Jesse Eisenberg: 'I'm terrified of having nothing to do'

Jesse Eisenberg tries to do it all, because he fears doing nothing.

The 32-year-old actor has many strings to his bow - actor, producer, writer and director. But in an interview on British television show Lorraine on Tuesday (05Jul16), Jesse admitted his desire to take on numerous projects is because he thinks of himself as too boring to be narcissistic.

"I never know what I'm going to do but I try to do everything," he explained. "But mainly out of a fear of not having anything to do, rather than enjoying the thing that I'm pursuing. I'm like a freelance person so I try to do a million different things so that once something falls through the cracks I'm still busy.

"I'm self absorbed but I'm just not interesting enough to occupy my full day. So I have to be other people absorbed as well."

Jesse is currently starring in London play The Spoils but his next big screen adventure sees him reprise his role as magician J. Daniel Atlas in Now You See Me 2. The movie also stars Daniel Radcliffe in a villainous part, but Jesse admits he wasn't too well versed on Daniel's Harry Potter past before they acted together.

"He plays the kind of villain in this movie, he's just phenomenal," Jesse said of his co-star. "I didn't really grow up on Harry Potter but I think basically everybody else in the world did, and if you grew up and he was your boyhood hero I think you'll love seeing him in this movie because he plays such a different character and it's a real, pleasant shock."

Jesse's stage venture in The Spoils, which he also wrote, is currently earning him rave reviews. He stars in the play alongside The Big Bang Theory's Kunal Nayyar, but admits he suffers terribly from stage fright ahead of every performance.

"(I get) terrified," he grimaced. "For like two hours before the show we are just kind of sitting there in a panic and then we do the show and it goes well and we enjoy ourselves for about half an hour and we start to worry about the next one."