The Forgotten Jesse Eisenberg Interview That's Hard To Watch Now
"Romina." What's in a name? For Jesse Eisenberg, it's one that may forever live in infamy, ever since he awkwardly uttered it during one of the tensest interviews you might ever watch.
From Miles Teller's sexist and service industry-insulting 2015 Esquire profile to Tom Cruise's unforgettable Oprah couch moment (Cruise may be the undisputed champ of the weird interview), all it takes only one rough sit-down to truly alter an A-lister's reputation. Being a celebrity can entail endless press, and like Cara (that's not "Carla") DeLevingne, everyone has their bad days, and antagonistic conversations can ensue when provoked. Yet, people jump all over stars' unflattering moments like flies to honey, and boy was that once the case with Jesse Eisenberg.
While doing a press tour for the magician action film Now You See Me in 2013, Eisenberg made us all want to disappear with his interview with Los Angeles, Calif.-based journalist Romina Puga. Whether it was because he was fresh off 2010's The Social Network and was emulating Mark Zuckerberg, or he was just plain exhausted, we can't say. But it got antisocial fast. It's hard to argue that Jesse Eisenberg's career trajectory was actually impacted by this almost-three-minute insult-fest, but he is still answering for it (and has us whispering, "Romina," as he awkwardly did), almost 10 years later.
Scroll down (and set your phasers to cringe) and check it out for yourself.
Jesse Eisenberg's Romina Puga interview is Cringe Hall of Fame material
So what is the cringeworthy interview in question? In 2013, Jesse Eisenberg sat down with Romina Puga for a segment of her show, Say My Name. Puga admittedly started off rough by referring to Eisenberg's Now You See Me co-star, Morgan Freeman, as "Freeman." But Eisenberg pounced on the casual setting, insulting Puga multiple times. "You are like the [comedian] Carrot Top of interviewers," he tells her whilst doing a magic trick. He then urged her to "cry after the interview is over." Puga concluded, "You're such a jerk." Eisenberg simply looked like a bully.
According to NME, Eisenberg "emerged unscathed," yet, years later, he's still answering for it. "I remember she was laughing," he told the outlet in 2020. "Even after she left, I said to the people in the room, 'what a relief'. Like, that was the most funny, interesting interview I'd had all day." Puga felt differently, writing in a Tumblr post (that also answered whether the whole thing was a joke-gone-awry or actual train-wreck) that Eisenberg "isn't very nice."
"[Hearing that] was, like, the exact opposite of what my experience was..." Eisenberg added to NME. "Everyone that's seen it tells me they thought it was a funny thing. Listen, I would never wanna upset somebody, and if I did upset her, obviously I would have acknowledged that." Jesse Eisenberg claimed he was unable to contact Puga to apologize. Oy.