- John Francis Daley, Freaks And Geeks, TV, 1999-2000. Jesse was second choice after Daley for Sam Weir in the fictional Chippewa, Michigan. In his future movies, producer Judd Apatow used many people from the series, his way of “refusing to accept that the show was canceled.”
- Michael Angarano, Ceremony, 2009. When Eisenberg left for other deals, his best pal on-screen, Angarano, was promoted to Sam – one of two buddies crashing the wedding of the woman Sam still loved. Reece Thompson took on Angarano’s original role of Marshall.
- Andrew Garfield, The Amazing Spider-Man, 2010.
- Jack Huston, Kill Your Darlings, 2012. Having been the Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, Eisenberg was all ready to be Jack Kerouac in the 1944 murder mystery… when somebody also killed the budget. An excellent debut from ex-Yale and NYU director John Krokidas revealing many a secret (murder, included) of the the pre-Beat Generation years of Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac and their friend Lucien Carr – which allowed Daniel Radcliffe to make (and survive) a risky return to glasses and schooldaze a mere two years after graduating from Hogwarts.
- Ben Stiller, While We’re Young, 2014. New York auteur Noah Baumbach’s tale of an uptight documentary-maker was in Jesse’s hands for while. Then, Ben caught it.
- Jonah Hill, Arms and the Dudes, 2015. Long time in the planning and even then, director Todd Phillip’s lost his 20-something stoner buddies involved in a $300m arms deal Actually, Warners had always wanted the hotter Hill but he was fully booked. Wartner has a way of solving such problems.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 6