{"id":869761,"date":"2026-10-03T20:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T20:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/869761\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T20:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T20:46:09","slug":"aaron-sorkin-says-he-didnt-think-jesse-eisenberg-wouldnt-want-to-play-mark-zuckerberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/869761\/","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Sorkin Says He Didn’t Think Jesse Eisenberg Wouldn’t Want to Play Mark Zuckerberg"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBefore Jesse Eisenberg<\/a> declined to step back into the world of Facebook as Mark Zuckerberg for Aaron Sorkin<\/a>\u2019s \u201cThe Social Reckoning<\/a>,\u201d the director admitted \u201cit never occurred\u201d to him that the actor wouldn\u2019t be on board with his 2026 follow-up to 2010\u2019s \u201cThe Social Network<\/a>,\u201d in which Eisenberg portrayed the young tech billionaire.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking with Entertainment Weekly<\/a>, Sorkin recounted that he was \u201cjust a couple of pages from being done\u201d with the script for the new film when he ran into Eisenberg at a party, \u201cand said, \u2018I\u2019m gonna be sending you something in a couple of weeks.\u2019\u201d The actor \u201csmiled and nodded, and I sent it to him,\u201d said Sorkin. \u201cIt never occurred to me that he wouldn\u2019t wanna do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSorkin continued, explaining he tried to convince <\/a>the \u201cA Real Pain\u201d actor, but he didn\u2019t budge.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is the only time I\u2019ve written myself an outline. I don\u2019t do it for the movies, but I did it for my conversations with Jesse,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was arguments for why he should do it. They included, \u2018We already know you\u2019re gonna be great because you were already once.\u2019 You know, \u2018Here are the great moments that you\u2019re gonna get to play in the movie.\u2019 And I laid it out for him.\u201d And while Eisenberg didn\u2019t sign on, he did tell Sorkin that their conversations made him \u201ccome closer to changing my mind than I thought you were going to,\u201d which the director said \u201cpleased\u201d him.<\/p>\n

\n\tNot even a sizeable paycheck could sway Eisenberg, admitted Sorkin. \u201cI knew what the studio was offering him to do it, but money does not motivate Jesse. It\u2019s infuriating,\u201d said Sorkin. \u201cIf anything, money is a disincentive for him. It\u2019s admirable. He\u2019s very concerned about raising his kids with too much money.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the lead-up to the release of \u201cThe Social Reckoning,\u201d which hits theaters on Oct. 9, Eisenberg\u2019s refusal to return as Zuckerberg<\/a> has been a hot topic. (\u201cSuccession\u201d actor Jeremy Strong stars as the Facebook founder instead.) Speaking with Variety,<\/a> the actor said: \u201cI just told [Sorkin] I\u2019m moving in different directions in my life, and you know, what he said sums it up nicely. I don\u2019t want to be associated with that character, but all of my reasons for not wanting to do the movie have nothing to do with how wonderful the movie is, and will be, and I\u2019m sure is already.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Social Network,\u201d which also starred Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake, was nominated for eight Oscars and won three, including best adapted screenplay for Sorkin, best film editing and best original score. Eisenberg earned an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Zuckerberg. \u201cThe Social Reckoning\u201d stars Strong, Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White, Billy Magnussen, Bill Burr and more. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before Jesse Eisenberg declined to step back into the world of Facebook as Mark Zuckerberg for Aaron Sorkin\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[38131,236,88,141263,38379,108209],"class_list":["post-869761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-aaron-sorkin","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-jesse-eisenberg","tag-the-social-network","tag-the-social-reckoning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}