Sorkin spent a weekend trying to bring Eisenberg back for Social Reckoning
Aaron Sorkin never imagined Jesse Eisenberg would say no to playing Mark Zuckerberg again.
The writer-director spent a three-day weekend trying to persuade Eisenberg to return for The Social Reckoning, the follow-up to The Social Network (2010), which opens in theatres on Oct. 9, according to Deadline.
Sorkin said it never occurred to him that Eisenberg would not want to reprise the role. When Sorkin first raised the sequel, Eisenberg “smiled and nodded”, and Sorkin sent him the script, as reported by Yahoo. What followed was three days of calls and conversation. It did not move him.
Eisenberg no longer likes being conflated with Zuckerberg, Sorkin said. That link has followed him since the 2010 film about the founding of Facebook. Sorkin added that money does not motivate Eisenberg. For him, Sorkin said, it is a disincentive.
The turndown was first confirmed in August, when coverage of the film’s trailer noted Eisenberg had passed on the project, according to Deadline. That left the central role open. Jeremy Strong was then cast as Zuckerberg.
The story turns to 2021. That year, thousands of internal Facebook documents were leaked. They described harm the company knew its platforms could cause to society. That leak is the focus of the new film.
Mikey Madison plays Frances Haugen, the Facebook engineer who disclosed the documents. Jeremy Allen White plays Jeff Horwitz, the Wall Street Journal reporter who reported on them. The cast also includes Bill Burr, Wunmi Mosaku, Billy Magnussen and Betty Gilpin.
Sorkin wrote and directed The Social Reckoning. He discussed the casting change at the first public screening in Mountain View, where he took part in a question-and-answer session with journalist Kara Swisher, as reported by SFGATE. That screening came ahead of the Oct. 9 theatrical opening.
Sorkin has earlier described the film as “not a red-blue thing”, a reference to US party colours, and said he was never asked to omit Donald Trump from the story, according to Deadline. The comments provide background to a film built around corporate documents rather than party politics.
What makes this stand out is the swap at the centre. Sequels often bring back the same lead. Here, a new actor steps into a part strongly tied to someone else.
For fans, this means a clean break. One Zuckerberg gives way to another, sixteen years after the original film introduced Eisenberg in the role. The answer arrives in theatres within days.
