Jesse Eisenberg is taking his second crack at directing a feature film with the new movie A Real Pain.
Like his 2022 directorial debut When You Finish Saving the World, this movie is produced together with actress Emma Stone and her husband Dave McCary.
Since then, Stone's gone on to win her second Oscar but Eisenberg tells 9honey Celebrity she wasn't lauding it over him in the decision-making process for the film.
Watch the video above.
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"Emma's really a genius," he says on the red carpet at the London Film Festival premiere of A Real Pain.
"Obviously, we know her as a brilliant actress but her kind of savviness and acumen about movies in general and entertainment in general is so astute and so brilliant."
Eisenberg credits Stone, with whom he first worked on Zombieland in 2009, with the single change he made to the movie from development to completion.
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"I only made one change from the first draft to the movie that you see and the one change was adding this funny scene where the characters kind of get lost on the train and have to sneak on another train," he explains on the red carpet at the BFI's London Film Festival.
"And it was because she gave me the one great note I got, which was, 'It'd be great to see them together again after being on this trip with other people. It'd be great to see them alone together again, like they used to be'."
"And it was like, 'God, that's amazing' – it's the best note I got. She's truly brilliant."
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The movie follows two cousins, David and Benji, who take part in a Jewish Heritage tour in Poland to honour their late grandmother, in a roadtrip-style adventure.
Eisenberg not only wrote and produced the movie but directed it as well as acting in it, playing David alongside Succession's Kieran Culkin, who stars as Benji.
"Kieran is a really, really unusual performer," the 41-year-old tells 9honey Celebrity of his co-star.
"He's brilliant, he's funny, he's quick witted, he feels so much and it's all simultaneous," he says.
"It's not like somebody who's doing the sad scene, the sad way and the funny scene a funny way. It's like somebody who just lives in a way that makes all these things seamless.
"As a writer and a director, it's like the greatest gift in the world – somebody who seems alive in the movie, somebody who's not just playing a moment to get through it."
The Now You See Me star – who was sporting an injured finger from filming an action sequence for the upcoming third film in the franchise – walked the red carpet in London on Sunday night (Monday AEDT) with his co-stars, which also includes White Lotus star Will Sharpe and Dirty Dancing's Jennifer Grey.
Eisenberg tells 9honey Celebrity despite the juggle he loved "every aspect of it" but felt like while the writing and acting go hand-in-hand, directing was a different beast.
"Directing for me, maybe because I'm new at it or something, just feels like running a circus," he admits.
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He continues: "It's like, 'OK, what time are people's planes coming in? And where are we putting this camera?'
"Directing, to me, seems like it was like playing chess – you're constantly just trying to figure out what correct moves to make, whereas acting and writing feels, to me, just really a natural extension of emotional, therapeutic narcissism."
A Real Pain will be out in cinemas across Australia on December 26.
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