Jesse Eisenberg and Julianne Moore Talk 'The Debut' Ahead of 11 December Release

Jesse Eisenberg and Julianne Moore have been talking about The Debut, the A24 film due in theatres on 11 December, in a new podcast interview with Variety.

Eisenberg wrote, directed, produced, scored and stars in the musical comedy. It is his third feature as a director. A24, the distributor, is the company putting it into cinemas.

Moore plays Mona Friedman, a shy housewife who picks up a flyer and auditions for a community theatre musical. Eisenberg told Variety he wrote the part specifically for her. In an earlier Variety report, Mona is described as a shy New Jersey housewife.

The film had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, a showcase in the Colorado mountains that often launches films ahead of awards season. According to Variety, the crowd broke into applause in the middle of the film, after a showdown between Moore and Paul Giamatti. Fans have taken to calling it the "rent is due" scene.

Eisenberg said his first thought was not about the film's success. "Oh no! Can they go on the ride?" he recalled, because the next scene is a dramatic one. The line is a small window into how a director thinks about pacing: the audience was still laughing, and the story had to move on.

After Telluride, the film went on to the Toronto, New York and Middleburg film festivals. Variety also reported in August that it had been added to the main competition at the San Sebastián Film Festival in Spain. Moore and Giamatti later spoke with the Los Angeles Times about how the showdown scene came together.

Festival runs matter because they show a film to buyers, critics and audiences before a release date is set. Many films shown at these events take months or years to reach cinemas, and some never do. The Debut has a firm date, which is less common for a film that has only recently finished its festival journey.

Eisenberg has described the film in other ways too. Back in July, he told Variety it was "the opposite of AI," a remark that appears to refer to the film's live, human-performed musical numbers. He also used the same interview to talk about his hopes for another Now You See Me sequel.

For anyone planning a December trip to the cinema, the date is now fixed. Tickets and showtimes will vary by location.