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Jesse Eisenberg says he was using 'hyperbole' when he compared experience of facing screaming fans at Comic-Con to genocide

‘Of course I use hyperbole to describe the sensory overload I experienced. I sometimes employ that’

Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith
Wednesday 15 July 2015 10:18 BST
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Jesse Eisenberg had compared the experience of facing all the screaming fans to 'genocide'
Jesse Eisenberg had compared the experience of facing all the screaming fans to 'genocide'

The actor Jesse Eisenberg has sought to clarify his comments on comparing the experience of facing screaming fans at Comic-Con to genocide, by claiming that he was using “hyperbole”.

Eisenberg, who plays Lex Luthor in the upcoming superhero film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, made the comments at the convention in San Diego on Monday.

“It is like being screamed at by thousands of people. I don’t know what the experience is throughout history, probably some kind of genocide. I can’t think of anything that’s equivalent,” he said.

The next day he sought to clarify his initial comments, stating in an interview that, “Maybe on some cellular memory level, that’s the only thing that seems like an equivalent social experience,” adding that being shouted at by thousands of people was “horrifying”.

But that afternoon he told the Associated Press that his comments had been an exaggeration: “Of course I was using hyperbole to describe the sensory overload I experienced. I sometimes do employ that.

“I’m a normal person who has normal sensory experiences, so Comic-Con was overwhelming for me,” he told the news agency, adding that it was “really an honour to be on that end of such jubilation”.

Additional reporting by Press Association

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