Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice actor Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) is the latest actor to play Superman's bald nemesis on the big screen and in a recent interview he opened up about his version of Lex Luther, who he describes "as enigmatic as he is emotionally honest."

"In a lot of ways Luthor is more of a stretch than any character you would do in an independent movie, which is normally the place you stretch. So in that way it was not at all compromised. If anything it was the best, most advantageous role I’ve ever been given," Eisenberg told the Observer. "It’s because the opportunity to do an interesting character on a movie of that scale is incredibly rare."

Eisenberg credits the plum and multi-dimensional role to screenwriter Chris Terrio (Argo). But no matter how well the role is written, Eisenberg's performance will draw comparisons to Kevin Spacey and Gene Hackman, two actors that previously inhabited the role on the big screen. However, their Superman films never only gave us Lex as a real estate tycoon, while Eisenberg's will be dealing with more thought-provoking issues.



"Now people expect the tone to be more realistic just because we live in a world where the average audience member has a sense of psychological motivations… [It raises the question] how can one man—Superman—have so much power? These are the kind of things that we talk about when we think about authoritarian states, when we talk about Vladimir Putin having a strong foothold in Eastern Europe. They’re addressing geopolitics in this movie and not in a way that’s pretentious or esoteric," Eisenberg explained. "Terrio cleverly ties in these really exciting superhero elements with these really sophisticated, philosophical themes in a much smarter, different way. That’s what I like to do with my writing: To have these very sophisticated, philosophical debates happen on very basic levels."



In Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, fearing the actions of a god-like Super Hero left unchecked, Gotham City’s own formidable, forceful vigilante takes on Metropolis’s most revered, modern-day savior, while the world wrestles with what sort of hero it really needs. And with Batman and Superman at war with one another, a new threat quickly arises, putting mankind in greater danger than it’s ever known before.

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice opens March 25, 2016.