The Trailer and Poster for Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut
A24 has unveiled the official trailer and poster for writer-director Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut, which will open in limited theaters on December 11, 2026. The musical comedy film has been rated R for language, some sexual references, and brief drug use.
In the film, when Mona Friedman is cast in a bit part at a small community theater, she transforms from a shy, unassuming housewife into a zealous method actor willing to do anything to protect the artistic integrity of her marginal role—even if it means waging war against the show’s domineering director.
The Debut stars Academy Award winner Julianne Moore and two-time Academy Award nominee Paul Giamatti alongside Halle Bailey, Jesse Eisenberg, Cara Buono, Craig Bierko, Eldar Isgandarov, and Bernadette Peters.
The movie was produced by Emma Stone, Dave McCary, Ali Herting, and Jesse Eisenberg, who also wrote the music with Emile Mosseri.
Hoping to escape her quiet, invisible life as a New Jersey homemaker, Mona Friedman (Julianne Moore) tries out for the local community theater musical “Nosy Neighbors.” So begins a wild, comical journey in which Mona tumbles down a rabbit hole of unleashed creativity — blowing up her whole identity.
As sweet, shy Mona dives into the depths of unhinged obsession to win over a tyrant director, played by Paul Giamatti, Jesse Eisenberg’s third feature film becomes a funny, stirring, darkly surreal portrait of a woman discovering the powerful artist within.
“The Debut is an experience that grows more and more absurd,” says Eisenberg, who not only wrote, directed and performs in The Debut, but created from scratch the musical- within-the film, “Nosy Neighbors.
“The story begins with an empty nester who feels no one sees her. She has practically disappeared as a human being. But by devoting herself to this silly, unimportant local musical, she becomes a monstrous force — ready to sacrifice everything.”
“In The Debut, Jesse writes about this idea that we all have our little obsessions that bring us joy, and while a small musical like Nosy Neighbors can seem irrelevant to what’s going on in the larger world, it’s about so much more,” says Moore.
“We all have so much feeling, desire, love and talent inside. Mona, in the middle of her life, goes looking for these things, and what she finds changes everything.”
