Paul Giamatti, Julianne Moore in 'The Debut.' Matt Infante/A24 Jesse Eisenberg’s musical comedy The Debut moved audiences to tears and laughter out of Telluride and Toronto, and has already generated buzz about a best picture and an acting nomination for Julianne Moore at the Academy Awards.
All of which already has Eisenberg, let’s say, verklempt as his third movie gets set to open the Vancouver Film Festival on Oct. 1 after a run on the festival circuit. “I feel like I’m just a person in the arts, and once one job ends, you look for the next one. This is the only way I can kind of maintain my sanity going through all of this end-of-the-year stuff,” The Social Network star tells The Hollywood Reporter.
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A24 has set a Dec. 11 theatrical opening for Eisenberg’s latest directorial effort. A Real Pain, Eisenberg’s second turn in director’s chair, earned an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay and an Oscar win as best supporting actor for Kieran Culkin. “My father is very smart guy and he told me, ‘If you’re invited to the Academy Awards once in your life, you are at the point 0.1 percent top of your field, and you should feel just incredibly lucky, no matter where you’re sitting in that building,’” the actor-turned-director explained.
“So I live by that idea, rather than that I deserve something, or that the film deserves something. Everybody works hard on their movies. Who knows how all the chips fall? And some get attention and some don’t,” Eisenberg added.
The Debut centers on a meek housewife, Mona Friedman, played by Moore, who is unexpectedly cast in a local community theater production of a musical.
Under the spell of the enigmatic and, at times, sadistic director (Giamatti), Mona loses herself in the role and the high-stakes world of this local theatre production. Based on its Telluride premiere, Moore is already a front runner for a best actress Oscar nomination for her star turn.
“What I’m really hoping is people see the story about a woman who has to get out of her life, or she’s going to die. It’s a person who, if she were to spend one more day in that house, it would be a death sentence. And she has this one opportunity to get out of her life and to find herself and to find her voice and to find something that actually makes her feel alive and makes her feel visible,” Eisenberg said of Moore’s character.
He added the musical comedy is entirely autobiographical and springs from his experience as a 7 year-old in 1990 New Jersey community theatre. “When I was younger, I was terrified of the world, until I walked into these theaters with adults who seemed to be just very nice. Not only was there no bullying, it was the opposite. People were making an effort to make you feel good about yourself,” Eisenberg said.
With hindsight, he now sees his fellow community theater performers like him were outcasts in their own lives, which provided the inspiration for his movie’s screenplay. The Debut also stars Eisenberg, who also penned the tunes and lyrics for the musical-within-the-movie, alongside Halle Bailey, Havana Rose Liu, Bernadette Peters, Colton Ryan, Lilli Cooper, Maulik Pancholy and Bonnie Milligan.
All of which has the director looking to avoid getting stressed as his latest movie becomes part of an Oscar campaign by A24. “I really just try to think of what is it like to have a career in the arts. And the answer I keep coming back to it’s not about awards, but rather continuing to work in a complicated, unstable field, and thinking about things that way is the kind of the way to keep you sane,” Eisenberg said.
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