Jesse Eisenberg on his “psychologically realistic” and “multifaceted” Luthor

One of Superman's most infamous foes will be returning in the upcoming BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE, only this time, Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) will have to use that famous intellect to juggle not one but two of DC's biggest heroes. Jesse Eisenberg's casting as Lex Luthor led to a lot of mixed feelings from the fan community, but based on what we've seen and heard I'm actually quite looking forward to seeing what Eisenberg can do with the role. The actor spoke with Playboy recently and discussed just what's going on in Luthor's mind.

The character is in line with what audiences want to see now, which is a more modern, psychologically realistic concept of Lex Luthor. His motivations are multifaceted; he has a way of using language that’s specific to the way his mind works; he struggles with interesting philosophical dilemmas like that of the individual having too much power, even if that individual is using that power for good. For instance, Superman has so far been using his powers to do some good, but is it safe to have someone like that walking the streets? It’s great that all of this happens in the context of a very exciting superhero movie.

Jesse Eisenberg went on to say that Lex reminded him of "one of those characters in old Greek theater who very explicitly state the philosophical dilemma at hand and put it in a way that feels in line with that character’s interests and voice" and that he's having a lot of fun with the role as he "can be as funny as I want to be in the context of my character behaving poorly, and I can be as sad as I want because the character’s also going through real internal conflict." It's not all about being an over-the-top villain however, Eisenberg is also really enjoying working with Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck:

They’re both very smart, funny people. They were wonderful to work with because we were all sort of adjusting things to make the scenes as good as they could be. Henry has already played Superman in another movie so he has such a strong idea of his character. That was fun for me because I could play with that. Ben Affleck is also very sharp. Doing this was a lot of fun because the three of us like to improvise, changing dialogue and all. But it was also strange for me: I have a lot of respect for both of them and yet my character mocks them both a lot in the movie. But that was just the nature of the thing.

BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE will be released on March 25, 2016.