Amy Adams moderated a post-screening Q&A for The Debut with writer-director Jesse Eisenberg, stars Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti, and producer Emma Stone. In the discussion, uploaded by Lucky13Reviews on November 15, 2026, Eisenberg explained how his childhood introduction to community theater helped inspire the film. Source
Eisenberg recalled being a shy seven-year-old in central New Jersey who felt invisible before discovering the warmth of a theater community. That feeling changed as the prospect of putting on a show became real, he said. A welcoming group, with the minor catch that it expects you to get onstage. Source
Eisenberg said writing with Moore in mind allowed him to take the story in strange directions without losing its emotional grounding. Source
“I wanted the movie to feel like a fever dream, but I wouldn’t want it to be a fever dream without like an emotional pull,” he said. Source
“I had no idea he wrote it for me,” Moore said. Source
When Adams asked about portraying an inexperienced actress, Moore emphasized the experience of being a beginner: not yet knowing how to control your body, voice, energy or tone. She remembered getting stuck with an arm extended in high school and not knowing how to lower it naturally, so she simply left it there. Apparently, even an arm can become a staging crisis. Source
Giamatti recalled a scene in which Moore’s character tells a moving story while fake-smoking. He remembered thinking it was “so moving and ridiculous at the same time”—a combination that, for him, captured the movie’s tone. An imaginary cigarette still has a dramatic job to do. Source
Stone said she grew up doing musical theater and youth theater, and that the script’s world felt recognizable, moving and absurd to her. Source
Moore described the story as one of creative discovery, “finding community, finding a place where you belong and having purpose.” Source
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