Jesse Eisenberg Says a ‘Batman v Superman’ Razzie Shut Him Out of Studio Roles

Few awards carry as much baggage as a Razzie. The Golden Raspberries are meant to be a tongue-in-cheek roast of Hollywood’s worst, but for the people who actually take home a trophy, the joke can linger long after the ceremony ends. For Jesse Eisenberg, that lingering effect has now been explained in his own words.

Eisenberg played Lex Luthor in Zack Snyder’s 2016 blockbuster ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,’ opposite Ben Affleck’s Batman and Henry Cavill’s Superman. His twitchy, fast-talking take on the villain divided audiences, and it earned him the Razzie for worst supporting actor. The film itself opened to $424.1 million globally and collected 4 Razzies in total, including worst screenplay, worst sequel and worst screen combo for Cavill and Affleck.

At a BFI London Film Festival screen talk on Sunday, October 18, Eisenberg opened up about what that award meant for his career. According to Variety, the 43-year-old actor said he “couldn’t get into movie studio parts anymore” after winning it, and that he was already picturing the trajectory. His comments about the studio shutout have quickly become one of the biggest talking points from the festival.

The talk was not a bitter one. Eisenberg framed his career pivot as something driven by anxiety rather than resentment, saying that “a lot of it just came from fear.” He described acting as an industry with no safe middle ground.

“If you’re an actor, you’re constantly panicked about ‘Am I on an upslope or a downslope?'” he said, adding that there is no plateau. In his telling, you are either running up the treadmill or you are yesterday’s news. As a self-described paranoid person, he says he can spot a decline early.

His answer was to take control of his own work. “So I was like, I’ve got to direct movies,” he said. “That’s why I started writing them, just to kind of keep my career afloat, really.”

The most pointed part of the conversation was about the lesson he took from the experience. “The industry tells you what they want from you,” Eisenberg said. “The industry did not want me to be in a superhero movie, and if you’re smart and self-aware, you learn that quickly.”

He took the Razzie as a clear message rather than a joke. His takeaway was that he should not star in any more superhero films. The reported remarks suggest he sees the award as a signal from the industry rather than just a trophy for a single performance.

Eisenberg had already said before that the film’s poor reception damaged his career. What is new is how directly he links that fallout to his move behind the camera. For years, fans have argued over whether his Lex Luthor was misunderstood or simply miscast, and he seems to have made peace with the debate.

The pivot clearly paid off. His second film as writer and director, ‘A Real Pain,’ arrived in 2024 and became an awards-season favorite. Eisenberg earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay, while co-star Kieran Culkin won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

His latest directorial effort, ‘The Debut,’ closed this year’s London Film Festival on the same Sunday as the talk. Eisenberg wrote, directed and stars in the film, which also features Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti. It is a long way from the studio roles he says dried up.

Eisenberg has also been selective about revisiting old characters. He turned down the chance to reprise Mark Zuckerberg in Aaron Sorkin’s ‘The Social Reckoning,’ the follow-up to ‘The Social Network,’ for which he earned an Oscar nomination. Jeremy Strong plays Zuckerberg in the new film, and Eisenberg has said he thinks Strong will be amazing in the role.

The DC universe has also moved on. Nicholas Hoult is now playing Lex Luthor in James Gunn’s ‘Superman,’ leaving Eisenberg’s version as a polarizing chapter in the franchise’s history. He did return for a brief scene in ‘Justice League,’ but that was as far as it went.

Looking back, Eisenberg’s story is a reminder of how much a single piece of Hollywood noise can shape a career, even one as accomplished as his. He may have lost the studio parts, but he gained a new creative identity.

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