Jesse Eisenberg says Emma Stone landed her 'Zombieland' role after "assaulting" him with "insults".
The 'Poor Things' actress, 36, was just 19 when she landed her breakthrough role as Wichita in the 2009 post-apocalyptic comedy film alongside Jesse, 41, as fellow survivor Columbus, and it turns out, her "cutting" comments about her co-star in her audition led to her being hired.
Speaking on SiriusXM’s 'The Spotlight with Jessica Shaw recently, Jesse recounted: “I was already cast in the movie, so I was auditioning like many people for her part that day.
The actors at that point were all amazing actresses, but they were all, like, trying to get into the movie, and so they were being really polite and everything.”
He recalled: “And then [Stone] came in, and she just started making fun of me in the scene, like just assaulting me with insults in the scene and it was so funny. They were so quick and so funny and cutting.
“And she left the room and I just felt so, so small."
Jesse said they knew then and there that the now-Oscar winner was right for the role.
He added: “We were like, ‘Oh my God. That person is a genius.’ And maybe she was 19 even at that time of the audition. I mean, she’s a truly spectacularly, unusually brilliant person.”
It took a decade for the sequel, 2019's ‘Zombieland: Double Tap’, to come out.
Both actors reprised their roles alongside Woody Harrelson, 63, as Tallahassee, Abigail Breslin, 28, as Little Rock, Wichita's 12-year-old sister, while Bill Murray, 74, returned for a cameo as a fictionalised version of himself.
Meanwhile, Zoey Deutch previously revealed she is keen to star in another ‘Zombieland’ movie.
The 30-year-old actress played Madison in the second movie and revealed she begged director Ruben Fleischer a number of times to make another film in the hit franchise with her in it.
Referencing the Von Dutch outfits her "dumb blonde" alter ego wore, she quipped: "I would love to put the ‘Von Deutch’ attire back on, for lack of a better pun.”
She added to The Hollywood Reporter: "That experience was so fun, and I’ve been begging Ruben [Fleischer] to put me in a movie of his again. But yeah, I would love to play Madison again. She’s such a character."
Fleischer already said he wishes to develop a spin-off film that focuses on her character.
He said in the same year the sequel was released: "I would love to do a Madison standalone movie.
"So, I think that story remains to be written. That would be a fun thing to go find out. That actually would've been a good post-credit scene where those two [Madison and Berkeley] are in Babylon just being pretty dumb together."
