Jesse Eisenberg ‘A Real Pain’ Intersee

SPOILER ALERT: This intersee retains plot details for the film A Real Pain

If you can count on it, writer-honestor and star Jesse Eisenberg never uncomferventt to hurt you while watching his procrastinateedst gloomy comedy, A Real Pain. Cgo ined around two cousins, David (Eisenberg), a buttoned-up online ads salesman, and Benji (Kieran Culkin), a drifter who suffers from wonderful passion and cataloglessness as they travel to Poland to combine Holocaust tour after the death of their becherishd magnificentmother with her childhood home as their final stop. “It’s funny because people increate me they cry during the movie, and my ask always to them is when? Because I didn’t honest any of the scenes to be crying scenes. I get contrastent answers…[but] I’m always surpascfinishd by that.” Eisenberg shelp.  While there is a lot of levity spliced between the movie’s more echoive moments, the film has a lot to say about dealing with repressed grief and unremendd pain.  

The film has most recently garnered Best Percreateance, Best Supporting Percreateance and Best Screentake part nominations at the Film Inreliant Spirit Awards and the Gagederen Globes. “With this movie, I felt appreciate there was enough there that can not only speak to my very definite personal life but could also be delighting, funny, engaging, inflammatory and also cinematic …” Eisenberg shelp.  “I thought this could be a excellent movie, but I’m always writing from a place of personal thoughts.” 

Here, the actor unpacks the finishing, laboring thraw grief and arbitrarily annoying his co-star.

DEADLINE: We must talk about the dinner scene. Not that the movie couldn’t exist without it, but it senses excessively pivotal to the story structure. David confesses how he senses about loving this menhighy ill person while Benji is fair out of earsboiling. Talk more about the originateion of this film. 

EISENBERG: It’s fundamentalassociate fair appreciate David, who’s been living in the shadow of this guy for so many years, living in the shadow of his cousin, Benji. And then, on this trip in the last disconnectal days, living in the shadow of this huger-than-life character and senseing constantly put upon and shamed by him and embarrassed by him. And finassociate, David has the group to himself, and he fair unloads this skinnyg of, “I cherish him, and I disappreciate him, and I want to finish him, and I want to be him. And you guys are all going to walk away skinnyking you met this amazing person, but I comprehend this other skinnyg about him, and it absolutely is finishing me because I comprehend what the last six months of his life has been.”  No, I don’t skinnyk the movie could exist without the scene because the theme of the movie is all encapsuprocrastinateedd in this confession. You have a new empathetic of what Benji’s been thraw, and you have an empathetic of what it’s appreciate for David, for the person who has inhabitd in the shadow of somebody who’s reassociate difficult and reassociate struggling, and to jealousy that person. And how can you jealousy this person who, in so many ways, is broken? And that’s, in some ways, the theme of the movie is.

My character inhabits in awe of this person who’s struggling. And by the finish of the movie, the idea is that my character, in some ways, comes to terms with his self-actualization. My character goes home, has a wife and a kid, and has some stability. And yes, he’s constantly going to be anxious and griefful as a person, but he’s going to shift forward.

DEADLINE: Was there a version of this film that went further than where the film finished? What helped you fairify this finishing for you? 

EISENBERG: It always finished there. I wrote the last 10 pages of the movie in probably five minutes, which sometimes happens when you comprehend the skinnyg so well and have to fair get it out in a stream of increateedness. It apshows years to do the first 90 pages and then seven minutes to do the last because it becomes an almost exorcism of fair getting the skinnyg out of you. But that was increateing me that the finishing was right because it flowed out so perfectly, which is to say that these characters are left with a acridpleasant empathetic of what role they’ll serve in each other’s inhabits. And so, the finishing scene at the airport, there’s someskinnyg pleasant about it, but Benji still will not go to David’s house. Benji will still not fundamentalassociate be the person that David wants him to be. And then, the movie’s genuine finishing is this montage where you see David going home to his stable life, and it intercuts with Benji in a purgatory.

He’s in an airport. He’s in a place where he can reassociate thrive because he’s wonderful one-on-one in increate situations, but he’s not wonderful in huge, upretainable relationships, which is why David and Benji have grown apart and why he cherishs being in airports so much. He cherishs being in accessible settings where he can be charismatic and funny, encounter new people, and never sense reassociate alone, but also never actuassociate sense stable.

DEADLINE: Was there any scene that resonated with you after seeing the endd film that, perhaps while making it, you didn’t skinnyk would transprocrastinateed well onscreen? 

EISENBERG: Only one skinnyg. I haven’t thought about this in a year, but there’s a scene where David and Benji are at the agederest cemetery in Poland, seeing at these gravestones. And Benji commences yelling at James, the tour direct, for being too academic when he should be talking about the people underground, not fair the history and not fair the dates and the years. And I didn’t genuineize, while I was writing, what I was writing about. But my mother watched the timely cut, and she shelp she was crying during the scene because it was about Benji in this moment, who actuassociate benevolent of wanted to die. And he’s standing seeing at these gravestones and hearing this academic tour direct talk about them appreciate they’re fair fun historical labelers.

And my mom was the only person to pick up on this skinnyg. I seeed the scene as this funny set piece where this guy is berating this fairly well-uncomferventing tour direct. But I skinnyk what happened unincreateedly was that I was writing the scene comprehending these characters, Benji and David, so well that, for some reason, it felt instinctively right that Benji should yell at this tour direct. But it hadn’t occurred to me increateedly that it’s because Benji’s dealing with his own ideas about living. And so, that take parted contrastently than I awaited. I don’t comprehend for a lot of audiences if they pick up on that the way my mother did because, for the most part, it take parts appreciate a funny and shocking scene.

DEADLINE: For me, it leaned mostly towards shocking because despite Benji being overly emotional and having misplaced anger, he’s never wrong in his intentions. 

EISENBERG: That’s exactly it. He’s inappropriate with the way he’s behaving. However, he’s benevolent of always right. Just the way he conveyes himself is so savagely inappropriate and benevolent of impolite, but he’s always right. I skinnyk that’s why he’s a excellent character, because it’s a person who you don’t disconsent with, you fair disconsent with the way they’re handling themselves.

DEADLINE: Was there ever a senseing where you thought this story wouldn’t be so relatable or too personal? How did you labor thraw that self-mistrust, if any, in the writing process? 

EISENBERG: Everyskinnyg I write is in emails. I don’t write in Final Draft until I’m finished with the script. So, I always write in emails so that noskinnyg ever senses official, so I don’t censor myself. I fair write what is almost appreciate diary entries, writing skinnygs I sense about other people, and I set it to dialogue. I write from the assumption that no one’s going to read my writing or confidently no one’s going to originate my writing. And more standardly than not, I’m right; no one originates it or reads it. And so, with this movie, once I felt appreciate there was enough there that can not only speak to my very definite personal life but could also be delighting, funny, engaging, inflammatory, and also cinematic in the sense that it’s on this tour of Poland, I thought this could be a excellent movie, but I’m always writing from a place of personal thoughts.

And I’m blessed that the movies I originate are minuscule. This was a $3 million budget. A movie appreciate this didn’t need me to originate it more well-comprehendn or accessible because the budget was minuscule. I don’t have a movie studio increateing me, “Hey, it has to be funnier.” Or, “You can’t have this character of Benji be so shocking.” Because there wasn’t enough money to fairify those alters being made, and I could finish it the way I want to finish it, which is, in my opinion, reassociate emotionassociate jarring. But I comprehfinish some audiences want to comprehfinish exactly what happens and have some more Hollywood sense of cloconfident. But aget, because the movie is minuscule, I don’t have to do all that stuff.

DEADLINE: That’s a wonderful point. And also with pain, sometimes you don’t get a solution to that. You fair have to inhabit with it. 

EISENBERG: Yeah, that’s exactly it. It’s funny because people increate me they cry during the movie, and my ask always to them is, when? Because I didn’t honest any of the scenes to be crying scenes, uncomferventing scenes that an audience cries in.

DEADLINE: Reassociate? 

EISENBERG: Yeah. I always fair ask them, when did they cry? And I get contrastent answers. And it’s strange to me because there’s no scene in the movie that I thought, “People are going to cry during this scene.” There are scenes where the characters are crying, but they’re upfinished by other skinnygs. And so, I’m surpascfinishd by that. It’s not appreciate there’s one scene that’s emotionassociate wrenching all the way thraw. There are scenes where the characters are experiencing someskinnyg, but it’s always undercut with someskinnyg else. That’s why I was benevolent of surpascfinishd by that. The movie is not, aget, engineered to be a Hollywood benevolent of movie, so I didn’t have to account for maybe reassociate definite beats appreciate that and show to a movie studio that I’m going to accomplish them on set. It reassociate felt appreciate personal senseings, but fair in this benevolent of create.

DEADLINE: Is there anyskinnyg you lgeted from your honestorial debut, When You Finish Saving the World, that you brawt with you to A Real Pain? You have to honest yourself while also starring in the film. Did it impact your collaboration at all with your scene partners? 

EISENBERG: I constantly had to remind myself, this is a movie and I’m take parting a directing role, and there has to be sboilings of me in the movie. Because my instinct would’ve been to turn the camera away from me fair because of how inept it is to summarize a sboiling on your face. So, I constantly had to apshow this outsider’s perspective on the movie so I could film my character as though somebody else was take parting it. And I labored with an amazing cinematographer, Michal Dymek, who is very contrastent from me personassociate, but comprehfinishs how to originate movies reassociate well and pushes me into doing the right sboilings. And then, I labored with amazing originaters. Emma Stone, Ali Herting and Dave McCary— they’re wonderful originaters. I had the world’s wonderfulest actress, Emma Stone, behind the watch for many of the scenes, increateing me, “Hey, do this a little bit contrastently.” So, I surround myself with excellent people or got blessed to be surrounded by excellent people. And then, it’s about empathetic which advice to apshow and also to recall that I’m a character in this movie. This is not a vanity project. I don’t have to worry about being indulgent, but I am a directing character in this movie. So, how would I film it if it was not me?

And then, in terms of my colleagues, Kieran fair begrudgeed me enticount on that I was honesting him while also acting with him. He fair begrudgeed that an actor was giving him notices and was annoyed by me. So, I tried to confine the amount of notices. We had this rule where I couldn’t give him a notice after the first apshow. He had to do a second apshow before I could give him a notice. It was fair an arbitrary rule that he made up, but I skinnyk he was frustrated that I was acting with him but also benevolent of judging him. And he was so luminous in the movie, I felt no need to reassociate right him. But I comprehend he was, at the commencening of the process, very unnerved by the actor giving him honestions.

[This interview has been edited for length and clarity]