this is a Social Network RPF primer!
The main sources for these things are mark_eduardo (this post would have been impossible without this fantastic resource) and the Fuck Yeah Mark and Eduardo Tumblr. Go to those places for fic and daily updates and more of the below! There is not a lot of fic yet, but maybe if people watch some stuff they will start writing things!! (Note: the first rule of Social Network fandom is that there is no division between the FPF and RPF sides. It's all gay, it's all welcome, look at Jesse Eisenberg's face, omg.)
Basics can be found on Wikipedia, that divine source of all trustworthy information: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, and you know damn well who Justin Timberlake is. I'm presuming you also know what they look like, but if not, Fuck Yeah Eisenberg and Fuck Yeah Andrew Garfield can hook you up. This post is mostly going to cover their dynamics with each other. So really, this is an Andrew/Jesse primer. GET READY FOR SOME PRIMING
The Videos!
Unscripted: This starts flirty and gets flirtier. Take note of the world's huffiest Justin Timberlake in the last video when Andrew and Jesse are gazing at each other in full-on honeymoon phase.
Click to viewThat was the best trainwreck of all time.
I'm gonna go scripted for my answer.
JESSE: I also feel inspired to go off book, um, and ask Andrew, um, in this movie my character falls out of love with your character. How did you fall in love with me on screen?
JUSTIN: And off.
JESSE: And or off.
ANDREW: Um, I could choose to answer this honestly… and I’m going to. There’s something about your face, that kind of um, engenders (laughing), a kind of… a well of um… joy! Springs from my soul. And uh, it’s pure projection. It’s nothing personal. It’s actually nothing to do with you; it’s just that you remind me of a dog I once had that I was very much enamored by.
JESSE: Whatever it takes.
ANDREW: And your physicality is that of um…
JESSE: A dog?
ANDREW: Yeah, well, yeah. A dog.
JESSE: Was it a golden retriever?
T4: Or, Justin wants Andrew, who wants Jesse, who fidgets.
What would you say my life mantra is?
Is he attractive? Is he a handsome fellow?
La Boite: I love Jesse's pink shirt.
Question: Are sport channels a danger for sexual life?
Jesse: What does that have to do with se-sexual life?
Andrew: That means like, men are distracted by sports.
Jesse: … Oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they’re a danger.
Andrew Garfield talks about Jesse Eisenberg. Jesus Christ they are so in love
It’s very easy for me to do, like I have a lot of love for him, a lot of genuine love for him that… all happened very quickly during rehearsals. Um, and, thank God, because… that, my relationship with him is my lynch pin, that’s all I kind of have to anchor me into these circumstances. If he didn’t feel like a brother to me then it wouldn’t work.
Mute this. The point is Andrew and Jesse whispering to each other and Andrew giggling.
Andrew sits casually with his arm around Jesse, as one does when promoting a film at a press conference, or as Andrew likes to think of it, Public Cuddle Time.
I don’t have a Facebook page. I set one up under an alias as Andrew Garfield for a few weeks - and made no friends. No one was interested… except Andrew’s alias who wanted to be best friends with his own page.
Artist on Artist: Andrew and Jesse. That sounds like a porn I'd watch, JUST SAYING.
It was upsetting to me, you’re so heartbreaking at the end of the movie, and it was upsetting me personally, but I think it didn’t affect Mark as greatly as it affected me, and you know, it was almost difficult to, like, separate myself from the lack of feelings that my character had for you.
EW! This is a five-parter, here's the part with this quote, the rest are at YouTube.
Andrew:He had to repress a lot of his sexiness as well, which I think he found very difficult.
Jesse: I thought that was a great failure of the repression.
Andrew: It still came through.
Sidewalks TV: Individual interviews. Andrew is cute.
I had to develop this love for Jesse Eisenberg, which I did, somehow...with ease, because he's a very lovable person.
Quotes!
Right now me and Jesse Eisenberg are playing best friends and I don’t know if it’s subconscious because I have to portray it on screen- I don’t think it is- but I feel like we really get on as people and I have a lot of love for him even though I’ve only known him for two weeks.
- (src)
The scene was very painful to film because we had been filming for several months and you know, Andrew and I had become very good friends and you’re aware that of course it’s a movie and that you’re playing characters but at the same time I was driving Andrew to and from set which was like an hour away from where we lived and we kinda spoke on the car a little bit but we didn’t really speak on set and that’s the enjoyable process of acting is becoming immersed in the role even if it’s occasionally painful.
- (src)
My connection with Jesse - I could talk about that for days and weeks and months and years. We, um…there were some subconscious forces happening as we were going in on this sort of rehearsal process, and it was probably more from just my own perspective, but my subconscious knew I had to fall in love with him. And see him as a brother. And have a genuine love for him, and it was easy to project that on such a kind of…innocent face. And innocent soul. It was really lovely to, um…it’s so…weird and awkward saying this…right here with you. Um…but I’m gonna keep going. No, stay, stay. You need to hear this. But yeah, it was great! I’ve been a fan of Jesse as an actor ever since I saw Squid and the Whale. You know, it was just a wonderful thing to be able to have a genuine connection with someone and allow that to bleed into not being filmed. We’d share rides together in the morning and we’d eat lobster in Boston and crab in Baltimore…wherever we’d go we’d have the shellfish of that specific area of the United States. Little things like that. It was just really, really a fun thing.
- (src) - If you want to watch this bit it's like ten minutes into the second video I believe. Worth it if only for Andrew looking at Jesse when he says it and laughing and shaking him a little bit.
Did you get to spend much time with JT?
Yeah, such a good guy. At first I was very intimidated because he has this iconic status. Which is such a weird thing for a human being to have. He’s just a good person, genuinely funny, engaging, warm, supportive. Very generous. That was one of the other great things, there was no competitiveness between any of the actors on the set.
Really? I’m surprised. I would think that because of the nature of the story that that would actually help the dynamic on-screen.
Yeah, he was pitting us against each other in the scenes. But outside of that, he cast a group of people that got on very well. Everyone felt very lucky to be there, so that permeated the feeling on set. But Justin was amazing, and great to work with, and I love Jesse so much.
Did you guys get any time together off-set? Go to ball games or anything?
Yeah. We did. Me and Jesse, after Boston we were shooting in Baltimore for four days, and we spent Halloween in Baltimore on our own hanging around this awful shopping mall with a Hard Rock Café and a Cheesecake Factory and a Borders. And then we saw a Ravens game. We saw a Celtics game when we were in Boston, which was fucking amazing. And Jesse got the green clover drawn on his face. He has all these different personality facets. He’s so smart and so funny and so cerebral and neurotic and vulnerable. But then very defensive and then kind of stupid and irreverent. But mostly geniusly funny, and can turn any situation into something Seinfeldian. He may differ with this because he’s a contrarian, but I feel like our relationship reflected the best friends thing during shooting. For me, anyway.
- (src)
There’s no hint that Zuckerberg and Saverin were ever more than friends - though that would make for an interesting movie, too. At the same time, Garfield likened the betrayal his character experiences to a break-up. During the interview, he reflected on a time he’d been dumped out of the blue - and the pain that followed. “You know that confusion you have when you’re broken up with, and you have no idea why?” he asked. “You haven’t been told clearly why, because that person’s protecting you.”
In fact, the desired outcome Garfield imagines his character wanted is a bromantic ideal. If Mark were to realize the error of ways, perhaps he’d apologize to Eduardo, and they could repair their friendship. It might not make for a gripping ending to the film, but it would be a happier conclusion for Saverin. “I think with Mark, up until the end, Eduardo’s hoping at some point Mark’s going to go, ‘Look, I’m really, really sorry, man. I really messed up. I love you so much, and I just was jealous of you for this. And I acted out like this. Can we be friends again? I’ll give you back as much money as you want. Let’s move in together and we’ll play basketball every day, and we’ll cuddle at night and watch reality TV.’ Part of Eduardo in those depositions is just waiting for that moment.”
- (src)