Jesse Eisenberg says playing this ‘poorly received’ character genuinely hurt his career

Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Jesse Eisenberg believes his “poorly received” performance as Lex Luthor in Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League really set back his career. But this was so public, and I don’t read notices or reviews or movie press or anything, so I was unaware of how poorly it was received.” open image in gallery Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice grossed $874m worldwide, but fared very badly with critics. Justice League fared similarly – it grossed $661m worldwide, but received a two-star rating from Geoffrey Macnab, who wrote: “This is surely the most infantile of recent superhero yarns – a film that squanders the talents of an impressive ensemble cast and eschews any meaningful characterisation in favour of ever more overblown special effects.” The film’s reviews also saw the birth of the “Sad Ben Affleck” meme, where a video slowly focuses on Affleck’s sad face set to Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence,” while Henry Cavill responds to a question about Batman v Superman’s poor reviews. Plan auto-renews until cancelled Try for free “To play it is a joy, and to not play it isn’t something that I’m going to be ashamed to tell my kids about, because that is not an important genre in my life, even though I loved doing that movie.” This comes as the first trailer for the highly anticipated new Superman film from director James Gunn was released, with fans ecstatic to see a beloved character.