Personally, I am a bit conflicted on the Razzie Awards. Frequently, they seem mean-spirited and often impact people who had little to do with the decisions behind the scenes that decided how a movie was received. Then awards season starts, and I see Hollywood blowing itself, and I stop caring. One person who says winning a Razzie impacted their career is Jesse Eisenberg.
He “won” the award for playing Lex Luthor in Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. That movie made some serious box office, but was widely derided by fans and heralded the beginning of the end of the SnyderVerse.
Speaking at the BFI London Film Festival, Eisenberg says the worst supporting actor win had a negative effect:
“Listen, a lot of it just came from fear. I couldn’t get into movie studio parts anymore because I had won a Raspberry Award from [being in the] Batman movie … and I saw the trajectory. So I was like, I’ve got to direct movies. That’s why I started writing them, just to kind of keep my career afloat, really.
The industry tells you what they want from you. The industry did not want me to be in a superhero movie, and if you’re smart and self-aware, you learn that quickly. And you know, it’s the unsuccessful actor that goes ‘No, I want to be in more of those.’ It’s not going to happen and they don’t want you there and they wouldn’t have given you a Raspberry Award if they wanted you there. That’s an award for bad acting. And so the industry tells you what it wants and if you want a career in the arts you have to follow the things that you’re being told are liked.”
Recently, he has directed When You Finish Saving the World in 2022, A Real Pain in 2024, and The Debut which is released in December.
