Jesse Eisenberg had a pointed response on Friday when Bill Maher asked him for his take on powerful “tech bros.”
The “Real Time” host noted that the actor famously portrayed Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in the 2010 movie “The Social Network.”
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP and Bloomberg via Getty
“I see Zuckerberg now at the inauguration, and he’s right at the seat of power,” Maher said.
The Meta CEO, along with fellow tech billionaires Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook and Elon Musk, enjoyed prominent placement at President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, with better seats than many elected officials.
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Maher also observed that in the 2016 movie “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” Eisenberg chose to “kind of” play supervillain Lex Luthor as a “tech bro.”
Surmising that Eisenberg “must have some feelings” on the topic, Maher asked, “What do you make of all that’s going on with the tech bros?”
Eisenberg, who wrote, directed and starred in this year’s comedy-drama “A Real Pain,” responded with a question of his own.
“I look at it from a very specific perspective, which is, just like, if you’re so rich and powerful, why are you not just spending your days doing good things for the world?”
He cited his wife, Anna Strout, as an “amazing activist” whose commitment to helping other people has shaped his perspective. Her mother founded the Middle Way House, a nonprofit for survivors of domestic violence, trafficking and sexual assault, and Strout and Eisenberg are volunteers and fundraisers.
Frazer Harrison via Getty Images
“And so when I watch these like incredibly powerful people, I just think like, wait, why are you not spending your day helping people?” Eisenberg asked. “Why are you like getting mired into this weird stuff ― stuff I don’t really understand ― and taking, you know, privacy concerns away, hurting people who are already hurting, marginalized people?”
He continued, “I can’t even understand that, so I’m not exactly thinking about them in politics. I’m just thinking, ‘Why are they not spending every day helping people?’”
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Eisenberg didn’t get more specific than that during his conversation with Maher. However, on Tuesday, he criticized Zuckerberg’s decision to ditch the fact-checking system on Facebook and Instagram, both owned by Meta.
“Now that the platform is so powerful and owns all these other things, I guess I feel a little bit sad,” he told NPR’s Terry Gross. “Why is this the path you’re taking?”
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