Life comes at you fast. Once upon a time, actor Jesse Eisenberg was known for nothing more than his work as a goofy character in films like Noah Baumbach's The Blink and the Whale and Greg Mottola's Adventureland. In fact, his biggest cause for concern in those days was defeating allegations that he was the same man who played Napoleon Dynamite. ("Please Abraham, I'm not that man" he recalled praying during an interview, launching a thousand memes in the process.) And then "The Social Network" happened, which earned him a Best Actor nomination and ultimately set him on his way to becoming the latest actor-turned-writer/ director with this year's brilliant True Pain (which premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival).

But one particularly polarizing role may have caused some serious bumps in the road — his turn as Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which Eisenberg now admits set his career back considerably. Refreshingly candid remarks come from a recent podcast appearance on Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, during which Eisenberg addressed his, ah, divisive performance as a Superman arc. Conceived by director Zack Snyder as a tech tycoon with severe daddy issues and a nervous tic, critics and audiences alike panned this unusually brash approach. The blockbuster scale meant all eyes were on him ... for better or worse, as Eisenberg explained:

“I was in this Batman movie and the Batman movie was so poorly received and I was so poorly received. career in a real way, because I was poorly received in something so public, I was 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, reviews, film press or anything, so I wasn't aware of how badly it was received.

Grandma's Peach Tea. All those weird, nervous smiles and neurotic meltdowns in public. That overly serious scene of Lex Luthor shaving his head in prison. And, I must emphasize, Grandma's Peach Tea. These are probably just a few of the more embarrassing moments that come to mind when the average person thinks of Jesse Eisenberg in 2016's Batman v Superman. With all that working against him, it's little surprise to hear that the actor felt attached to the role in some way held him back. But don't mistake such blunt honesty for regret. That said, he bears no ill will toward the film or Zack Snyder:

"I loved my role and I love the film (...) that's why I feel guilty, not as if I was wronged. And so I felt like I had to go up again, but I'm depressed all the time, it was kind of like, 'Oh yeah, of course I had this great opportunity that didn't go well.' Just pessimism."

Eisenberg has been vocal about how much he dislikes the more public aspects of acting in big movies, which seems to make him a poor fit for such a massive role as Lex, the mad Luthor. Still, despite the end results, you have to give credit to Snyder and his creative team: their instincts to turn the supervillain into a tech bro with no social skills or creative flair were spot on. (See: Elon Musk.) Only the execution of his performance and the lack of guardrails for the quirks of his personality—not to mention the script he was obsessed with—doomed this leaky ship to a watery grave.

In any case, today's trailer for James Gunn's Superman brought us our first glimpse of our latest Lex, in the form of Nicholas Hoult. That reboot hits theaters on July 11, 2025. Let's just hope things go a little better here than last time.