If you had a person around you who had a poisonous tongue, chewed on the old man, did nothing, or even disregarded morality for chasing girls, would you still take him as a friend?
Ben in "Pampered and Proud" is such a person.
In the stage play "Pampered and Proud", Jesse Eisenberg (left) plays Ben and Quinnau Nea plays Kayan
Although he was a film school student, he not only never made a work, but also scorned the "art" of his peers, nibbled on the old age all day, bullied his roommates at every turn, and was not accustomed to everyone and things.
Once, he learned that the goddess of his first love, Sarah, was going to marry his banker classmate Ted, and the hidden anger and sadness erupted, and he disregarded professional ethics and tricked Sarah into being alone with him, staging a farce...
Jesse Eisenberg, who played Zuckerberg in "The Social Network", was nominated for the 2011 Golden Globe Award and academy award for best actor, and his short story collection "Eating Seabream Makes Me Hiccup" was also widely praised in the industry.
Jesse Eisenberg, who plays Zuckerberg in The Social Network
The script "Pampered and Proud" continues his unique humor and deep thinking.
Eisenberg has said that "Pampered and Proud" is to express "the exchange and collision of ideas and spirits when people from different cultures in a metropolis like New York meet."
When reading this work, we will find that in the collision of these young people's ideas, the personality of the protagonist Ben is more prominent and dramatic.
Poster for the stage play "Pampered and Proud"
Compared to Nepal's roommate Kayan, Kayan's girlfriend Rishima, Ben's first love goddess Sarah, Sarah's fiancé Ted, Ben is almost an outlier -
He talks about ideals and ambitions, but there is no action, and his superior life and unrealistic goals consume his will, empty his mind, and make him an unreliable "complainer".
It can be said that he is confused and weightless, and his life is not satisfactory.
Stage play "Pampered and Proud"
And everyone around him is not as rich and idle as he is, and he also bears the pressure of reality:
Kayan, from Nepal, a master of business administration, who once delivered pizza delivery for tuition and is trying to find a job;
Sarah, the goddess of Ben's crush, is a math teacher at a special school, educating "young people who have committed crimes" with their hearts.
Kayan's girlfriend, Rishima, saves lives in the emergency room and devotes herself to the cause she loves;
Even the playboy and "love enemy" Ted in Ben's eyes are "economic dogs" who make the company their home.
In the stage play "Pampered and Proud", Ben (Jesse Eisenberg) and roommate Kayan (Kunnaeu Nea)
This is reminiscent of a philosophical novel that was once popular, Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Life.
The protagonist of the novel, Thomas, has a dashing lover Sabina and an innocent wife, Teresa, representing the two choices of "light" and "heavy".
Choosing Teresa means the "weight" of life of love and responsibility; choosing Sabina and other lovers means the "lightness" of a life of nothingness.
The "weight" of life, although it means to assume realistic responsibilities, gives people a sense of being down-to-earth, making the heart calm and full;
The "lightness" of life, although there is less of a burden of reality, but it has to bear more: emptiness, confusion, guilt, inferiority, resentment, but let people feel heavy pain in their hearts...
Ben is precisely the latter, his anger, complaints, poisonous tongues and mischief against others, are all manifestations of a psychological defense mechanism.
Ben and Sarah in the stage play "Pampered and Proud"
Sarah, who was about to get married, rejected his confession, which was like a fuse, making his pressure explode in an instant, and his psychological defense reached its peak.
At this time, Sarah has also become his life-saving straw, seeing his inner vulnerability, and by recalling the past when he sacrificed his reputation to save a girl as a child, he tells the kindness in his nature, so that Ben finally unloads his defenses and returns to his true self.
Zuckerberg, played by Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network
New York is like a seductive big apple, everyone wants to take a bite here, and the opportunities are everywhere but also fascinating, making people get lost in the pursuit of money.
Young people like Ben, they are not bad by nature, even as cute as angels, but due to the influence of social values, human nature is struggling and their personalities are gradually distorted.
The script has almost no psychological description, but through dramatic dialogue and scenes, it shows the inner world of such characters.
"Amazing Thieves 2" starring Jesse Eisenberg
No wonder Kayan's actor, Kunau Nea, commented that Jesse Eisenberg was "both a gifted actor and a talented writer." The News Daily also praised Eisenberg as the "ideal narrator."
People who have watched this play must be looking forward to watching this play -
Because Eisenberg himself is the protagonist Ben. While shaping the character through words, he will also shape Ben through performance, how can it not be expected.
"Pampered and Proud"