Jesse Eisenberg chats about 'Why Stop Now'

Everyone knows that Jesse Eisenberg is the undisputed modern-day king of onscreen awkwardness, having mastered the art of seeming charmingly flustered in everything from "Zombieland" to "30 Minutes or Less."

The 28-year-old's part in the new comedy "Why Stop Now" reasserts his dominance of the neurotic form. Eisenberg plays overburdened pianist Eli, kidnapped by mom Penny's (Melissa Leo) drug dealer Sprinkles (Tracy Morgan) right before a big audition.

We spoke with the New York native -- who still lives here when he's not filming -- about the movie, which opens Friday.

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Few people have ever been so intimately connected with another person in the collective consciousness that they've been mistaken for them on national television.

It's got to be a strange experience, made only more surreal when it's Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and you played him in a movie.

So it's a testament to "Social Network" star Jesse Eisenberg's imperviousness to this sort of thing that he says he was unaware that an NBC broadcaster called him an "executive of note" and made a Facebook crack when cameras found him attending last Sunday's London Olympics' gold medal men's basketball game.

"I just heard about this," he said. "Obviously I didn't see it, so I didn't know. It doesn't feel like anything right now."

When asked if the mistake was in some sense a positive review, Eisenberg said: "I think I accept the compliment, I guess, sure."