Jesse Eisenberg gives Superman: Legacy Lex Luthor words of wisdom ahead of filming

Jesse Eisenberg had some words of wisdom for the actor who will be playing Lex Luthor in the upcoming Superman: Legacy film.

The DC Universe is getting quite the rebrand after its new co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran took the reins.

Along with casting out most of the DCEU’s actors/movie storylines, Gunn and Safran are forging ahead with creating new legacy characters including Earth’s mightiest hero Superman.

However, Jesse Eisenberg, who played Lex Luthor in Zack Snyder’s DC films, had some parting words of wisdom for Nicholas Hoult, who will be taking up the mantle in the upcoming Superman: Legacy.

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Eisenberg encourages Hoult to make Lex Luthor his own

During an interview at the Variety Studio for the Sundance Film Festival, Eisenberg off-handedly offered some advice to Hoult before the younger actor begins filming Superman: Legacy.

Eisenberg famously played Lex Luthor in Snyder’s Batman v. Superman and Justice League film, a casting which was a bit controversial at the time.

“Don’t watch me!” Eisenberg joked to the room before adding, “Whenever you play a role you feel connected to it. There’s no way around it. Any time you do anything, even if it’s a movie that’s a Hollywood kind of thing, you connect.”

When Eisenberg played the Superman’s rival masquerading as a billionaire, a lot of DC fans didn’t like that his more eccentric take on the character as Eisenberg’s Lex had long hair and tended to use complex riddles in order to threaten people.

However, although Eisenberg seemed bummed by the poor reception from audiences, he was still very proud of the character as he told Deadline, “I felt very personal about it. 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.”

Eisenberg continued stating, “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.”