Jesse Eisenberg says a Razzie for Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman cost him studio roles and drove him to directing to save his career.
The 43-year-old actor told an audience at the BFI London Film Festival on Sunday that the Golden Raspberry for worst supporting actor in 2017 changed the path of his work in front of the camera.
Eisenberg, best known for “The Social Network,” said the award for his turn as Lex Luthor in Zack Snyder’s 2016 film “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” left him shut out of the big studio parts he once chased. He described the shift toward writing and directing as a direct response to what the industry signaled next.
Page Six reported his remarks, citing Variety’s account of the festival appearance.
Ben Affleck played Batman and Henry Cavill played Superman in the same movie. The film led the 2017 Razzie nominations and took trophies for worst screenplay, worst sequel, and worst screen combo. Eisenberg’s supporting-actor Razzie sat inside that broader sweep.
Eisenberg did not dress the change up as a creative awakening first. He tied it to anxiety about the business.
He said:
"Listen, a lot of it just came from fear."
He went further on the practical fallout:
"I couldn’t get into movie studio parts anymore because I had won a Raspberry Award from [being in the] ‘Batman’ movie... and I saw the trajectory."
Acting, in his telling, offers no safe middle ground.
"Because there’s no plateau. Acting is just this unstable, awful industry where you are either on the treadmill and you’re doing OK and you’re running up, or you are yesterday’s news, and it’s awful."
He added that a paranoid person sees the slide early. So he started writing movies to direct them, “just to kind of keep my career afloat, really.”
Eisenberg framed the Razzie as a clear message rather than a joke trophy. The industry, he said, “did not want [him] to be in a superhero movie.”
He put it this way:
"The industry tells you what they want from you. And if you’re smart and self-aware, you learn that quickly. And you know, it’s the unsuccessful actor that goes, ‘No, I want to be in more of those.’ It’s not going to happen, and they don’t want you there. And they wouldn’t have given you a Raspberry Award if they wanted you there. That’s an award for bad acting."
His close was blunt: if you want a career in the arts, you follow what you are being told is liked.
The timeline after 2017 was not a full exit from acting. He still appeared later in “Now You See Me 2,” “Zombieland: Double Tap,” and “Zack Snyder’s Justice League.” But the center of gravity moved. His directorial debut was “When You Finish Saving the World.” In 2024 he directed and co-starred in “A Real Pain” opposite Kieran Culkin, 44, and earned an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay.
He is now promoting A24’s musical comedy “The Debut,” starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti.
A prior Page Six interview surfaced another self-doubt moment. After Culkin questioned his direction on “A Real Pain,” Eisenberg said he felt like a “hack.” He described immediate embarrassment and a habit of looking first at his own behavior for what he could change.
That thread matches the festival remarks: an actor scanning for status, reading the room, and adjusting course when the room turns cold.
Hollywood hands out prestige and ridicule on the same stage. Eisenberg treated the Razzie as market information, not a punchline, and rebuilt his lane accordingly. In an industry that often confuses applause with truth, that is the rare response that actually respects the audience’s verdict.
