Jesse Eisenberg Joined Bill Maher to Talk “A Real Pain,” Woody Allen and Tech CEOs

This week’s “Real Time” blended Oscar talk with election post-mortems

Bill Maher and Jesse Eisenberg
Bill Maher and Jesse Eisenberg on the latest "Real Time With Bill Maher."
HBO

 “It’s kind of like if Bernie Madoff sold Pokemon cards.” That’s how Bill Maher described the concept of meme coins, something that’s been in the news a lot lately. More broadly, it was a statement that combined culture, technology and politics — a convergence that was an especially pronounced theme of this week’s Real Time.

After the episode’s opening monologue, Maher was joined on stage by Jesse Eisenberg. The two have a long history, apparently, and Maher asked why they hadn’t seen each other in a while. Eisenberg brought up his move to Bloomington, Indiana, which led to a general conversation of both the city and state in question.

The two men shifted from there to discuss the film A Real Pain, for which Eisenberg was nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award. Eisenberg described the process of writing it and the people in his life who had inspired the film’s storyline. He also explained why he had chosen to play the character in it that he did and not the more chaotic role for which Kieran Culkin was Oscar-nominated.

According to Eisenberg, the advice came from Emma Stone, one of the film’s producers. “She said, ‘Don’t try to direct a movie where you’re managing a group of people while also playing this character, who … is this unhinged spontaneous live wire,’” Eisenberg explained. 

From there, the two of them also discussed the challenge of finding the proper tone to tell this particular story. ”You don’t want to make Harold and Kumar Go to Auschwitz,” Maher said. Eisenberg replied that he  “was very conscious of trying to not make a movie that was sanctimonious.”

Eisenberg’s very dry sense of humor came up a few times in the conversation, but he struck a more serious note later in the interview, when Maher asked him about the number of past Woody Allen collaborators who have said that they now regret working with Allen.

“To say I regret something seems a little bit like passing the buck,” Eisenberg replied. “The other thing I think about all the time, if I can use my platform to say something like that, I’d rather say, ‘Please donate money to the Middle Way House in Bloomington, Indiana. It’s a domestic violence shelter. And if you’re really concerned with issues surrounding domestic violence, please don’t ask an actor to have an opinion on something they don’t really know about. Please give money to this amazing shelter.’”

As their conversation came to an end, Maher asked Eisenberg about his experience playing both Lex Luthor and Mark Zuckerberg — and what he thought of the array of tech CEOs at the recent inauguration. Eisenberg’s frustration was clear in his response: “If you’re so rich and powerful, why are you not just spending your days doing good things for the world?”

Some of those themes continued in this week’s panel discussion, with Rep. Ro Khanna and ESPN host Stephen A. Smith. Maher asked Khanna, who represents Silicon Valley, about multiple CEOs shifting to the right in recent years. Khanna wasn’t sure the alliance would last.

“We’ll see how long they stick with the Trump administration and what he’s doing,” he replied. It’s one more thing to be mindful of in the months and years to come.

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Other notable moments from the episode: 

  • Maher’s initial mention of meme coins drew some applause, which he was a little worried by. “You’ve got meme coins? You do? …that’s not good,” he said.
  • Khanna on the early days of the Trump administration: “How is freezing Alzheimer’s research doing anything to help people’s lives?”
  • Maher on health insurance: “What the hell is a pharmacy benefit manager? I’m not sure, but I think I was one back in 1980 when I sold pot.”
  • Also Maher on health insurance: “It’s just so unbelievably complicated, like an electoral college that does prostate exams.”

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