Eisenberg's 'The Debut' Premieres at Telluride with Moore Oscar Buzz — SkimNews
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- Jesse Eisenberg's musical comedy "The Debut" (A24) premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on Saturday to upbeat reviews, with early talk of a sixth Oscar nomination for Julianne Moore and a possible second win after "Still Alice."
- Eisenberg wrote the role of the anxious aspiring actress entirely for Moore, calling her "a muse" and saying he couldn't picture anyone else doing it; the film is told from her point of view.
- Paul Giamatti co-stars as a mercurial, ego-less director; Eisenberg said he had long considered Giamatti his favorite actor since "The Negotiator," and that Giamatti's agent independently texted about the role at the same time Eisenberg was thinking of approaching him.
- Eisenberg wrote seven original musical songs for the film — a passion he has pursued privately for 20 years — and said the movie is autobiographical, rooted in his childhood terror of doing the thing he liked; he only realized this while scouting his mother's kitchen and picking 1990 costumes.
- The film's tone-driven aesthetic was directly inspired by Eisenberg's work on Richard Ayoade's "The Double" and Riley Stearns's "The Art of Self-Defense," which he called his two favorite acting experiences; he encouraged collaborators toward Lynchian and German Expressionistic choices, including a hard light placed directly on Moore's face for a key scene.
- Eisenberg contrasted his best writing — stream-of-consciousness, as with the film's unplanned breakdown scene — with his worst, which he described as spreadsheet-based, and said almost every Giamatti scene in the film is take one.
Why it matters: With Moore's prior Oscar history (a win for "Still Alice" and five other nominations) and the film being framed as an A24 prestige vehicle built entirely around her, "The Debut" enters the awards conversation with a built-in awards-season narrative centered on her performance. Eisenberg's pivot from the naturalistic "A Real Pain" to a tone-driven musical also signals where he is taking his directing career next.
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