Jesse Eisenberg's new 'Social Network' profile: Less friendly - USA Today

By Anthony Breznican, USA TODAYAfter years playing sweet, earnest and awkward in movies such as Adventureland,The Squid and the Whale and Zombieland, the actor has shown a more sinister side with his ruthless portrayal of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network.

Critical hosannas for the role may lead to an Oscar nomination, and the high-profile part is helping the boyish 27-year-old transition from "Hey, it's that guy" to a household name.

But some signature halting nervousness comes into Eisenberg's voice when he talks about reactions he has gotten after screenings of the film.

"We do these question-and-answer sessions, and some people say, 'Why ... wha ... I was so turned off by your character. He was such a jerk. Why — why would you want to play this character?' " he says, repeating the stammering indignation. "There are these almost aggressive condemnations."

"The real other extreme is, 'I just wanted to give him a hug through the whole movie. I just felt so bad for him' — this is my mother talking," Eisenberg jokes. "But other people, too. 'The kid was so desperate to connect and just doesn't know how to. He's so lonely.' "

Even the visuals in the film try to underline that. Director "David Fincher practically composed the movie that way, with him behind panes of glass, in corners of rooms, framing him in a way that makes him look more isolated," Eisenberg says.

One personal reaction the actor hasn't received is from Zuckerberg himself, who did not cooperate with the filmmakers or meet Eisenberg prior to the shooting.

The script, by West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin, explores the fractured friendships and allegiances between Zuckerberg and a handful of fellow Harvard students who in 2004 helped create Facebook, now estimated to be worth $33 billion.

On The Oprah Winfrey Show, Zuckerberg dismissed the film with a smile: "The last six years have been a lot of coding and focus and hard work, but you know, maybe it would be fun to remember it as partying and all this crazy drama."

Zuckerberg was on the show to discuss a $100 million donation to Newark's troubled school system, which took place on the day of the movie's premiere — something widely regarded as an effort to burnish the back-stabbing image depicted in the film.

Eisenberg is inclined to go easier on Zuckerberg. "What he did last week was so incredibly generous," the actor says. "To attribute it to anything else seems mean-spirited and cynical."

It may be the only time he goes easy on Zuckerberg. Though Eisenberg didn't set out to attack, he plays the young CEO-to-be as brilliant but revoltingly condescending and lacking even a modicum of tact.

That's before the story even gets rolling.

Once Facebook begins to take shape as one of new media's most powerful forces, he betrays best friend and co-founder Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield, Never Let Me Go) and cuts out the brash twin frat brothers who proposed the idea.

"Mark's concern, which may account for seemingly ruthless behavior, was to be in charge at a young age, and you have to be aggressive and occasionally do something unpopular. Well ... that's not something new for him," Eisenberg says.

But in the face of success, why betray a friend? Eisenberg sees it this way: "Friendship is nice and contributed to some pleasant evenings, but it's nothing compared to the more important goal — the maintenance and expansion of Facebook."

It's a not a philosophy Eisenberg necessarily follows, though he acknowledges that success in Hollywood requires aggression and restlessness.

"I don't think of myself that way, but in retrospect, I didn't work for about seven months two years ago, and in that time, I wrote two plays and a musical for myself," he says. "And I almost completed a novel."

As a kid growing up in New Jersey, he became interested in acting around age 7, doing children's theater with his sister, then 10.

"I did it to be with her, but then I wanted to be in plays with adults, and then wanted to be in plays with bigger sets," he says. "I just always wanted to move up to the next level."

As a teenager, he took bus trips to New York, auditioning for Broadway, television and film. By the time he was a senior in his performing arts school, he had landed two movies, Roger Dodger and The Emperor's Club.

Eisenberg says he and Zuckerberg may be motivated by insecurity.

"It's fear of failure. I constantly feel on the last day of a movie that it's the last day of my career," he says. "I could read the nicest thing about myself and say, 'They only said great. ... They couldn't say very great?' "

The curse of ambition is that nothing is enough. Even "very great" can underwhelm.

"Then you could say, 'This review isn't even grammatically correct,' " Eisenberg says with a laugh. " 'It's meaningless!' "

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