‘It actually hurt my career...' Jesse Eisenberg reflects on polarising Lex Luthor role in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Jesse Eisenberg thinks playing Lex Luthor “hurt [his] career”.

The 41-year-old actor portrayed the DC villain in Zack Snyder’s 2016 film ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ and cameoed in ‘Justice League’ a year later, and has now admitted his “poorly received” performance as Lex Luthor had a detrimental effect on his Hollywood career.

During an appearance on Dax Shepard’s ‘Armchair Expert’ podcast, Eisenberg said: “I was in this Batman movie and the Batman movie was so poorly received, and I was so poorly received.

“I’ve never said this before and it’s kind of embarrassing to admit, but I genuinely think it actually hurt my career in a real way, because I was poorly received in something so public.”

The ‘Now You See Me’ star added that while he has worked on some unfavourable films before ‘Batman v Superman’ and ‘Justice League’, the backlash to his portrayal of Lex Luthor was a lot worse due to the popularity of the superhero franchise.

He continued: “I’ve been in poorly received things that just don’t see the light of day, and for the most part, no one knows.

“But this was so public, and I don’t read notices or reviews or movie press or anything, so I was unaware of how poorly it was received.”

While Eisenberg may now regret his performance as Lex Luthor, the ‘Zombieland’ actor said earlier this year he had enjoyed playing the character at the time.

He told Variety in January: “Whenever you play a role you feel connected to it.

“There’s no way around it. Any time you do anything, even if it’s a movie that’s a Hollywood kind of thing, you connect.”

Even so, Eisenberg has also conceded he likely wouldn’t return to the superhero genre, though would find the opportunity to do so “a pleasant shock” if he was presented with such an offer.

Speaking to Deadline about his time as Lex Luthor, he said: “Listen, I’m not a comic book fan. To me, it was not playing a role that I’d envisioned since childhood.

“To me, it was a chance to play this great character that this great writer wrote, and I loved doing that.

So, to play it is a joy, and to not play it isn’t something that I’m going to be ashamed to tell my kids about, because that is not an important genre in my life, even though I loved doing that movie.”

While Eisenberg’s time as Lex Luthor may be over, the actor has passed the torch to Nicholas Hoult, who will be playing the villain in James Gunn’s ‘Superman’.

The 35-year-old actor - who will be starring opposite David Corenswet’s Man of Steel in the 2025 blockbuster - teased his version of the character would be “smart and ruthless”.

He told Collider: “The thing about this Lex that was the most exciting for me was being in the James Gunn universe.

“Like you said, they’re so emotionally raw and powerful, but huge in the scope of the world and what he’s creating.

“This Lex obviously is smart and ruthless, and he has to outmanoeuvre Superman on certain levels because he can’t match him in others.”

Even if he may have some sinister plots against superman, the ‘Nosferatu’ star added his Lex Luthor would command some level of respect from the audience due to his brutal but logical plans.

Hoult continued: “But there’s also something about this character, hopefully, from my standpoint, where even though you perhaps don’t agree with his process, there’s an element where you can understand, on some levels, where he’s coming from and why what he’s pushing as his ideology is, perhaps, better for humanity.”