That scene where they decided to sue was so funny. It reminded me of Revenge of the Nerds. Did you channel that at all?
I didn’t even think about that [laughs], but I probably should have. I probably would have turned out a better performance.
What was it like to be the villain at some point and at others the sort of victim of things? How did that work?
It was a little bit of a lot of things. It would definitely be Fincher telling us what we needed to hear – walking over to one actor and going, “You know you’re right in this situation, right?” And then walking over to a different actor and going, “You know how wrong he is here? You’re right in this situation.” So everybody had to carry with them at all times a sense that they were right. And so I think it’s up to the audience to determine in what situation they were really right, because everybody in that movie believed that they were right no matter what.
Who do your sympathies fall with?
Well, during the filming, they obviously had to fall with the Winklevosses. I had to believe that they were wronged. But now that I’ve distanced myself from the project a bit, I don’t think that there’s any one person at fault. I think you have a bunch of young college kids with more money and brains than sense, who probably all made mistakes along the way, and it just snowballed into one big thing.
I readthe New Yorker article about Zuckerberg – and the twins. Did you meet them at all?
I did. I met them after production. Which is so surreal. We’re like, “We’ve been trying to think like you for eight months!” And they’re like, “Okay, you’re scaring us.”
How did you prepare for the role if you hadn’t met them?
Ninety-nine percent of all the research was done by Aaron [Sorkin]. And having his amazing script and having him there to ask questions to – you could walk up to him and ask, “Now why would the Winkelvoss say this?” and he’d go, “Well it’s this, this, this, this, and this.” So any research I could have done would have paled in comparison to what Aaron did. Our number-one research tool was having the author of it right there.
I find that really interesting because Jesse Eisenberg had a different manner of preparing for his role: he listened to Mark Zuckerberg’s speeches in his headphones.
There is so much more about Mark Zuckerberg out there. He is a public figure, people know how he walks, people know how he talks. People know everything. With the Winklevoss twins, you can’t find that about them out there. You can find a picture of them rowing a boat, but it’s 2010 – who can’t you find a picture of rowing a boat?
I’ve never rowed a boat.
Trust me, there’s a picture of you rowing a boat somewhere on the internet and you should check it out.
