Actor Jesse Eisenberg compares Comic-Con to 'some kind of genocide'

Jesse Eisenberg.
(Image credit: Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty Images)

Apparently forgetting that he was in San Diego and not watching the systematic elimination of a racial or ethnic group, actor Jesse Eisenberg compared attending Comic-Con to a genocide.

"It's like being screamed at by thousands of people," he told The Associated Press. "I don't know what the experience is throughout history, probably some kind of genocide. I can't think of anything that's equivalent." While promoting his new movie The End of the Tour on Tuesday, he elaborated on his remarks, saying that "maybe on some cellular memory level, that's the only thing that seems like an equivalent social experience. Even if they're saying nice things, just being shouted at by thousands of people, it's horrifying."

After his co-star Jason Segel said the crowds constitute a "mob," Eisenberg piped up: "Yeah, it's a mob. They were one torch away from burning me. I'm a normal person with like normal reactions to things, so of course it's going to be terrifying. If you like that kind of thing and feed off of it in some way, you must have a miserable life." If Eisenberg would like to skip the horrors of the San Diego Convention Center next year, maybe he'd be interested in visiting Auschwitz or the Killing Fields, which are just lovely in the summer.

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You can watch Eisenberg stick his foot in it in the AP video below. Catherine Garcia

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.