Interview: Jesse Eisenberg

The Squid and the Whale is story that walks that thin line of drama and comedy. As easy it is to laugh at many situations in the film there is also that potential to be disgusted, to cry, to feel uncomfortable as you watch the harsh realities that are sometimes too ugly to look at, let alone make a movie about.

Set in the 1985, The Squid and the Whale is told through the eyes of a New York teenager and his younger brother who learn their parents are getting a divorce. Stuck in the middle they choose sides and react differently to the separation. The older brother is unable to see the reality that surround him and he begins talking like his intellectual father and even imagining he wrote “Hey You” by Pink Floyd. The younger brother acts like a grown man filled with thoughts of sex, drinking, and sports. Their initial reactions are extreme but time brings them back closer to reality.

The The Squid and the Whale is real and tangible. The texture of the film stock, the documentary handheld camera, the Brooklyn setting and the natural make-up add to its accessibility and immediacy. You feel apart of this dysfunctional family whether you like it or not and you begin to understand who these characters are even if they don’t understand themselves. We get an insight to who each character is by what they say; they’re tastes in music, film and literature give them their identity in a city where everyone wears their culture on their sleeve. There are references to Jean Luc Godard, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Pink Floyd to name a few. They are definitely New Yorkers, the type of New Yorkers you might come across in a Woody Allen film. Dysfunction begins as soon as the movie fades in and you ride the long and winding course full of downs and no ups. At the end ! a lot is because some things can never be resolved.

With the Squid and the Whale, writer-director Noah Baumbach opens his mental diary to reveal the world of his youth. Based on true events, Noah tells a story that gives you the feeling it had to be told in order to be let go of. It plays like a confession; a releasing of all the memories and emotions of the past. It is very specific to this time in Noah’s life in the sense that it even leaves you with no sense of the future for these characters. Wes Anderson is a producer on Squid and this is their second collaboration – their first was the script of Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

The cast is full of strong performances which overshadows the fact that visually they don’t look like a family. Jeff Daniels plays the father who can’t seem to understand what a husband or a father is supposed to do. Laura Linney plays the mother who is feeling young again with the recent publishing of her first book. Jesse Eisenberg brings the same kind of youthful sensibilities from his performance in Roger Dodger as he plays the older brother stuck in the moment unable to realize the past nor the future. Owen Kline as the younger brother is wise beyond his years both as an actor and as a character. To interfere with the emotions of that already unstable family are William Baldwin with a comedic performance as a tennis trainer and Anna Paquin as a sensual young writer.

Justin Ambrosino: What were the rehearsals like?
Jesse Eisenberg: Well my character is based on Noah, so we had talked about some of his experiences and I spent a lot of time with him and got a sense of his mannerisms. It’s not right to mimic those, a film has to be fictionalize and entertaining on its’ own terms. It was a unique rehearsal process because I was playing the guy who was directing me. It created a new challenge from me aside from learning the lines.

JA: Would you consider this a biopic in any way?
JE: It really wasn’t reverential. This is a sort of fictionalize piece with four leading characters with their own flaws and struggles.

JA: Did you or any of the other actors improvise on set?
JE: Nobody really wanted to. The script is incredible and it would be stupid to. When you are on set there are always little things that change but it would be foolish to say anything else because I’m not as clever as Noah is.
JA: Do you consider yourself a New York Actor?
JE: Yes. I live here, but I’m out in LA right now dong a play called Orphans that we are planning on doing on Broadway eventually. It’s a three character assemble play; Al Pacino is in it. He wanted to do it in L.A. first so when it came to New York it would be ready for the critical audience here. He has a great work ethic.

JA: Explain your choices?
JE: I’ve turned down a lot of big movies that are bad. I like to act in films that I like and besides people in the independent world see what you are doing and you build the groundwork for your career. Once you develop your own style of acting you can bring that into bigger productions, if you want.

JA: What are you working on next?
JE: Besides Orphans, I’m doing a film called “The Living Wake,” its being made for about $250,000 in Maine starting next week.

Samuel Goldwyn Films releases The Squid and the Whale exclusively in New York on October 5th followed by a wider limited release in more theatres in the coming weeks.