Jesse Eisenberg has described his latest comedy The Debut as a “love letter to theatre“, while also acknowledging the “silliness of theatre” ahead of its Italian premiere at the Rome Film Fest.
Eisenberg, who wrote, directed and co-stars in the film, is in Rome with The Debut star Julianne Moore, who is set to receive a lifetime achievement award from the festival.
“There’s something silly about musical theatre, and so the movie kind of loves its subject while also showing kind of the absurdity of it,” said Eisenberg.
The Debut centres on Mona, a New Jersey housewife played by Moore, who throws herself headfirst into method acting after she’s cast in her local musical by a strong-willed director played by Paul Giamatti.
The film has been gathering awards momentum since screening at Telluride, Toronto, New York and San Sebastian, and closing the London film festival last week. It is being released in Italy through I Wonder Pictures.
“The work that Julianne Moore does in this movie, and Paul Giamatti as well, is so brilliantly absurd and also grounded. What they’re doing is clownish, but at the same time you feel everything, and that’s how I think of community theatre,” said Eisenberg.
Eisenberg said the movie was based on his early life experiences. “I was just like Mona, a very shy kid who felt like an outcast, who didn’t feel like I had a group of friends, who felt invisible. And then I joined this community theatre, and I suddenly found a community.”
Moore praised Eisenberg’s script, saying it was remarkable for transmuting his experience as a young child joining community theatre into the body of a middle-aged woman.
“For me as an actor, when I read a script and I realise that something is written so subjectively, it’s a great joy to play. It’s always wonderful to be in the eyes of the creator, in the seat of that character,” said Moore.
“So often we sense it when we see a character feels like they’re being objectified. [But] what’s most moving to all of us is to be inside of someone else’s experience. That’s how we experience our lives.”
Eisenberg, who noted the US film industry is now making many fewer comedies for cinemas, said he developed his comic voice as a young teenager writing stand-up comedy jokes.
But his approach changed with his acting training, “where you don’t just deliver jokes. You’re actually trying to feel something. So my comedy writing developed with my acting training, and it produced something like this, which is a woman who’s kind of going through the world with life-or-death stakes.”
“It’s a real performance she’s giving. She’s crying. She’s aching. She’s suffering. She’s screaming. She’s bleeding. But it’s funny. That’s my style of comedy because of my acting background. My last movie [A Real Pain] was the same thing. It was a comedy, but it was about these two guys going on this trip to learn about suffering. I feel weird writing just comedy.”
Moore noted Eisenberg had given her character two distinct character arcs in The Debut. “I had the character arc of Mona, coming from a place of yearning, desire, and then a sort of a revolution in her personal life and a resolve and a kind of a purpose.
”And then he gave me the character journey that an actor has, where you start off by not knowing, in this kind of like amoeba-like stage, and you go through all of this sort of mess trying things, trying accents, trying hair choices, trying physical things, then ending up with the character.”
Moore added: “This script is one of the best I’ve ever read in my entire career. I’ve been doing this for a very long time, and this script absolutely took my breath away. Jesse’s an extraordinary writer and creator of characters, and also knows how to build a world, and he builds it in very unusual and distinct tones.”
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