With only a little more than a week to go before the premiere of Zack Snyder's highly-anticipated Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Jesse Eisenberg, America's next Lex Luthor, stopped by Good Morning America to talk briefly about his experience playing one of the most iconic antagonists in American pop culture. In the trailer, Lex gave us a short sample of what to expect from his performance in an extended clip of his soundbyte featured therein — but according to Eisenberg, it's not a full picture of Snyder's updated corrupted CEO.
On GMA, Eisenberg dished on the trials and travails of playing the iconic supervillain, and referred to the role as "great challenge for an actor like that," admitting that the clip made it "kind of hard to see that."
The excerpted scene in question, which GMA played for viewers, features Eisenberg as a not-yet-bald Lex with Superman (Henry Cavill) — and it appears that Luthor is egging the superhero on in an effort to have the Man of Steel and Batman (Ben Affleck, affectionately known as "Batfleck") destroy each other.
"You will fly to him [Batman]," Eisenberg as Luthor says to Superman in the clip, with a command both quiet and maniacal, "and you will battle him. To the death. Black and blue. Fight night. The greatest gladiator match in the history of the world. God versus man. Day versus night. Son of Krypton versus Bat of Gotham!"
It's a dramatic monologue, yes, but it doesn't necessarily depict the motivations of Superman's nemesis.
"[Lex Luthor] has a real emotional core," Eisenberg continued. "He has his own feelings about things. But that's the challenge of it: to provide this evil character with a real emotional, personal center."
Despite the inner angst of the character, it turns out the role was a pretty fun gig for Eisenberg as well. When asked about whether he liked playing an evil character, the actor immediately responded with an affirmative.
"Yes. You get to do all of these things that in person you'd be arrested for. Or killed!" he joked. "Yelling at bigger people, stealing ... yeah."
As for going up against the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight — as well as pitting them against each other, from what we can tell from the clip — Eisenberg equated it to a former nerd's dark revenge fantasy (in our estimation, at least).
"I got to take out all these feelings in high school ... like being around the football team and not getting to scream at them and also forcing them to wear capes," quipped Eisenberg. "Those are my two dreams and in this movie I got to accomplish both of them."
Oh, and if you want to know if the long locks Eisenberg sports in the trailer are a wig — too bad. Disclosure agreements are no fun.
Here's the official synopsis for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice:
"Fearing the actions of a god-like Super Hero left unchecked, Gotham City's own formidable, forceful vigilante takes on Metropolis's most revered, modern-day savior, while the world wrestles with what sort of hero it really needs. And with Batman and Superman at war with one another, a new threat quickly arises, putting mankind in greater danger than it's ever known before."
Check out Eisenberg tell you about his take on the DC Comics villain Lex Luthor in the video clip below, courtesy of ABC News.
Source: ABC News
