Jesse Eisenberg: 5 Awesome Performances & 5 That Sucked

2. David Lipsky - The End Of The Tour (2015)

By this point, you’ve probably guessed what number one will be. However, you might not have guessed that Eisenberg’s second-best performance is also based on a real-life person.

In The End Of The Tour he plays Rolling Stone journalist David Lipsky as he interviews and takes a five-day road trip with acclaimed writer David Foster Wallace, played by How I Met Your Mother’s Jason Segel, shortly after the publication of seminal novel Infinite Jest.

While Segel’s Wallace is the centre point of the movie, it’s Eisenberg’s Lipsky who drives the stunningly deep discussion of life and everything in it, from alcoholism and personal identity to art and the effect of fame.

Outside of acting, Eisenberg is himself a writer and playwright, and said that he jumped at the part due to his love of Wallace’s writing, spending time with the real Lipsky (De Niro driving a taxi for Taxi Driver-style) to perfect his portrayal of the journo.

His passion and effort shows on screen – all the more impressive given that for much of the time he remains silent, letting Wallace speak into his tape recorder, with Eisenberg expressing with a single facial expression or reaction what pages of text couldn’t.

Jason Segel may have gathered most of the acting props for the masterful movie, but – like Lipsky opposite Wallace – Eisenberg’s quiet yet powerful presence is absolutely undeniable.