I watched A Real Pain on Hulu over the weekend and enjoyed it so much. It’s just a sweet, sentimental, kind of old-fashioned (and I mean that as a compliment!) film with delightful characters. In the opening sequence alone, Jesse Eisenberg had me in hysterics with the way his character was set up. Jesse did the trifecta of being the writer-director-star, and his efforts just merited him a well-earned Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. The film’s one other nomination, of course, went to Kieran Culkin for Best Supporting Actor, a category Kieran has been sweeping so far. But back to Jesse — he went on Jimmy Kimmel last week, before the Oscar nominations were announced, and the kinship between Jesse’s characters and his own anxious demeanor was on full display. Case in point: Jesse talked about how he feels guilty taking vacations. Keep reading to learn the type of trips he takes to allay some of his guilt.
If there is one type of character Jesse Eisenberg is known for playing, it’s guys with a wee bit of stress. OK, sometimes it’s full-blown anxiety.
Whether it was his Oscar-nominated turn as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network or his critically acclaimed role in the FX/Hulu miniseries Fleishman Is in Trouble, Jesse has a knack for personifying jittery characters.
He’s playing another one in his new film A Real Pain, which he also wrote and directed. The film follows Jesse as a disciplined guy and Kieran Culkin as his laissez-faire cousin taking a trip to Poland. It’s earned rave reviews.
Earlier this month, A Real Pain received two Oscar nominations. Jesse is up for Best Original Screenplay, while Kieran is competing for Best Supporting Actor.
Jesse stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! last week to talk about the movie, but one anecdote he shared about his vacation habits…or lack thereof…really caught people’s attention.
While discussing travel habits, Jimmy asked Jesse if he goes on vacations, which prompted the actor to say, “I don’t like vacations.”
Of course, he explained why. “I feel too guilty to go on a vacation. I have a very good life,” he said, noting that working as a film actor has him feeling “lucky” since he regularly travels for work.
As a result, he isn’t prone to laid-back vacations. “I can’t do that because I’m riddled with guilt,” he said.
He noted his vacation habits are more in line with that of his and Kieran’s A Real Pain characters who traveled to Poland for a Holocaust tour. “Those are the travels I do,” he said, using his last two vacations as an example. One was to a concentration camp in Austria, and the other was with his family to Timisoara, Romania, which is where the 1989 Communist revolutions began.
“That’s the only time I could go on vacation and not hate myself,” he said of the Romanian trip.
Jesse later admitted he hasn’t told his son about Disney World. “I went to Disneyland during his lifetime without him,” he said. “I was doing something in Shanghai, and they took me to Shanghai Disney. I told him about it and he said, ‘It sounded interesting, but when are we going back to Rwanda?’”
It’s hilarious enough reading the quotes, but Holy Nervous Energy, Batman! Watching Jesse in motion as he relays his stories adds a whole other level of anxious vibes. To the point where I felt anxious thinking about just how anxious Jesse is as he bounds along in life, wishing he could relax just a little. And yet between us, I’m not the Oscar-nominated actor-writer! But really, Jesse was funny, genuine, and self-aware about just how extreme most of his behavior sounds. He also casually shared what I thought were really interesting tidbits about what a hands-on producer Emma Stone was on set. Plus, Jesse’s Kieran Culkin anecdotes were everything you’d expect and no less entertaining for it. As for feeling guilty on vacation… I cannot honestly recall ever experiencing that emotion under the circumstance of cherished time away from the usual routine. And I fully accept whatever that says about my character.
PS — I do hope Jesse’s son grows up to make a film about family vacations at the birthplace of communism in Romania, and other historical sites of human strife.
Photos credit: Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon, Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon, IMAGO/Barbara Hine/Avalon, Jennifer Graylock-Graylock.com/Avalon
