Jesse Eisenberg says Lex Luthor is not a silly villain

Features
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Jesse Eisenberg has been telling MTV what we can expect from his version of classic Superman antagonist Lex Luthor, with the actor explaining that the big bad of Batman v Superman will not be “this silly, villainous character”.

“The expectations that I have are never the same expectations that an audience has,” says Eisenberg. “I don’t have expectations for myself to adhere to a comic book character, but a lot of people are interested in how I would coincide with the comic book character. But it couldn’t be farther from my mind, because I’m just playing a role.”

“It’s a really great character that’s written by this guy, Chris Terrio, he’s a phenomenal writer… He loves my character in the same way I love my character. He put a lot of work into it. It’s a great character, there’s an emotional core to the character. It’s not this silly, villainous character. This is a real depiction of a person who thinks these things. So the challenge is to make it seem real.”

It remains to be seen whether Luthor will be the film’s only villain, but from the sounds of Eisenberg’s comments, this version of the character should be a more interesting proposition than the more cartoonish iterations that have gone before. Directed by Zack Snyder and co-starring Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill in the title roles, Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice will open in the UK and US on 25 March 2016.

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George Wales
George Wales

George was once GamesRadar's resident movie news person, based out of London. He understands that all men must die, but he'd rather not think about it. But now he's working at Stylist Magazine.