During the Toronto International Film Festival, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Jesse Eisenberg and Kim Nguyen to discuss their latest collaboration, in the engaging, relevant drama The Hummingbird Project.

We discussed the genesis of this story, and Eisenberg explains why he felt the need to memorise the screenplay. Nguyen talks about the casting of Alexander Skarsgard, who features in the film in a supporting role, and is different to how we’ve ever seen him before. The director also talks about the commitment from his actors – with Salma Hayek, for instance, ringing him up late at night to discuss her character, while finally Eisenberg discusses the forthcoming Zombieland sequel, claiming that after a dozen scripts, they finally got it right.

Watch the full interview below:

Synopsis

Cousins Vincent and Anton are players in the high-stakes game of high-frequency trading, where winning is measured in milliseconds. Their dream is to build a straight fiber-optic cable line between Kansas and New Jersey, making them millions, but nothing is straightforward for this flawed pair. Anton is the brains, Vincent is the hustler, and together they push each other and everyone around them to the breaking point with their daring adventure.

The Hummingbird Project is released on June 14th