Filmmaker Aaron Sorkin is opening up more about Jesse Eisenberg not returning for The Social Reckoning.
The actor first portrayed Mark Zuckerberg in the 2010 film, The Social Network, but opted not to return for the sequel several years later. Jeremy Strong has taken his place as the Meta CEO for The Social Reckoning.
While Aaron previously said Jesse didn’t want to play Mark again, he said in a new interview that he really tried to get the actor to return, including a huge pay increase!
“I knew what the studio was offering him to do it, but money does not motivate Jesse. It’s infuriating,” Aaron told Entertainment Weekly with a laugh. “If anything, money is a disincentive for him. It’s admirable. He’s very concerned about raising his kids with too much money.”
After he knew Jesse wouldn’t return with a pay bump, he said he “wrote a list of the things he could” do with that money, including producing “X number of Broadway plays of his own. He still turned it down.
While Aaron was working on the script for The Social Reckoning, he didn’t tell many people that he was, and shortly before being done, he bumped into Jesse at a party “and said, ‘I’m gonna be sending you something in a couple of weeks.’ And he smiled and nodded, and I sent it to him. It never occurred to me that he wouldn’t wanna do it.”
The Oscar-winning screenwriter spent a three-day weekend trying to convince the actor to sign on.
“This is the only time I’ve written myself an outline. I don’t do it for the movies, but I did it for my conversations with Jesse,” he recalled. “It was arguments for why he should do it. They included, ‘We already know you’re gonna be great because you were already once.’ You know, ‘Here are the great moments that you’re gonna get to play in the movie.’ And I laid it out for him.”
He was also asked if Jesse ever got close to saying yes.
“I do remember Jesse saying at one point during the third or fourth back and forth, ‘You have come closer to changing my mind than I thought you were going to.’ So I was pleased about that.”
While Jesse liked the script, Aaron reiterated his past point that he didn’t want to be associated with playing Mark again.
“He just doesn’t like being conflated with Mark Zuckerberg anymore,” Aaron said. “He doesn’t like that he kinda resembles the guy physically; that role is probably what he’s most known for.”
The Social Reckoning is set to release next Friday (October 9). Check out the trailer here!
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