Actor Jesse Eisenberg shared this week his mixed feelings about his stint as a host on "Saturday Night Live," struggling to recall the experience fondly. During his 2011 appearance on "SNL," Eisenberg humorously confessed to Jenna Bush Hager and Amy Poehler on "Today With Jenna & Friends" that he harbored "only bad memories" of the gig.
"At 17, my ambition was to pen sketches for 'SNL,'" Eisenberg reminisced. "I compiled a comprehensive portfolio and even secured an agent. When the opportunity to host arose nearly a decade later, I erroneously presumed I could pen all the sketches myself." To his chagrin, Eisenberg admitted, "It turned out they had their own writers."
"I'm an utter fool," he confessed, his voice tinged with self-deprecation. "All I ever wanted was to pen stories. Writing was my lifelong passion, so I spent an entire week surreptitiously handing out scripts to various actors, oblivious to the fact that this wasn't the conventional path." Eisenberg admitted to Hager and Poehler that his actions were "incredibly inappropriate and offensive," but Poehler, a former 'Saturday Night Live' star, reassured him with a wave of her hand. "You've toiled tirelessly," she said kindly. "It's better to have gone down this route than the alternative."
Eisenberg's visit to 'Today' was part of his promotional tour for 'A Real Pain,' an Oscar-nominated film he wrote, directed, and starred in alongside Kieran Culkin. The movie, which chronicles the journey of two cousins to their late grandmother's hometown in Poland, recently tied with 'Deadpool & Wolverine' for Best Comedy at the Critics' Choice Awards.
"That was surreal," Eisenberg exclaimed. "They initially announced 'A Real Pain' as the winner, only to retract it moments later, declaring 'Deadpool' the victor. Ironically, this twist worked in our favor. Suddenly, Ryan Reynolds, arguably the most famous person on the planet, congratulated 'A Real Pain.' It was probably the first time 90% of the world had even heard of our film."
