Jesse Eisenberg says winning a Golden Raspberry Award for his performance as Lex Luthor in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice made it harder for him to land studio movie roles, and that the experience pushed him toward writing and directing.
Speaking at the BFI London Film Festival, Eisenberg recalled how the Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor affected his career in the years after the 2016 superhero film. «I couldn’t get into movie studio parts anymore because I had won a Raspberry Award from the Batman movie … and I saw the trajectory,» he said, describing his shift away from studio work as partly driven by fear.
The award is handed out annually by the Golden Raspberry Awards Foundation to recognize what it considers the worst elements of film. For Eisenberg, the label attached to his name after playing a long-haired, eccentric version of the Superman villain became a professional liability rather than a footnote.
His performance remains one of the most debated elements of the polarizing film, which has retained a dedicated fan base even as critics singled out its philosophical ambitions over superhero escapism. Eisenberg went on to reprise the role in Justice League, but he said the industry’s message was clear.
«The industry tells you what they want from you. 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 said. «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.»
Eisenberg described acting as an unstable profession in which performers are constantly assessing 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?’ Because there’s no plateau,» he said. «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. And if you’re a paranoid person like me, you see it way in advance.»
Rather than continue chasing studio parts, Eisenberg said he learned to pivot toward writing and directing. Two projects to emerge from that change are A Real Pain, released in 2024, and The Debut, which is set to premiere in December.
The actor’s account offers a window into how industry recognition — even of the negative kind — can shape the kinds of opportunities performers are offered. Eisenberg framed his response as a matter of reading the signals around him and following the work that was being received well, rather than fighting a perception he could not change.
Batman v. Superman, directed by Zack Snyder, brought together Ben Affleck’s Batman and Henry Cavill’s Superman and divided audiences and critics on release. Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor was among its most controversial choices, and the Razzie cemented that reputation in the years that followed.
For Eisenberg, the episode appears to have marked a turning point rather than an ending. His move behind the camera has given him a different kind of career footing, one less dependent on the studio system that, by his account, had closed a door after the award.