One of Jesse Eisenberg‘s most memorable leading ladies gave him a run for his money before even landing the role.
After 15 years, the Zombieland actor recalled how co-star Emma Stone wowed the casting director and left him feeling “so, so small” during her audition for the 2009 Ruben Fleischer-directed post-apocalyptic comedy.
“I was already cast in the movie, so I was auditioning like many people for her part that day,” he recounted on SiriusXM’s The Spotlight with Jessica Shaw. “The actors at that point were all amazing actresses, but they were all, like, trying to get into the movie, and so they were being really polite and everything.
“And then [Stone] came in, and she just started making fun of me in the scene, like just assaulting me with insults in the scene and it was so funny. They were so quick and so funny and cutting,” added Eisenberg. “And she left the room and I just felt so, so small.”
Eisenberg raved of his co-star, “We were like, ‘Oh my God. That person is a genius.’ And maybe she was 19 even at that time of the audition. I mean, she’s a truly spectacularly, unusually brilliant person.”
Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin and Woody Harrelson in Zombieland (2009). (Glen Wilson/Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection)
In Zombieland, a virus has turned most of the population into zombies. Four strangers (Eisenberg, Stone, Abigail Breslin and Woody Harrelson) journey west toward a rumored safe haven in Los Angeles.
The cast reunited with Fleischer in 2019 for the sequel Zombieland: Double Tap, which also starred Zoey Deutch, Rosario Dawson, Luke Wilson, Avan Jogia and Bill Murray, reprising his role as himself from the original film.
