Jesse Eisenberg: My Facebook Founder is No Punk

There's a lot being said about Jesse Eisenberg's portrayal of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in the upcoming film "The Social Network,"  especially since the film is based on Ben Mezrich's critical novel "The Accidental Billionaires: Sex, Money Betrayal and the Founding of Facebook."

While the Internet is rife with details about how the 26-year-old billionaire will be portrayed in the movie (mostly dwelling on various forms of interest in the opposite sex), Eisenberg has reassured Zuckerberg -- who has a lot on his mind these days -- that he doesn't have to worry about the movie...Really.  "The movie is not incendiary," Eisenberg tells PopcornBiz. "This is not some kind of expose. It's just an interesting story."

"I'm hoping (Zuckerberg) sees the movie and he appreciates the depiction."

Of course, you'd probably say the same thing if you were playing a man who could send his own private army of tanks to chase you like a wild dog forever. But Eisenberg insists: "I have reverence for Mark (Zuckerberg) because he created this really interesting thing."

He's never met Zuckerberg, but his first-cousin works for Facebook (at least until the movie comes out). "My cousin only has wonderful things to say about Zuckerberg and that's my opinion as well," says Eisenberg. "He's brilliant."

Eisenberg admits he doesn't have a Facebook page due to privacy issues. But these are of the movie-star variety, not the privacy issues which have become a subject of friction for the billions of site users. "I'm in movies and I cherish the parts of my life that no one knows about," says Eisenberg. "For that reason I don't have a page."

Eisenberg, who calls his limited experience on Facebook "addictive,"  even downplays the problems the site has experienced due to privacy concerns.

"Whatever controversy surrounds the site is sort of par for the course of creating something so incredibly ubiquitous," he says. "(Zuckerberg) created something that revolutionized socialization."

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