casting couch

Jesse Eisenberg to Mime His Way Into the Oscar Race As Marcel Marceau

Jesse Eisenberg. Photo: Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images

If there is a secret Oscar hopeful checklist, Jesse Eisenberg will be getting his in the mail soon, now that he’s signed on to play the legendary mime Marcel Marceau in the new movie Resistance. Jonathan Jakubowicz will direct the feature from a script he wrote about Marceau’s role in the French resistance during World War II. Born Marcel Mangel, Marceau joined an underground movement in his teens that helped keep Jewish children from being sent to work camps and smuggled some across the border to safety in Switzerland. Marceau lived in hiding for much of this time, and after the war ended formally devoted himself to the study of mime. The Hollywood Reporter is drawing parallels between Resistance and Life Is Beautiful, and depending on how much work Eisenberg does in silence, it could also be a little of The Pianist. In any event, it’s already (silently) screaming prestige picture through wild facial expressions and white face paint.

Jesse Eisenberg Is Going to Play a Famous Mime