Summary
- Jesse Eisenberg and Adrien Brody reunite on-screen for the film Manodrome, but Eisenberg didn’t think Brody would remember their previous collaboration in The Village.
- Despite their brief interaction in The Village, Eisenberg was star-struck by Brody, who was the most famous actor in the world at the time.
- Eisenberg praises Brody’s warm and inviting personality, which made their on-screen dynamic as a cult leader and vulnerable follower in Manodrome perfect.
Jesse Eisenberg and Adrien Brody unite on-screen for John Trengove’s Manodrome, an incel satire focused on a man whose life spirals out of control when he meets a mysterious family of men. However, the pair previously appeared in a movie together two decades ago, and Eisenberg really did not think that his co-star would recall their previous meeting.
Manodrome has opened to mixed reviews, but it’s impossible to deny the star power of its starring duo: Brody became the youngest recipient of the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2002 (a record he still holds) for his portrayal of Władysław Szpilman in Roman Polanski’s The Pianist at age 29; Eisenberg earned an Academy Award nod for 2010’s The Social Network. However, the last time they worked together was a very fleeting moment, and one that Eisenberg did not expect his Oscar-winning co-star to recall.
In an interview with MovieWeb, Eisenberg recalls working with Brody on M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village, where he had a one-line role:
“Adrien and I actually worked together in 2002, on a movie The Village by M. Night Shyamalan, and I had one line in it. He was the lead, and I didn’t think he would remember me from it because, again, he was the main part. And I had one line, my character’s name was ‘boy on stump’ because I stood on a stump.”
The part was so minor that even Eisenberg’s grandmother didn’t remember seeing him in the film:
“And my grandma saw the movie, and then called me and said she’d seen the wrong movie because I wasn’t in it. And so I didn’t think he would remember me, just like my grandma didn’t remember me. And he did, and he was so gracious to me.”
Jesse Eisenberg Praises Manodrome Co-Star Adrien Brody
For Manodrome, writer and director John Trengrove was inspired by Angela Nagle’s 2017 non-fiction book Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars from 4chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right, which delves into the development of internet culture, the nature of political correctness, the alt-right and Donald Trump’s 2016 election. Eisenberg stars as Ralphie, an out-of-work expectant father who feels disrespected by other men. As he struggles, he becomes drawn to a mysterious brotherhood led by Dad Dan (Brody). As Ralphie immerses himself in the group, a new set of problems arise.
As Eisenberg tells us, reuniting with Brody for Manodrome was intimidating because when they worked on The Village, Brody “was the most famous actor in the world.”
“And I thought, ‘Oh, my God, just to be on set with this guy is so cool and special.’ They had seated me next to him in some group scenes, which was exciting. And so to be working eye-to-eye with him was just, in some way, some kind of childhood dream come true. And then, he has a very unusual presence as an individual, this very engaging kind of warmth,” Eisenberg shares. “And so for me, playing this part against him playing that part was so perfect because he’s like a cult leader, kind of drawing this very vulnerable person who I play into his cult. Adrien just naturally has this kind of warm, inviting, and intense personality. And so, I have to say, it was just this incredibly seamless transition from talking to him on set to being kind of brought in by his spell in the movie.”
Manodrome — which has drawn comparisons to David Fincher’s Fight Club and Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver — is currently in theaters. It stars Eisenberg, Brody, Odessa Young, Sallieu Sesay, Ethan Suplee, and Philip Ettinger. Manodrome is produced by Gina Gammell, Ben Giladi, Ryan Zacarias, and Riley Keough.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
