Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg open up about love and loss in 'Adventureland' and 'New Moon'

Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg in "Adventureland"

Coming-of-age angst has served Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg well — at least, when it comes to their acting carers. Over the last several years, Stewart and Eisenberg have tended to choose roles in which their young characters are either caught in the middle of a love triangle, experiencing insecurities about dating, going through an identity crisis or all of the above. When Stewart and Eisenberg eventually start playing characters over the age of 25, time will tell if these two actors will continue to gravitate to playing people with self-esteem issues. But for now, movie fans can see how Stewart and Eisenberg bring their unique portrayals of neurotic personalities to the big screen.

Case in point: The comedy film "Adventureland" (out August 25 on DVD and Blu-ray), which tells the story of recent college grad James Brennan (played by Eisenberg), who reluctantly takes a summer job at a Pittsburgh amusement park. James falls for his co-worker Em Lewin (played by Stewart), who’s having an affair with a married older co-worker named Mike Connell (played by Ryan Reynolds). Stewart and Eisenberg recently sat down to talk about what they love about "Adventureland" and some of their other projects, including Stewart’s blockbuster "Twilight" movie series and her role as a stripper in "Welcome to the Rileys."

What was it about "Adventureland" that appealed to you?

Eisenberg: I think that Kristen and I were just saying the characters are so well rounded. It’s rare that a movie like this that can come out in many theaters and be a movie that a lot of people go to, with characters that are so richly drawn and so honestly put together.

Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg in "Adventureland"

Both of you are too young to have been lived through all of the 1980s. Was it fun to go back and explore the era?

Eisenberg: Yeah, it was interesting to see. I was born in 1983 and so the ’80s were done by the time I grew up a little. But I did have this like romanticized notion of what the ’80s were. I mean, they weren’t romantic for me, but I had this notion of a simpler time. I guess also it was a selfish time, right? It was called the Me Generation or the Me Decade or something. I do have like some vivid memories of what the aesthetic was of the ’80s, so it was interesting to see that from the perspective of an adult. And I really liked it. I did actually like two other movies that take place in the same year — or ’86 or ’87, and so yeah, I kind of I do like the period. It’s nice also there were no cell phones!

Stewart: And who knows if the story actually could have taken place without that, because at least my aspect of the story is reliant on the fact that she can be a different person depending on who she’s with, and she can't always be contacted. She’s not doing a Facebook depicting every emotion that she is going through. So she can get from people what she needs and she can sort of reinvent herself, which people do naturally. It’s not like she is being fake, it’s just that she has different aspects that she can show different people. I feel like nowadays everyone perceives you the same way. You can't even have a private life away from your family; it’s like everything is very hands-on!

Is this school of comedy something that really appeals to both?

Eisenberg: Yeah I haven't really seen a lot of them but whenever they're making something that’s funny, if it’s derived from the characters rather than just from something happening to the characters. I guess that’s the ideal version of what a comedy is.

Stewart: You feel for the person telling the joke and you're not just watching a comedian arbitrarily be funny. The characters are actually more like people that you’ve gotten to know and that you care about and now they're being funny. You just laugh harder at your friends.

Greg Mottola and Jesse Eisenberg in "Adventureland"

Jesse, knowing that you are playing "Adventureland" director Greg Mottola in his younger life, does that put extra responsibility on you? You did something similar in "The Squid and the Whale" with writer/director Noah Baumbach.

Eisenberg: In "Adventureland," the story is fictionalized a little bit. But no, if anything, it was really nice and wonderful to have Greg there to discuss all of the situations. It just meant that the script had a more personal quality to it. You could just tell by reading it once that it came from something more real than most scripts that you read. It felt more authentic. All the characters did.

Does Greg have mannerisms that you were trying to pick up on?

Eisenberg: Yeah, Greg is extremely, extremely earnest. He’s extremely careful about what he says. It’s all in the script. It’s all self-explanatory; if you just read the script, you’d probably know something about him, even before you met him. But that’s all that all comes from him, this over explaining, this very sincere quality.

Ryan Reynolds and Kristen Stewart in "Adventureland"

Kristen, did Greg tell you about any of the people your character was based on?

Stewart: I think she was based on a compilation of girlfriends of his from the past. Like a melding of a couple of different people – failed relationships with girls that were kind of damaged, but not a specific person. So it wasn’t like one relationship that he had. This was just the movie.

Did you meet anyone like that that when you were growing up and did you have any similar experience?

Stewart: No, I never met a terribly introverted damaged girl at a theme park in the ’80s [She laughs.] But I related to her because I like characters that are written, that are whole, that don’t feel it’s easy to tell what would be right and wrong and how they would feel about something. I’m not like the girl in the movie; she’s a real person. So her — I got all my inspiration from her. I could imagine what it would be like to not like yourself very much and not have a mom and not have a dad to reassure you and sort of be kicking it alone. Also to feel like you’re sort of smarter than everybody but no one gets it. I get all that, and then the masochistic aspects girls are good at. I can relate on that level.

Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg in "Adventureland"

But that was more of a rebellious thing with that character.

Stewart: Yeah, I think that was more about like her dad getting to know that she was actually a real person and not just like a little girl — that your little girl is going to grow up into a woman that does things on her own, who makes her own personal choices that wouldn’t necessarily coincide with his. It was as if she’s a grown up now, and that’s hard for a dad to deal with.

The music is so important to the film, but was that just ancient history to you?

Eisenberg: Lou Reed is still very still popular now. I don’t know if anybody else in the movie is still kind of popular now, but I loved Lou Reed for a while. I was so happy to see that he would be included in the movie — he was even in the script, obviously, because it’s part of the plot. I didn’t really know that much of the music, but Greg had made us like some mixed CDs of the songs from the movie. I loved all the ones that the characters are supposed to love.

Stewart: I really like Lou Reed. I like a lot of the sort of alternative music. I’m not to into like "Rock Me, Amadeus" though. [She laughs.]

Jesse Eisenberg and Martin Starr in "Adventureland"

So what's the worst summer job that you ever had?

Stewart: I've never had one. I've done sort of funky movies over summers. And once I didn’t like a production designer, if that counts as a bad job! [She laughs.]

Eisenberg: Yeah, I've never worked during the summer. I take summers off. [He laughs.]

What was the most enjoyable scene that the two of you shot together?

Eisenberg: I was going to say the bumper cars, but actually, it wasn’t fun at all. It just seemed like something you could say in an interview! Actually, acting in bumper cars is terrible, because the really only way to film it and get a close up is to literally mount the camera — this heavy thing on the car and it’s just the worst because you can't act at all with a thing on the car.

Martin Starr and Jesse Eisenberg in "Adventureland"

Was there anything fun about shooting on the actual theme park?

Eisenberg: No, I think the insurance didn’t cover us. We didn’t go on any of the rides until the shoot ended, for fear of us dying!

Stewart: Yeah, we weren’t allowed to go on the rides until the end, and then they stuck us on the most dangerous rickety wooden old ride that they had at the park. That was the one ride that we got to ride. And we did it like 15 times. It’s especially funny though to see Jesse on a ride because his enthusiasm is very restrained. He’s like, "Oh yes, that was very fun!" [She laughs.]

Eisenberg: [He laughs] I agree, that was enjoyable!

Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart in "The Twilight Saga: New Moon"

Kristen, what are you looking forward to in "New Moon," the second movie in the "Twilight" series?

Stewart: I’m looking forward to all aspects of the movie. A lot more is introduced, like the world of the werewolves comes alive, and the second movie is much more quaint. Edward leaves her, which is interesting, considering the first movie is based entirely on their devotion to each other. So to see them cope without each other and to see this character, Jacob, who is supposed to represent light and warmth. He pulls her out of a rut that’s seemingly impossible. And it’s really tragic. There is actually a lot more to work with. The first one was good because it was ultimate love and abandon, and that’s good, but it’s also kind of one note. Now it’s a different story.

Has your life changed drastically? Are you just aware of being watched all the time?

Stewart: Not on a day-to-day basis, it’s only like at press junkets and things like this that you have to watch what you say. But really, people don’t really recognize me often. I think I just look different in person or something. I’m also not very approachable, and maybe they're just like "Ooohhh, she’s scary!" [She laughs.]

Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Wiig, Kristen Stewart, Bill Hader and Greg Mottola at the "Adventureland" premiere in Park City, Utah, for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival

How has "Twilight" changed your choices in movies?

Stewart: I don’t have a grand plan. I don’t scope things out. I don’t look at a project and how it relates to others. It’s not like, "Oh, this is the next step and this is probably smart for me." "Adventureland," for example, was something that I wanted to do because the characters were easy to invest in. It’s just there to be played. They played like real people – you feel responsible for someone that you feel will die right on the page unless you bring them to life. Whenever you feel that, it is something worthwhile. But with regard to "Twilight," it’s made it easier to do things that I really like, things that like an independent movie that nobody would normally see. Now it’s like, "Oh let’s go see Bella in this stripper movie; it’ll be crazy!" [She laughs.]

Presumably, you’re referring to "Welcome to the Rileys."

Stewart: Yeah, with James Gandolfini and Melissa Leo, who is just incredible.It was the most fruitful life-changing experience on a movie that I've ever had. It was just the hardest subject matter I've ever had to deal with. I play a very broken young girl who is a runaway. She’s a street kid. She’s working in a strip club and James Gandolfini’s character is just as sort of dead inside and they wake each other up. It’s really good.

Jesse, what’s next for you?

Eisenberg: I’m doing a movie in Georgia. I play a very broken young girl who is a runaway [He laughs.] No, it’s called "Zombieland." So look out for it. I am not a zombie in the film though — I’m running from them!?