After years of waiting for Now You See Me 3, the long-awaited threequel’s release, which is titled Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, is finally here. That means more magic is on the way, and considering it's been nine years since Jesse Eisenberg played J. Daniel Atlas and 12 years since Isla Fisher played Henley Reeves, I had to know if picking magic back up was like riding a bike. It turns out, it’s hard to learn new tricks, and as the Zombieland actor explained that to me, his co-star roasted (and complimented) him.
Ahead of Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’s release on the 2025 movie schedule, I interviewed Jesse Eisenberg and Isla Fisher, and I asked about what it felt like to return to their roles after so many years. I specifically posed a question to the A Real Pain star about picking sleight of hand back up, and I was curious if it was like riding a bike. In response, he said:
It's so interesting. All the things that I learned from the first one, I still maintain, like the muscle memory is like I learned it – it was as good as 10 years ago. The stuff that was new was like learning something completely different. It's so strange.
So, the old tricks came right back to him, which, in a way, is surprising considering how long it’s been. However, when it came to the new tricks, it was a different story. Explaining how difficult it was to learn the illusions for the third movie, Jesse Eisenberg told me:
Like, I have muscle memory for the tricks that I really practiced a lot, and then tricks that are kind of like related, like a diamond reveal. Diamonds down here, and I turn it up and reveal. [It] felt like I was learning something totally unrelated to the other thing. And it's so hard.
If you’ve seen the Now You See Me: Now You Don’t trailer, you know this new film has a whole bunch of new tricks. To that point, the J. Daniel Atlas actor made sure to explain just how hard learning magic is, even for magicians, saying:
Learning these tricks are so hard that people who are great magicians spend every day of their lives in front of the mirror doing the same trick. And if you're not doing that, it's not going to look good. And so, you know, we were cramming when we were doing these movies. Every time we're not filming a scene. We're off doing our thing, practicing with one of our magic teachers.
Practice really does make perfect, and it seems like this movie did pull off its magic in a mind-boggling way. However, as Eisenberg told me all about that, Isla Fisher popped into the conversation to poke fun at her friend, who was also doing work for another one of his movies as they were in production on the third Now You See Me, she said:
Well, you were off promoting A Real Pain and flying to get Oscars. He was really ‘working hard’ on magic, you know?
It’s worth noting that as Fisher was saying that, Eisenberg said that that gave him even more reason to practice his magic. I’d assume that because he was multitasking while filming Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, getting in extra practice time was necessary. So, as he traveled to award shows to celebrate A Real Pain, he was also probably working on his magic.
Thinking about all that, it’s fun to picture The Social Network actor traveling around and practicing his magic tricks on the awards campaign that ultimately ended with A Real Pain getting a 2025 Oscar nomination for Eisenberg’s script and a win for Kieran Culkin’s performance.
So, when all is said and done here, in a lot of ways, the Henley actress was complimenting her co-star just as much as she was roasting him. And honestly, considering the silly and at times sarcastic yet very impressive magical vibe of the Now You See Me franchise, this kind of attitude is perfect.
Now, to see if all his hard work and practice paid off, you can go see the magically twisty Now You See Me: Now You Don’t in theaters starting November 14.
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