4 moments that changed Jesse Eisenberg's life

Brut America

From meeting his cousin, a Holocaust survivor, to acting in "Vivarium," actor Jesse Eisenberg talks 4 moments that changed his life.

Transcript

00:00Yeah, it was a very important moment in my life.

00:02Do people need to know about that?

00:03Sure.

00:04Okay, why not?

00:05Maybe they can think about an important moment

00:07that they've had in their lives.

00:17Before that, I didn't do anything.

00:20I was just sitting in a stomach of a small woman in Queens.

00:24She was carrying me around.

00:26She was tired.

00:27She had a craving for dirt and pickles.

00:31She's mentioned it over the years, but usually with anger.

00:35Like, do you know what I did?

00:36I gave birth to you.

00:37You're never going to understand how painful that is.

00:40I hope one day you find a way to give birth

00:43so you understand the pain I went through for you to be here.

00:46I imagine she resents me for doing such damage, you know.

00:54Really, my first act was one of great violence.

00:57And then the next day, I was suddenly here.

01:00I had my own food.

01:01I had a name.

01:03People didn't like me.

01:03I had a sister.

01:04She didn't like me.

01:05He's taking my attention.

01:06My father feels unconsciously competitive.

01:08Here's this new man in the house I have to compete with.

01:10So I would say that was the biggest difference for me.

01:17You know, you don't want to pry with somebody

01:18who survives a genocide.

01:20You know, it's not exactly like you don't open with that.

01:22But, you know, I knew her story from my family, you know,

01:27and it's just an unbelievable story.

01:28My goal with her was not to try to, you know,

01:31hear the details of a trauma that she probably

01:34doesn't want to dredge up.

01:35My goal with her was to try to have a connection with somebody

01:38who deserves a connection.

01:41Like a lot of Jewish Americans, you know,

01:43you have some, like, vague notions about what

01:46happened during the war.

01:48And I say vague because, you know,

01:52you feel more American than you feel, you know, European,

01:54obviously, even if your roots are from Europe.

01:56It's because American Jews assimilate so well.

01:59And, you know, that's important for them to assimilate, rather.

02:03And so a lot of people, you know, at that age,

02:06I was 22 or 23 or something, you know,

02:08you kind of get curious about your past.

02:10And if you have any link to your past, like in my case,

02:13I have a cousin, you explore it partly

02:19because of the fascination and narcissism,

02:22looking at where do I come from, who am I,

02:25but also partly out of a feeling of sympathy

02:28for what happened, you know.

02:30And for those who are still living

02:33and who've been through horrific trauma,

02:36you want to try to, you know, you have sympathy for

02:38and you want to try to, in some ways,

02:41make their lives feel nice or connected,

02:42which is what I wanted to do.

02:48I met my wife, like, 18 years ago.

02:50And she had been working at the shelter since she's a kid

02:53because her mother ran the Middleway House.

02:55It's a great domestic violence shelter.

02:57I tried to, like, you know, if possible,

03:00use my, like, movie fame to help out.

03:05We're doing an event next week to raise money for it in Indiana.

03:10And we raised, like, half a million dollars a few years ago

03:13to pay off the mortgage of the shelter.

03:16So it's great.

03:17I mean, you know, you can feel oftentimes

03:19as somebody in, like, the popular arts

03:23that your work is, like, you know,

03:28is lacking in social value.

03:32And one of the ways to mitigate that discomfort

03:35is to actually do work that you think has social value.

03:40So my wife is, like, involved in all these wonderful causes

03:43since she's born.

03:44And so I'm lucky that I'm in a position

03:48to be able to mitigate my own narcissistic discomfort

03:53any time I want.

03:58Vivarium is, like, a kind of nightmare version

04:01of all of the things we aspire to.

04:04You know, you want to have a family or buy a house

04:08or, you know, have a stable relationship.

04:11And Vivarium is, like, the kind of, you know,

04:15terrifying version of accomplishing those goals.

04:19You know, you buy a house, but it's

04:21in a place that has no character.

04:24In fact, every house is exactly the same.

04:26You have a child, but the child is, like, a parasite,

04:28literally sucking the life out of you.

04:30You have a relationship with a woman,

04:32but she is going through some kind of, like, you know,

04:36Freudian, Oedipal trauma with this boy,

04:39who is kind of trying to turn her against the man.

04:45This movie was made in Europe.

04:47And when you do a movie in Europe,

04:50there are different financial considerations

04:53because it's being produced by, like, the state, you know?

04:59And so they don't have the same requirements for the movie

05:03to make, you know, money back.

05:06When you do an American independent movie,

05:08it's usually paid for by a rich person,

05:11and that rich person wants to get their money back.

05:13That's why they're rich in some ways,

05:15because they have this kind of desire for money.

05:19And so they produce movies that have

05:21some more commercial appeal.

05:23What's great about Vivarium is that it's not a really,

05:27is that it's a really wonderful art film,

05:31and it's a fever dream.

05:32And it's kind of abstract and terrifying, you know,

05:35rather than, you know, kind of a hero's journey.

05:39So maybe it wouldn't be made in America.

05:41I don't know.

05:41I mean, America also makes movies that are good sometimes.

05:45It's like 3,000 movies that come out every week.

05:47I'm sure some of them are fine.

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