LOS ANGELES?Jesse Eisenberg was recently quoted saying that since his ?Adventureland? leading lady Kristen Stewart hit the big leagues with her mega hit ?Twilight,? he?s not allowed to talk to her anymore.
Of course, Jesse was just joking, including his talk of a restraining order, now that Kristen has legions of fans, thanks to her blockbuster vampire fantasy film. The actor was all praises for Kristen, who made ?Adventureland,? which was directed by Greg Mottola of ?Superbad? fame, before ?Twilight.?
In the comedy-drama set in 1987, Jesse plays James, a virginal college graduate who is forced to work at his hometown amusement park so he can have money for graduate school. What appears to be a summer of drudgery at first becomes a memorable one when James meets park co-worker Em, played by Kristen, who gets to hone her teen angst here as a prelude to the ?Twilight? role.
?Overwhelmed?
Jesse and Kristen have a good rapport onscreen and there is a wonderful supporting cast: Ryan Reynolds, Martin Starr, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Adam Scott, Matt Bush and Margarita Levieva. The ?80s seemed like only yesterday and yet here?s a film that?s already treating that decade as a nostalgic era, complete with music from The Cure, Husker Du, Falco and The Replacements.
?Kristen is just so incredible,? the boyish, curly-haired Jesse told us in an interview at the Four Seasons Hotel. ?I was so overwhelmed for two reasons. One is she was only 17 when we made this movie. The other thing is that I was so surprised by how funny she is. We did a lot of improvisation. Greg was very encouraging. We did one take where we adhered to the lines in the script. Then we did several takes where we could say whatever we wanted to say, which was really nice.?
The actor who appeared in the acclaimed Jeff Daniels-Laura Linney indie film ?The Squid and the Whale? continued: ?She?s so wonderfully real and emotionally present. The comedy that I like is derived from something real. It was easy to play off Kristen. I was really nervous to start doing the movie because the relationship of my character and Kristen?s is so intimate. If we?re not on the same page, it could be disastrous. You have to be there for two months. Acting romantic is potentially very awkward.?
When asked if he and Kristen hung out together, this was the way Jesse answered: ?It?s such a weird thing to do a movie. For example, I did a movie in Georgia (?Zombieland?). None of the actors were from Georgia in the same way that none of the actors on ?Adventureland? were from Pittsburgh. So just by virtue of being in a new city together and living in the same apartment complex, you end up bonding in an unusually accelerated manner. So it was really nice. You?d work for 15 hours with everybody, then you?d go home and hang out together some more for an hour and then go to sleep. It?s a wonderful communal environment.?
?She?s great,? he added about Kristen. ?There?s that cliché or stereotype of actresses being high-strung. She?s the opposite of that.?
Misfit
Of his own coming-of-age, the native New Yorker who grew up with a mom who worked as a clown and a college professor dad said with a laugh, ?It was a very difficult one ... I didn?t fit in school at all so theater was an outlet for me. We lived about an hour away from New York City so when I was old enough to take the bus to New York, I would go to do plays and Broadway. A lot of it came from not fitting in at school and wanting an outlet. I still haven?t graduated from college. My dad is a professor so he is very intent on me finishing school. I have a year left. They love it when I do a movie like this, which I?m so proud of.?
Aside from the comedy-horror ?Zombieland,? Jesse also stars in the crime-drama ?Holy Rollers,? which supports once more the cliché that sometimes truth is indeed really stranger than fiction. Jesse explained: ?It?s a true story about a Hasidic Jew guy who becomes an Ecstasy drug dealer (laughter)?yes, he?s got to make a living and it always elicits that kind of response. But it?s an extremely dramatic movie so I hope they change the title. The title is ?Holy Rollers? because you?re on a roll when you?re on Ecstasy. It?s a really great movie. It?s a nice commentary on faith and the butting heads of the modern world and the Hasidic world. That it is based on a true story makes it pretty provocative.?
Pressed to share more details about this truly interesting story, Jesse said: ?In the late ?90s, before 9/11 happened, airport security was not as heightened. They weren?t checking some of these Hasidic Jews. They had black coats, hats and stuff on. These guys were carrying suitcases full of Ecstasy. These kids came from such an insular world that they don?t know what illegal drugs were. It was just a part of their lives. They thought they were carrying medicine for rich people and at the time, Ecstasy was legal in Holland. There were a lot of drugs coming from that part of the world.
?Major operation?
?They had this major operation. They weren?t flying out of Amsterdam. They drove to Brussels and then flew into Montreal where there was a Hasidic Jewish population. Then they flew to New York. These guys who lived in Brooklyn were getting paid more money than they ever made in their textile jobs on the Lower East Side. It?s an incredible story. I think they?re all in various phases of prison terms now.?
Teased about looking virginal despite his age (he?s 25), Jesse dished, ?I?ve been with the same person for seven years. She would have left me a long time ago if I was still a virgin.?
E-mail the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com and read his blog, ?The Nepales Report,? on http://blogs.inquirer.net/nepalesreport.
