‘The Social Network’ star Jesse Eisenberg is “concerned” about “problematic” Mark Zuckerberg
Jesse Eisenberg, who played Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, has expressed his concerns about the tech billionaire’s recent conduct.
Notably, Zuckerberg was present alongside Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk at Donald Trump’s inauguration in Washington, DC, on January 20th. He also donated $1 million to the inaugural fund and met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence.
Earlier that month, Zuckerberg also unveiled plans to remove fact-checking systems on Facebook and Instagram, which he said were being removed due to “too many mistakes and too much censorship” as well as “too politically biased”.
Due to playing Zuckerberg in the 2010 movie, The Social Network, Eisenberg was asked about the tech mogul during an appearance on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on February 4th.
In the conversation, Eisenberg revealed he doesn’t follow the “life trajectory” of Zuckerberg, explaining this was “partly because I don’t want to think of myself as associated with somebody like that.”
Looking back on playing Zuckerberg, the actor said: “It’s not like I played a great golfer or something and now people think I’m a great golfer. It’s like this guy that’s doing things that are problematic — taking away fact-checking and safety concerns, making people who are already threatened in this world more threatened.”
While Eisenberg is worried by Zuckerberg’s behaviour in recent months, he stressed this was not due to The Social Network, adding, “I’m concerned just as a person who reads a newspaper. I don’t think about, ‘Oh, I played the guy in the movie and therefore…’ It’s just, I’m a human being and you read these things and these people have billions upon billions of dollars, more money than any human person has ever amassed. And what are they doing with it? Oh, they’re doing it to curry favor with somebody who’s preaching hateful things.”
Eisenberg, who recently directed and starred in A Real Pain alongside Kieran Culkin, said his belief system comes from “somebody who is married to a woman who teaches disability justice in New York, and lives for her students are going to get a little harder this year” rather than from an actor’s perspective.
Last month, REM frontman Michael Stipe took to social media to announce his boycott of Instagram, Facebook and all other Meta platforms for a week. He shared: “I’ll be logged off for the week. Please consider doing the same so corporations like Meta can imagine there might be consequences for helping advance the far right in America and world wide.”
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