Stop poking him! Jesse Eisenberg has signed out of The Social Network chat.
The actor, who was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of Meta billionaire and big Sweet Baby Ray’s guy Mark Zuckerberg in Aaron Sorkin’s 2010 film, tried his best to dodge a question about his decision not to reprise his role in its forthcoming follow-up while visiting the Today show on Thursday.
“There’s been some reporting that you passed on the sequel,” anchor Craig Melvin said. “Why?”
Eisenberg played off the question. “You know, I was in Paris. And I had some tools, and I figured there was a way to make a little more of a statement at the Louvre,” he teased, referencing the Parisian museum’s recent jewel heist.
Merrick Morton/Columbia/Sony
Melvin laughed. “I see what you did there,” he said.
To which Eisenberg quickly fired back, “Yeah, I see what you did there. We both are playing chess.”
“Okay,” Melvin said.
“Okay,” Eisenberg replied.
Insert one very awkward stalemate between the pair here. That is, until Melvin broke the silence by telling Eisenberg, “Your turn.”
The Now You See Me star appeared gobsmacked by the sudden reversal. “Your turn? My turn?” he said, leaning forward in his seat. “I don’t… What… How… What do you have coming out next month?”
Melvin laughed again before getting them back on track. “The Social Network!” he exclaimed. “Why would you say no to a sequel of that?”
For “reasons that have nothing to do with how amazing that movie will be, really, truthfully,” Eisenberg replied. “But when you play a character, you feel at some point that you’ve grown into something else.”
When asked if he felt like he’d outgrown the role, Eisenberg continued, “Yeah, something. But it’s a really wonderful movie. I’m friends with Aaron Sorkin, who wrote and is directing this movie, and all of the reasons that I am not in it are completely unrelated to how brilliant it will be.”
Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.
The upcoming film, titled The Social Reckoning, will instead see Jeremy Strong take over as the newest onscreen iteration of Zuckerberg. While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter at an event earlier this month, Strong stated that Eisenberg’s portrayal of the tech titan has “nothing to do with” his own.
He added, “It’s a great character — fascinating, complex — and I’m approaching it with great care and empathy and objectivity. I’ve made two films with Aaron, and third time’s the charm.”
Earlier this year, Eisenberg explained why he doesn’t want to be “associated” with Zuckerberg moving forward.
“I haven’t been following [Zuckerberg’s] life trajectory, partly because I don’t…. When I think of myself as associated with somebody like that, it’s not like I played a great golfer and now people think I’m a great golfer. It’s this guy that’s doing things that are problematic,” Eisenberg said on BBC Radio 4’s Today program in February. “Taking away fact-checking and safety concerns, making people who are already threatened in this world more threatened.”
He’s not the only actor keeping his distance from the project, either. Andrew Garfield, who played Mark’s betrayed bestie, Eduardo Saverin, has also denied any involvement in the future follow-up.
“No, no,” Garfield told IndieWire. “Eduardo is in Singapore having a good time.”
