Jesse Eisenberg Distances Himself from Mark Zuckerberg: “I don’t want to think of myself as associated with somebody like that”

Jesse Eisenberg played Mark Zuckerberg in ‘The Social Network’ (2010), a movie about how Facebook was created. His performance showed Zuckerberg as smart but socially awkward, intense, and sometimes ruthless.

Eisenberg made the character seem both brilliant and distant, making people question whether Zuckerberg was a hero or a villain. His acting was praised, and he was even nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor.

In an appearance on BBC Radio 4’s “Today” Eisenberg stated that he is distancing himself from the fact that he played Zuckerberg and from Zuckerberg himself due to the tech billionaire doing some troubling things in the last few weeks.

Eisenberg said he hasn’t kept up with Mark Zuckerberg’s life because he doesn’t want to be associated with him. He explained that it’s not like he played a famous athlete and people think he’s good at sports—he played someone making controversial choices. Eisenberg criticized Zuckerberg for removing fact-checking and safety measures, which he believes puts vulnerable people at more risk.

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.

Zuckerberg recently announced that Meta would replace its fact-checking system on Facebook and Instagram with a “community notes” model like the one on Elon Musk’s X. He claimed the old system made too many mistakes, was too biased, and caused censorship.

After Donald Trump won the 2024 election, Zuckerberg met with him at Mar-a-Lago, and Meta donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. He also attended Trump’s inauguration on January 20.

The actor further said he’s concerned about Zuckerberg’s actions as a regular person, not because he played him in a movie. He criticized billionaires for using their massive wealth to gain favor with people spreading harmful ideas. Eisenberg emphasized that his views come from his personal life, especially as someone married to a disability justice teacher who worries about her students facing more challenges.

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.

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