Jesse Eisenberg says winning a Golden Raspberry Award for his performance as Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice effectively closed the door on studio movie roles for a time. Speaking at the BFI London Film Festival, the actor recalled how the Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor changed how the industry saw him and made it harder to land the kinds of parts he had been pursuing.
Eisenberg described the shift as a deliberate response to signals from the business rather than a sudden decision. «I couldn’t get into movie studio parts anymore because I had won a Raspberry Award from the Batman movie,» he said. «And I saw the trajectory.» He framed his move away from studio work as a matter of reading the room: «Listen, a lot of it just came from fear.»
The award, handed out by the tongue-in-cheek Golden Raspberry Awards, is not typically treated as an honor. Eisenberg’s eccentric take on the Superman villain became one of the most debated elements of the 2016 film, and the Worst Supporting Actor Razzie attached a label to his name that he says followed him into casting conversations. He went on to reprise the role in Justice League, but the studio parts he had been getting did not return in the same way.
Instead, Eisenberg pivoted toward writing and directing. Two projects have emerged from that change in direction: A Real Pain, released in 2024, and The Debut, which is set to premiere in December. The shift reflects a broader pattern he described in which actors are constantly measuring whether their careers are rising or falling. «If you’re an actor, you’re constantly panicked about ‘Am I on an upslope or a downslope?’» he said. «Because there’s no plateau. Acting is just this unstable, awful industry where you are either on the treadmill and you’re doing okay and you’re running up or you are yesterday’s news and it’s awful.»
He added that the industry makes its preferences clear to performers, and that a self-aware actor learns to follow those signals. «The industry tells you what they want from you,» he 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 suggested that ignoring that message would be a mistake: «It’s the unsuccessful actor that goes ‘No, I want to be in more of those.’ It’s not going to happen and they don’t want you there and they wouldn’t have given you a Raspberry Award if they wanted you there.»
For Eisenberg, the lesson was that a career in the arts requires following what the industry signals it likes, even when that means leaving a high-profile franchise behind. «That’s an award for bad acting,» he said. «And so the industry tells you what it wants and if you want a career in the arts you have to follow the things that you’re being told are liked.»
Batman v Superman remains divisive years after its release, with fans still split over its tone and over Eisenberg’s performance in particular. The film drew a mixed critical reception, and Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor has stayed one of its most controversial ingredients. His account of the aftermath offers a rare look at how a single award can reshape an actor’s options, and at how one performer responded by building a different kind of career behind the camera.