Jesse Eisenberg's performance as Lex Luthor in the DCEU was met with divisive reactions amongst fans as some of them felt that he isn't the right actor for the role or didn't simply like his take on the iconic villain. Ever since his cameo in Justice League, the Oscar nominee hasn't made his return to the franchise despite the set-up to his character's potentially larger role.
As reported by Deadline, during his recent appearance at the 28th Sarajevo Film Festival, Eisenberg addressed the backlash that he received when he played Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and expressed his dismay at the divisive reactions that he got.
"I felt very personal about it," Eisenberg said. "The writer, Chris Terrio, is a very serious writer, and he’s a very emotional person. He thought a lot about my character, and I thought a lot about my character too. I talked with my acting coach about the character a lot, about his backstory with his father and his emotional life—and then people hate me."
When Eisenberg spoke with Deadline afterward, he clarified that, despite his dismay at the response to his performance, he is still not ruling out the possibility of returning to the franchise if ever he gets a call from them to reprise the role.
"I’d be shocked if I wound up in a DC movie, but it would be a pleasant shock," the actor said. "Listen, I’m not a comic book fan. To me, it was not playing a role that I’d envisioned since childhood. To me, it was a chance to play this great character that this great writer wrote, and I loved doing that.
"So, 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."
When asked if he is still willing to do a superhero movie, he responded, "Yeah. Because as an actor, you do all kinds of different things, and sometimes great roles show up in really commercial things and sometimes terrible roles show up in independent films."
It is understandable that Eisenberg felt dismayed about the response to his performance as Lex Luthor in the DCEU since you can tell that he really dedicated himself to playing the role with justice and had a great experience doing the film as well.
While his future in the franchise is still unknown at this point, we do know that Warner Bros. has a new ten-year plan to reshape the franchise and, who knows, maybe they will invite Eisenberg back in.
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