this one allows me to pursue multiple projects without resting on my laurels."

Closing Reflections: Honoring Polish History and Legacy
In a heartfelt conclusion, Eisenberg appeals to American Jewish listeners to recognize and appreciate the efforts of non-Jewish Poles in preserving and educating about their shared history. He expresses profound gratitude for the hospitality and dedication he encountered during his visits.

[25:00] Jesse Eisenberg: "I wish people would understand the beautiful and hopeful work being done in Poland to memorialize our history, transforming places of horror into centers of education."

Conclusion
Jesse Eisenberg’s insightful discussion on All Of It offers a comprehensive look into the making of A Real Pain, blending personal narratives with historical reflection. His innovative creative processes, commitment to authentic storytelling, and thoughtful engagement with sensitive themes make this episode a compelling listen for anyone interested in the intersection of culture, history, and cinema.

Transcript

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[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Listener supported WNYC Studios.

[Alison Stewart]

This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. It doesn't seem like a road trip. Buddy. Comedy and a Holocaust film are two genres that could work together. But writer, director and actor Jesse Eisenberg was able to walk that delicate tightrope to great acclaim in his new film A Real Pain. The pair at the center of the film are cousins. David is anxious, shy, solid. He's got a wife and son he loves dearly. He's played by Jesse. And then there's his cousin Benji, played by Kieran Culkin. He's charming and gregarious and emotionally unstable. The two cousins are on a trip to Poland. Their beloved grandmother survived the Holocaust, and they want to visit her hometown to get a better sense of their family roots. And that comes with trauma. But Benji and David have very different approaches to traveling and to socializing and to life in general. Let's listen to a moment from the film that gives you a sense of how different these cousins are. This is Benji and David on a train in Poland.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

We should just buy tickets like normal people.

[Jesse Eisenberg]

There's no time. Come on. We stay moving, we stay light, we stay agile. The conductor's gonna come through taking tickets. We tell him we're going to the bathroom.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Bathroom.

[Jesse Eisenberg]

He gets to the back of the train, he's gonna start heading towards the front, looking for stragglers.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Sorry, Were the stragglers?

[Jesse Eisenberg]

Yeah.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

By the time he gets to the.

[Jesse Eisenberg]

Front, the train's gonna meet in the station for home free.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

This is so stupid, man. What?

[Jesse Eisenberg]

Stupid is the corporatization of travel, ensuring that the rich move around the world, propagate their latest loins, while the poor stay cut off from society.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

That's great. We can't argue Marxism when they're hauling us off to Siberia.

[Jesse Eisenberg]

Siberia's in Russia, Dave.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

This is ridiculous. Tickets are probably like 12 bucks.

[Jesse Eisenberg]

That's principle of the thing. We shouldn't have to pay for train tickets in Poland. This is our country.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

No, it's not. It was our country. They kicked us out because they thought we were cheap.

[Alison Stewart]

Real Pain has won accolades from critics and viewers alike. Just yesterday, it was nominated by the Writers Guild of America for best screenplay Same for the baftas. When Kieran Culkin won Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Globes, he said in his acceptance speech, I am here because Jesse Eisenberg wrote an incredible script. The movie is still in theaters now, and starting today, it's available to stream on Hulu. Writer, director and star of the film, Jesse Eisenberg joins me to discuss. It's really nice to see you.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Nice to see you, too. Thank you so much.

[Alison Stewart]

Alison, I heard that you wrote the script initially in emails versus using, like, final draft, which is what most people. The software most writers use.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Right.

[Alison Stewart]

How did emails help you develop the story?

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

I mean, I've written plays and essays for 20 years and I always write an email form because I don't want to ever think of the thing as, like, going to need to be produced. I want to think of them more as, like, diary entries. It allows me to just be a little more creatively open minded than if I were to put it in some program that has. It feels like it's so presumptuous to put it in one of these script writing programs where it looks like, well, of course this would be made. And so it allows me to not censor myself. Sometimes the scripts are way too long because I'm not aware of, like, the formatting. But otherwise it allows me to just write in a way that doesn't sense myself. The only problem is I lose stuff a lot because I'll misplace something or not save something, and so I'll lose stuff, but it's okay because if something's really great, it stays with you.

[Alison Stewart]

Oh, that's so interesting. So it really opens you up creatively, it sounds like.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Yeah. But I could also hear my parents saying, the fact that you're writing on a computer at all is the least creative thing you could do. You should be. And then their parents, of course, used quills. So there's something about a. You know, I'm not that far off from regular.

[Alison Stewart]

When you were. From the jump of the film, we learned that David and Benji are really different. They're like really ID and SuperEgo. What happens in your mind when the ID and SuperEgo have to get along?

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Yeah, I think about that kind of thing all the time of like, I kind of straddle this weird world because I'm like a performer and I have, like a extroverted profession. But I'm like so many actors, like, shy. And a lot of actors are shy to the point where, like, they only feel comfortable getting into the skin of another character. So there's this strange paradox of them being known publicly and having, you know, their intimate personal details displayed in public, while at the same time being incredibly shy, private people. And I'm certainly. I would certainly fall into all of those categories. And so I'm constantly just doing battle in my head with like, the, you know, the outgoing version of myself versus my instant, which is to just walk into the corner of the room and face the wall.

[Alison Stewart]

Like, it would have been good in a baby girl. She did, right, Exactly.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Yeah, exactly. Right.

[Alison Stewart]

When you were thinking about.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Sorry, I get the joke. Sorry. Yes, you're right.

[Alison Stewart]

Have you ever been on a trip with someone where you knew? I'm just not like this person. I'm traveling with this person.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Oh, yeah. The first time I left the country was to go with my wife to Venezuela. I was 18 years old and my wife was like, I've come from, like, a left wing activist family, and she was curious about the president at the time. Chavez. At the time, he was not seen as that much of a dictator. In fact, he was seen as maybe doing good work for indigenous groups in Venezuela. And so I left. I knew nothing. I mean, I didn't know where Venezuela was on a map. I didn't know that it was a country. But my wife said we were starting to date early, and she said, I'm going there this Christmas to go on a tour of Venezuela and to go to the Orinoco Delta, which is like this place on the water there, and you can come with me or not. And so I decided, okay, cool, I'm gonna go with this awesome person. And so we went there and she was just. She speaks Spanish too, so that was helpful. But also she was just like this. She would meet strangers and talk to them, and she was communicating with indigenous people in some agreed upon language. And it was just, like, amazing. And we've traveled around the world together for the last 20 years, and she is just so different than me. And people love her. And I could tell when I walk into a room. No one's really thrilled to have me there. I don't know, I bring in some kind of annoy energy. But I could tell with her, she just lights up a room and she goes into rooms of, like, strangers and different things, and everybody just seems to, like, smile when she walks in.

[Alison Stewart]

You said you come into the room and people do what?

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

I could tell. I don't know what it is or how to control it, but I could tell. I kind of bring rooms down. I don't know if I seem Cloying or anxious or unsure of myself. And I could tell I ruin a lot of rooms I walk into. And by contrast, my wife, she just, she walks in late to places like unprepared, doesn't know what they're talking about, and everybody just seems to like warm to her. It's kind of this magical thing.

[Alison Stewart]

Well, you're doing fine in this room.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[Alison Stewart]

My guest is Jesse Eisenberg. He's the writer and director and the star of the new movie A Real Pain. It's available to stream now on Hulu. So we meet these two guys, David and Benjamin, at the airport. Benji, excuse me, why did you want to introduce the characters to us this way? In the airport? Ready to go?

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

You know, I was very conscious of making a movie with these heavy themes. You know, they're on a heritage tour of Poland. It's a Holocaust themed kind of movie. And I just wanted the movie to feel as kind of like efficient, accessible, warm and inviting as possible to try to get away from what I felt was like just a very long trend of sanctimonious Holocaust movies that in some ways are telling a story, but also kind of like punishing the audience for not going through what their characters are going through. I just wanted to get away from that as much as possible. So I was just trying to make an efficient story as, you know, accessible, that you meet these characters and the clip you just played shows their dialogue and their banter feels more like it's on a buddy movie than it does feel like. Then it feels like it's on some self important Holocaust tour. And so I was constantly just trying to figure out how to make this like on the surface appear not shallow but accessible while all while also talking about these bigger themes. And so, you know, characters meet at the airport, we're already on the trip with them, you know, as opposed to, you know, an older style of movie probably would have, you know, set up the characters and their work lives and everything. But you know, the great thing about, you know, having audiences that are so comfortable watching movies is they know shortcuts, you know, so they can see me walk into an airport with my bag and they already know everything about me. They don't have to understand that I do this job and have this life. And same thing with Kieran's character. The movie is really a dissection of Kieran's character and he's really kind of this unknowable kind of guy and he's incredibly charming, but also has depression and so it's a great way to introduce him too, in public in this big setting.

[Unnamed Interviewer]

Let's take a listen to how Benji introduces himself and his cousin David to the tour group.

[Jesse Eisenberg]

So Davers and I are cousins. We've actually. We were born three weeks apart, which is kind of nuts.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Yes.

[Jesse Eisenberg]

A zloty for anyone who can guess which one of us is older. Our dads are brothers. We're basically brothers too. Wouldn't you say, Dave? We used to be joined at the hip, like KG Neutralisch. Remember that?

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Yeah, don't say that.

[Jesse Eisenberg]

But our Grandma Dory. Grandma Dory, she was from here. And we've always wanted to see where she came from and see the house that she grew up in.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Yeah, that's actually why we're leaving the tour a day early. Benji insisted on seeing her little town. They were super close.

[Jesse Eisenberg]

Yeah, I mean, she was the coolest. Right. I've just been like in a real funk, I guess, since she died. Just haven't. Yeah, sorry. She was just my favorite person in the world.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

You know. It's good to remember that's why we're here in a way. So.

[Jesse Eisenberg]

Thank you, James. Thanks for saying that.

[Unnamed Interviewer]

There's so much in that clip. Just him saying, don't say that.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, don't say that. He's talking about these conjoined twins, you know.

[Unnamed Interviewer]

What did you want that introduction to tell us about Benji and David?

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Oh, just the way they navigate groups, like, you know. You know, my character is like so mortified to even be existing in a group setting. Cause he just feels, you know, just mired in just the shame of his upbringing and his, you know, whatever, his stupid mind. And Benji, by contrast, just comes alive in a group. In fact, only comes alive, like in a group. Like that's his fuel, you know? You know, And David, it's David's. It's David's most uncomfortable place to be. And they have to introduce themselves. I've been on some of these tours. We went to, you know, several countries where I do these group tours. And I see again, it's like, sorry to bring up my great wife, but like, she. She's so cool and she is like remembering what everybody says around the group and like tying it into her life. But not in a way that's self indulgent. And then I'm just like so deeply uncomfortable with myself that I in some ways ruin the group dynamic because I'm trying to be respectful of the group. You know, I bring it down because they can sense in me I'm sure of it. They can sense in me that I don't have nice energy. Something like that.

[Unnamed Interviewer]

How did you decide on their names? David and Benji or Benjamin? It's, you know, they have special meaning in Hebrew.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Oh, that's so interesting. What is it?

[Unnamed Interviewer]

I believe David's like one's beloved. Right. And I believe Benjamin is the son of.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Oh, right. Ibn Ben. Right. Oh, that makes sense. These are characters that I had actually kind of, like, written in two different plays. My first play that I wrote was called the Revisionist. Played a character named David, who sneaks weed to Poland and stays with his second cousin. My third play is called the Spoils, where I played a character named Ben who's kind of like this. So these were just characters that I had kind of been like, toying with in different media. I wrote a short story about these two guys going to Mongolia. These characters, I put them in the same room together. And then that was kind of the initial nugget for this script was that short story I wrote about these two guys, Benji and David, going to Mongolia together, and then it switched to be this Holocaust tour. But I. My background is acting, obviously, so, like, I'm thinking like an actor all the time.

[Alison Stewart]

Interesting.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

So I've written. I've written many things, but I always have, like, monologues that are discarded, that are not in the final products because I'm thinking about the characters so much that I write, try to get in their voices so much before I actually write dialogue with them. So I could put these two guys in any situation. They're on a Holocaust tour, but I could put them in any situation, and I knew what their conversation would sound like.

[Alison Stewart]

Benjamin, son of the right hand.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Whoa.

[Alison Stewart]

Yes.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Son of the right hand. Pretty specific. Oh, okay, got it.

[Alison Stewart]

What do you think they were like as kids?

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

You know, I think the dynamic you see in the movie was, like, pretty similar to when they were kids, except in its pure form. So now, as adults, we value things like David's stability and everything, but when they're kids, none of that stuff matters. So it's just that Benji is incredibly winning and charming, and David's just kind of, like, neurotic, as Benji says. Like, we went to sleepaway camp. He says, we went to Julie sleepaway camp, and I had to hug him to sleep and talk about his sweet mom every night just to get him to go to sleep, you know, because. And so I think. But now, like, David's kind of, like, medicated his OCD away and some of his anxiety, so he has a little more stability in his life. So we look at David as an audience as maybe having like just a little more, you know, normalcy. And Benji is still that winning, charming person, but maybe we look at it with a little bit of like, what's going on underneath.

[Alison Stewart]

Well, I think the people in the tour group look at him like that way.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Yeah, exactly.

[Alison Stewart]

At first, like, oh, he's so charming. And then when the dinner scene and he leaves the table, everybody's like, there's so much going on with him.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Yeah, exactly. And it's a love hate thing. Like, because he's so charming and because he's so feeling, it's impossible to not love him. There's one character in the movie who doesn't love him. But like, for the most part, people feel a great sensitivity towards this guy, as do I. You know, I was writing the movie and feeling this. My heart was open to that character. And then in performing it too, like, even though he's kind of tormenting me for a lot of the movie, my heart was just so wide open to this person because you could see they're a bit of an open wound. So even though they're incredibly charming and, you know, gregarious, when they're sad, they're publicly. They're publicly and profoundly sad.

[Alison Stewart]

My guest is Jesse Eisenberg. He is the writer, director and star.

[Unnamed Interviewer]

Of the new movie A Real Pain.

[Alison Stewart]

It's available to stream now on Hulu.

[Unnamed Interviewer]

You can see it in the movie theater as well.

[Alison Stewart]

When was the first time that you visited Poland?

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

My wife and I went to Poland in 2008. Just kind of like backpacking through. Not on this guided tour that the characters do in the movie. The first thing we did was stay with my cousin Maria, who was a survivor of the war and stayed in Poland. And then the next thing we did was to try to go to the opposite side of the country, the southeastern part of the country, to see this little house that my family lived in up until 1939. It's actually the house that you see in the movie. The characters visit my family's actual house. And it was kind of a weird non epiphany actually. So we went to this house. It was before Google Maps. So we're like, it was struggle to get to this town even, you know, and we finally get to this town and to this little house and I'm standing outside this house that my family lived in up until they were like, you know, removed and killed, you know, and I remember just like not feeling anything. I was just like, oh, this is. I'm just standing outside this apartment. And it taught me a lot about the reality of trying to connect to your history and to your past in ways that are not satisfying. And it just occurred, occurred to me when I was writing this movie that I can kind of capture some of that irony, some of that anticlimactic quality of trying to connect to your past and not finding the connection where you expect it. Not finding the connection in a concentration camp, not finding the connection at the house, actually finding more of a connection between your own past with your family member, which is what this movie is detailing. Me and my cousin and my emotions are all tied up and my personal history with my cousin, rather than trying to connect to a three story apartment building in the southeast of Poland.

[Unnamed Interviewer]

What was something that you learned about Polish history that you didn't know before?

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

I probably have like an overly sympathetic perspective on Polish history. You know, Poland was torn apart by both sides from the Germans and the Russians. And then prior to that it was not a country. For a very long time. Up until 1918, it was not a country. And I also have again, maybe an outsized sympathy for Poland. During the war, the Nazis built their death camps on Polish soil, partly so that they don't have to deal with it. And then the Russians came in and just really screwed the Poles during this uprising of Warsaw in 1944. And the Russians just really just ruined them. And so I developed a really strong sensitivity towards Polish history that sometimes is in conflict, let's say, with some of my older relatives who look at Poland like, oh, they're anti antisemites. Look, that's where, you know, they were happy that this is not my experience at all. And the other just weird kind of interesting little anecdote is that we shot at all these places, including concentration camp and all these memorials. And they're all run by these like, young academic people who like, you know, graduated with great college degrees and decided to spend their lives and their intellectual capital by working at these sites of horror. And I felt a great indebtedness and gratitude towards the people who, you know, again, these would be people in our country who are doing tours of American tragedies, you know, and you would say, wow, they're really doing amazing work. That's what these people in Poland are doing with Jewish history.

[Alison Stewart]

It's interesting because in the movie, Benji has an issue with how academic the tour guide is. And I've had that happen before where I've been like, excuse me, this is not Afro Disney. I'm in Africa. Why are you explaining this to me? Stop.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Oh, interesting. You've had that feeling before.

[Alison Stewart]

Oh, yeah. I had. I don't know what that says, but I had that feeling. And I remember in the film, your character wants him to quiet down. Why does he want him to quiet down?

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Because. Because the way Benji's expressing himself is so caustic. I mean, that's the problem. It's the. Really, the. But also because I just would. I mean, it's interesting to hear you say that. Cause you're a really nice.

[Alison Stewart]

I'm a nice person.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Yeah. So that's. That was surprising to me because I guess I thought somebody who would do that on a trip. Well, did you yell at somebody or you just had this feeling?

[Alison Stewart]

No, I just had the face. Oh, well, that's why I just made the face.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Okay, got it.

[Alison Stewart]

Seriously, we're gonna do this here.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Even that phase as you're doing it to me now doesn't seem that severe, you know? But the interesting thing about Kieran's character is that he's pretty much right. All of his arguments are like, right.

[Alison Stewart]

Yeah.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

But the way he expresses himself is so caustic. But the interesting thing that happens after he yells at the tour guide for being too academic is the tour guide comes to him later and says, you know, you changed my life. No one's ever given me actionable feedback. Now I think I'm gonna change the way I do my tours.

[Alison Stewart]

Right.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

And Kieran's character goes, oh, really? What did I say? He has no recollection.

[Alison Stewart]

That's so hard. Before I leave Poland, two things. Did you have to. Well, I'm sure you had to get permission to film in the camps. Did you have to do anything special to film in the camps?

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Yeah, we filmed in Majdanek, this concentration camp that's like five minutes outside this bustling college town called Lublin. And, yeah, it took a long time to. I use the word negotiate, which is a kind of crass word to talk about, really. Just kind of connecting with these people who work there and for them to understand that my intentions were good, that I did not want to make a cool, exploitative movie where I'm gonna have extras in Nazi uniforms running through their camp. No, I was trying to make a movie that celebrated the work that they do, which has turned this amazing place of terror into a museum of education.

[Alison Stewart]

My guest, Jesse Eisenberg, he is the writer, director, and the star of the new movie A Real Pain. You can watch it on Hulu. You can see it in the movie theater as well. Who did you see as Benji before you met Kieran?

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

I was originally gonna play that part.

[Alison Stewart]

Oh, really?

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Yeah. I mean, if you read the script, you'll see that's like the. He's fun, you know, he's like the character you'd want to do in an acting class because he says everything that's on his mind. When he cries, he's crying in public. When he's yelling, he's yelling in public. You know, he's the kind of, you know, it's the fun character. And so I was gonna act in that role and try to cast the character I played, David. And one of our producers is the unparalleled Emma Stone. She has a production company, and so she has produced my two movies and is producing my third. She's an amazing producer, and she just said, I would urge you to not play a character that's so kind of unhinged, spontaneous, while trying to direct. Because as a director, you're really trying to, like, run a circus. You're accounting for schedules and, you know, having to put out little social fires, et cetera. And so to play this part that Kieran was playing would have been really tough. And Kieran was, like, living in the spirit of this. He never rehearsed, he never wanted to talk about it. I don't. He memorized his lines the day of, and yet every take, he was brilliant. I found out towards the end of the movie, he was, like, sleeping two hours a night on his hotel room floor. And I think he was just, like, living in the spirit of this. This character in a way that I think would have been impossible for me. And he's so great. He's better than I would have been. So I'm so lucky that I was, let's say, demoted by Emma Stone.

[Alison Stewart]

Was it hard to deal with someone living in the moment, living like Benji when you're the director?

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

It was hard because I didn't know if he knew his lines. So basically, he has the most dialogue in the movie, and he's supposed to be rapid fire. Like, I. You know, like, we, like. He and I both normally talk, and I didn't know if he knew his lines any day because he would ask me in the morning, what scene are we doing today? Which is, like, not a thing you want to hear your actors talk about. And it's like, I tell him, it's like the scene I thought of two years ago that I'd been living with for two years, and you have five pages of a monologue on a train. And he would say, oh, cool, can I see the script? So I'd show him the script. I just can't believe I'm having this conversation. And he would memorize it within two minutes and he'd be word perfect. So once I realized that this is just the way he works, that he's just some kind of unusual genius, then it was a joy to work with him. Then every day felt like, what is this guy gonna do today? I cannot wait to see it. And I told him too. I told him we had a scene together, and after the scene ended, I said, I heard all these stories of these lect male directors falling in love with their ingenues, you know, in the 30s, 40s, the Warner Brothers and stuff like that. And I was like, I think I feel that for you. Like, I just. Because he was doing so good in my thing. And I was just like, I feel you're just so amazing. I just was so grateful.

[Alison Stewart]

I think you came on the show when your directorial debut was when you finished saving the world. What did you learn from that experience that was valuable to you on this show?

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

That movie wasn't received as well because I think basically people didn't connect to the characters in a way I assumed they would. The acting was amazing. It starred Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard, two of the greatest actors in their generation, their respective generations. But I think I had an assumption about how people would perceive the characters that was different than the way they were perceived. And it occurred to me that you have to do some. I don't know if the word is spoon feeding. You have to do some explication, some clarification that it's okay to love these characters who are flawed. And I didn't do that enough with that movie. My background is theater playwriting. And you don't have to do that as much in plays because you're not looking to. Plays are not really about, you know, audiences don't go to plays as much trying to, like, follow this protagonist and relate to them. Play. It's just a different kind of medium. And I didn't do that well enough with that first movie. And so it taught me a lesson to make it a little more clear that the audience is allowed to love these characters who are not being always their best selves.

[Unnamed Interviewer]

This movie has been received so warmly.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Interviewer]

Congratulations, first of all.

[Alison Stewart]

Thanks. Yeah.

[Unnamed Interviewer]

How do you balance that with your life, with your kid, with your wife, going to the grocery store? I mean, in the middle of this movie, really blowing up and really affecting people's lives.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Well, it's interesting. Like, there's nothing I could do about it now. It's, like, totally done. So it's really. The onus is upon, like, the distribution company Searchlight, who is like, you know, the best in the world at this kind of stuff, to make sure the movie is received well and seen by all the people who might have an interest in seeing this thing in terms of, like, it being well received and that being helpful to me. It's just I want to make a movie every year, so, like, you know, I'm already doing my next movie. This being well received allows me, I'm sure, to make it like two. You know what I mean?

[Unnamed Interviewer]

Oh, that's interesting.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

And if they're not well received, then I maybe got to do something else or start at the drawing, go back to the drawing board. But I know I can make two movies from the success of this one because my movies are small and easy and I write quickly and I could act in them. So I already has actor involved. And so, like, I know I can get two from this. That's the way I think about it more than, like, how can I rest on today's laurels or something.

[Unnamed Interviewer]

How's it affect your real life, though, when you get a cup of coffee?

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Oh, I've been, like, a known movie actor for, like, 20 years, and, like, the novelty of that wears off so quickly. Yeah, I think that I don't know who said this or something, but it's like everybody wants to be famous until they are. And then it's just like this kind of, you know, you meet people on the street, and some people are nice, and some people, you know, it's kind of like you're now 10 minutes late to do something. But my life is. I'm a pretty. No one really has interest in my personal life, so I'm okay. I was friends with Kristen Stewart for many years, and she would have, like, helicopters and stuff following her, poor thing. I don't have any of that kind of stuff. I just have the upsides of, like, occasionally I get a free cookie.

[Unnamed Interviewer]

Is there anything anybody has not asked you about this film yet that you just really want to just shout out something that, like, you've been wanting to say?

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

No. Except, you know, the thing you brought up earlier, which we talked about a little bit, I just want to reaffirm it, which is that, like, for American Jews listening to this interview, of which there are probably many, many, like, I wish you would understand what Poland is now. And the work that people are doing there to memorialize our history and to turn perhaps your sense cynical reputation you might feel for Poland to something quite different. Because my experience was so hopeful and beautiful and wonderful and the people I met who are working there, non Jewish Poles, are doing us a great service.

[Unnamed Interviewer]

The name of the film is a Real Pain. My guest has been Jesse Eisenberg. Thanks for coming to the studio.

[Unnamed WNYC Studio Announcer]

Jesse thanks. Always so nice to talk to you. Alison thank you.

[Progressive Insurance]

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