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It seems Jesse Eisenberg is steering clear of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s shoes this time around.
During a Thursday appearance on the “Today” show, the actor skillfully sidestepped a question about why he chose not to reprise his role as Zuckerberg in the anticipated sequel to “The Social Network.”
Host Craig Melvin addressed the speculation, asking Eisenberg about reports suggesting he declined to participate in the sequel, curious about the reason behind his decision.
Instead of offering a direct explanation, Eisenberg took a lighter approach, cracking a joke related to the recent daring jewel heist at the Louvre.
“I was in Paris,” the 42-year-old “Zombieland” star quipped. “And I had some tools, and I thought, why not make a bigger splash at the Louvre?”
Although Melvin attempted to play along, the pair’s exchange got awkward fast.
“I see what you did there,” the “Today” host replied before Eisenberg fired back: “I see what you did there. We both are playing chess.”
“Your turn! My turn?” the seemingly confused “Now You See Me” star continued. “What do you have coming out this month?”
After some more incredibly uncomfortable back and forth, Melvin pressed Eisenberg once again about why he “would say no” to returning as Zuckerberg for Aaron Sorkin’s “The Social Reckoning.”
“Listen, for reasons that have nothing to do with how amazing that movie will be, really, truthfully,” the “A Real Pain” star explained. “But when you play a character, you feel, you know, at some point you’ve grown into something else.”
“Yeah, something,” Eisenberg continued regarding whether he “outgrew” the role. “But it’s a really wonderful movie. I’m friends with Aaron Sorkin, who wrote and is directing this movie, and all of the reasons that I am not in it are completely unrelated to how brilliant it will be.”
Directed by David Fincher with a screenplay by Sorkin, “The Social Network” was released in 2010 and saw Eisenberg star as the famous Facebook founder during the early stages of the platform’s development.
Despite earning a Best Actor nomination for the role at the 2011 Academy Awards, Eisenberg chose not to return as Zuckerberg after Sorkin first announced that “The Social Reckoning” was in development back in June.
It was later announced that “Succession” star Jeremy Strong would be taking over the role from Eisenberg, per The Hollywood Reporter.
The “Adventureland” star, meanwhile, spoke out against the 41-year-old Meta CEO during an interview with BBC Radio back in February.
At the time, Eisenberg shared that he didn’t “want to think of myself as associated with somebody like that.”
“It’s like this guy is… doing things that are problematic, taking away fact-checking,” he said of the billionaire’s social media policies. “Safety concerns. Making people who are already threatened in the world more threatened.”
As for Zuckerberg, he spoke out against “The Social Network” during a chat on “The Colin and Samir Show” podcast one month later.
“They got all these very specific details of what I was wearing, or these specific things correct, but then the whole narrative arc around my motivations and all this stuff were like, completely wrong,” he said in March.