Author: Emma Loggins
Date: 2009-08-21

Interview:


Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart are two of the finest young actors in Hollywood. Eisenberg has appeared in Roger Dodger, The Emperor's Club, Cursed, The Hunting Party and his break-out movie, The Squid and the Whale, a well-reviewed independent drama with Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels. Stewart, meanwhile, first rose to international prominence starring opposite Jodie Foster in Panic Room. She has since starred in Cold Creek Manor, Zathura, Fierce People, In the Land of Women, Into the Wild and the global smash Twilight. In Adventureland Stewart stars as Em Lewin, the first girl to steal the heart of the film's main protagonist, James Brennan, played by Eisenberg. They spark on screen and in real life, encouraging each other throughout the interview...


What was it about Adventureland that appealed to you?

Jesse Eisenberg: I think that Kristen and I were just saying the characters are so well rounded. It's rare that a movie like this that can come out in many theaters and be a movie that a lot of people go to, with characters that are so richly drawn and so honestly put together.

Neither of you will have memories from the '80s. Was it fun to go back and explore the era?

Jesse Eisenberg: Yeah, it was interesting to see. I was born in 1983 and so the '80s were done by the time I grew up a little. But I did have this like romanticized notion of what the '80s were. I mean, they weren't romantic for me, but I had this notion of a simpler time. I guess also it was a selfish time, right? It was called the Me generation or the Me decade or something. I do have like some vivid memories of what the aesthetic was of the '80s, so it was interesting to see that from the perspective of an adult. And I really liked it. I did actually like two other movies that take place in the same year - or '86 or '87, and so yeah, I kind of I do like the period. It's nice also there were no cell phones!

Kristen Stewart: And who knows if the story actually could have taken place without that, because at least my aspect of the story is reliant on the fact that she can be a different person depending on who she's with, and she can't always be contacted. She's not doing a Facebook depicting every emotion that she is going through. So she can get from people what she needs and she can sort of reinvent herself, which people do naturally. It's not like she is being fake, it's just that she has different aspects that she can show different people. I feel like nowadays everyone perceives you the same way. You can't even have a private life away from your family; it's like everything is very hands-on!