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Though we desperately try not to think about it, awkwardness is a big part of life. It may be the only human experience that is defined by simultaneously wanting to forget about it and being completely unable to shake it off. Remember that embarrassing thing you said to your high school crush? Now try not to obsess over that for the next 20 minutes. As cringeworthy as it is to experience, feeling awkward is an essential part of being a person. That’s why having Jesse Eisenberg on the acting scene is so refreshing — Eisenberg excels at awkwardness.
Typically, two things will happen if you bring up Eisenberg in a conversation about actors. First, Eisenberg’s interpretation of Mark Zuckerburg in The Social Network will be mentioned. This portrayal will be praised by most but labelled as overrated by your one contrarian friend. Next, the eye rolling and groans will come. Yeah, Eisenberg is good, but he’s pseudo-indie, quirky good. He’s not mainstream good. He’s in the ranks of similarly “awkward” actors like Michael Cera, Tobey Maguire, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Elijah Wood — amazing in their fish-out-of-water element, but other than that, forgettable. Though there’s certainly an argument to be made against that characterization — Elijah Wood in particular is hauntingly morbid and compelling in Wilfred, a far cry from The Lord of the Rings — Eisenberg is one of the most common examples of that trope. He’s also one of the most incorrect examples.
Awkward characters and situations are a staple in pop culture, especially comedies. Watching someone else having to struggle through a terrible dinner with the in-laws or sidestep addressing their career as a porn star is a guaranteed source for humanizing conflict. You automatically feel for these characters because our immediate reaction when we see something embarrassing is to imagine how we’d handle the same situation. However, at the same time, you feel detached enough that you’re able to laugh at these characters. This is not the type of finely-tuned embarrassment that Eisenberg brings to his roles. Whereas other actors will play off their embarrassment with a winking sweetness, Eisenberg completely forgoes these quirky charms. The sort of awkwardness that Eisenberg’s performances embody are cringe-worthy to their core, and that’s why we can’t look away. They’re a dramatic study into this phenomena.
Perhaps this is why Eisenberg is never taken as seriously as he should be. Similar “awkward” actors rely on a combination of their underlying charms to guide them through the scene, like Joseph Gordon-Levitt in 500 Days of Summer. Tom is obsessive and hyper-focused, sure, but he’s also passionate and attractive. Eisenberg’s portrayals of awkward characters have little to no charming crutches. Instead, what Eisenberg delivers are characters who are so socially and personally insecure that you almost feel crippled watching them. This isn’t a critique of Eisenberg’s work; it’s praise. His portrayal of awkwardness make you as a viewer feel awkward.
Even when Eisenberg tries his hand at comedy, he delivers the same type of cringingly-distant performance. In Zombieland, Columbus (Eisenberg) is meek and insecure to a fault. Yes, the movie ends not only with Columbus learning to believe in himself, but also ends with Wichita (Emma Stone) coming to terms with her awkward friend. Columbus never changes much from the insecure man who was afraid to leave his apartment. Instead, he comes to terms with himself and finds his own accepting community. The same can be said with Eisenberg’s arc in the disturbing masterpiece, The Double. At the film’s end, Simon James learns the value of who he is, warts and all. As charming and charismatic as our meek protagonist’s double is, James Simon a horrible person. The movie doesn’t end with a dramatic change on the part of Simon James, transforming him into a newly-realized extrovert. It ends with the meek protagonist making a choice.
That in itself is why Eisenberg’s performances speak so clearly to me. When you feel like you’re the awkward person in a situation or when it’s clear you don’t belong, it feels genuinely terrible. You don’t have the energy to reimagine yourself into the adorkable goofball. Just standing wide-eyed from the sidelines feels like an overwhelming experience. You feel alone and disgusting and self hating. You feel lost while being surrounded by people. More than any actor I’ve seen, Eisenberg is able to bottle that internal horror and disgust and translate it onto the screen. He excels at capturing this complicated and cringe-worthy aspect of humanity and make it horrifyingly beautiful. That’s why we’re never going to look away from Eisenberg’s awkwardness.
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