Michael Zegen has found himself in the heart of millennial territory. From Girls and Rescue Me to Frances Ha and Adventureland, the talented young actor has crafted an impressive career spanning film, television and the stage, playing roles in projects that are, more often than not, about youth in crisis: arrested development to the extreme.

So when Jesse Eisenberg wrote a new play, starring himself as Ben, a film school drop living in NYC with an appalling sense of entitlement that boils into resentment and hatred, he wanted Zegen to play Ted, a newly engaged, successful banker, who bears the brunt of Ben's antipathy with a chuckle and a smile.

The Spoils, presented by The New Group at The Pershing Square Signature Center, is in the midst of an extended run that's quickly selling out, so I was lucky to grab a spare moment with Zegen. With an endearing, calm demeanor and nice guy charm, I can see why he's being recruited left and right by young artists who want some reassurance that growing up isn't all that scary. Laughingly, though, he reminded me that sometimes, no matter how glamorous, work can be work.

First things first, how did you get involved with The Spoils? What drew you back at this moment to theater?

To be honest, any opportunity I get to do theater I'll usually jump at. Depending on the content. I mean, I love doing theater, so that's always been my passion. That being said, it is incredibly hard, and a huge time commitment, and very stressful. So it has to be the right project. The last play I did was Bad Jews and I did that for collectively, I guess it was eight months. That was the kind of play that I was able to do over and over again, because I loved it so much. If you believe in the project, it's cake. Well, not cake, but it's worthwhile.

I knew Jesse, we had worked together on this movie called Adventureland some years ago. And we didn't really keep in touch, but I got an email from him out of the blue, and he said he'd written a play, and he thought I'd be right for it, so that's kinda how I got involved.

So he had you in mind?

Yeah, interesting because when reading the character, I wouldn't necessarily think of myself, but the character did evolve over rehearsals, so I kind of made it my own. But it was nice getting that email from him and having an opportunity to work with him again. Cause we had fun the first time around.

In all the interviews he's done for the show, Jesse Eisenberg has been forthcoming about the fact that there are autobiographical elements in the play. Especially knowing that he was thinking of you for this role, did he encourage you guys to draw on your own experiences to create your character?

He kind of gave all the power to [director] Scott Elliott to be quite honest. It was the kind of thing where he'd always defer to Scott in terms of characters or how somebody should say a line. It's interesting working with somebody who wrote it, who's in it. It's something that I've never really done before on stage. It was very interesting, even sometimes he'd say a line and ask Scott, what's the meaning behind this? And it's like, but you wrote it!

So aside from him saying that he had you in mind, Eisenberg didn't really give you much direction as far as what he was imagining for you in the role?

No, not really no. And the character that I'm doing isn't really the character that was written on the page. I kind of had help with that. We tried a few things and finally, you know, I was talking with Scott, the director, and he was saying -- and this was towards the end of rehearsal, I was kind of having problems with it, and honestly I didn't know what I was doing. I was getting a little frustrated with myself. And he said something that changed my opinion, and it was just that this guy needs to be happy all the time. And it made sense, because you know, Jesse's character takes so many jabs at him throughout the play and he kind of just laughs them off. And he thinks he [Jesse's character, Ben] is hilarious, and so I started toying with that, and that made a lot of sense to me, and then I had this laugh that I was doing, and it was funny, and then Scott wanted more of that, so I did a lot more of it. And I kind of found the character that way. He's happy go lucky, he's a nice guy. He's described as being this douchebag, but he's not really, he's just described that way by Jesse's character, Ben, who pretty much hates everybody, hates the world.

There are moments in the play when the whole audience is laughing hysterically, but on the whole it's a pretty dark play. Was it hard to find a balance between the comedy and the much darker elements?

Well, no. I mean, I didn't find it hard at all. I think especially for my character. I mean, I see myself as being some comic relief. And I feel like this is the play that probably needs some comic relief. So it is a funny play, yeah it's dark, but even a lot of things that Jesse's character says are really funny, and they're funny on the page. Yes, it is dark and it goes to some dark places, but in the end I do think it's a comedy. So I don't think there was any problem finding the balance. I do think that I found some funny things to do with lines that on the page aren't necessarily even all that funny. I liked paying with it.

You talk about developing the character, and I was struck by how natural the interaction amongst the cast is. Were there big moments of improvisation and change all throughout the rehearsal period?

Yeah, I mean any play is going to evolve, especially when you have the playwright in the room. I do think that each actor brings their own journey or whatever it is to their character, to their respective characters. They bring their own kind of ideas. You could read something, and even walking into an audition room you could do something that a director or the playwright or writer never thought of in a million years. Each actor is different and has their own mentality. There are things that Annapurna [Sriram] does that I'm sure Jesse never even thought of before. Or Erin [Darke], or Kunal [Nayyar]. Everybody. We all brought something different to it.

With improv, I think Jesse set the precedent for that, because during rehearsals he would improvise things and then we felt free to do that as well. But that's not normal I'd say in a play rehearsal environment. I've never had that before. Usually the playwright, especially a playwright, is like "we must stick to the script". Maybe that's his film mentality, but it made things interesting and a lot of times he would add it to the script. In fact, he would write it into the actual script, and now it's getting published and there are probably a lot of things in there that the actors came up with.

So in a way it was a bit of a collaborative process?

Yeah. Don't get me wrong, it is his play. But there was more collaboration than I've had in any other play rehearsal room.

As an actor, how do you find yourself adapting to those different media of television, film, and theater? What determines the projects you'll choose?

You know, I just read something, and if it inspires me then I wanna do it. It doesn't matter what medium it is. But theater is something that I usually need a bit of a break after doing. It's so rigorous. It's exhausting, that's basically it. It's probably the most satisfying out of all of them, because you get that immediate gratification. So I'm not like, oh now I gotta do a movie, now I gotta do this. When I read something, I know whether I want to do it or not. I love all of the media. TV right now is pretty incredible. The writing on TV is better than it's ever been, probably better than movies right now, you really get to develop a character. You get to develop a character in theater, too. You get that immediate gratification. There's nothing better than hearing people laugh at something that came out of your mouth.

And this play gets such a big reaction...

Usually. (Laughs.) There are nights when it's silent! But it's not just that play, it's any play. On some nights it's gonna be quiet, other nights it's gonna be a big raucous comedy. You just don't know. And I don't know why two hundred people will collectively decide, "you know what, tonight we're not gonna laugh" or "tonight I'm gonna have the best time of my life." I don't know how that happens, what goes into that.

Do you find yourself changing from night to night to fit the audience?

Well, for my character I feel like, since I do see myself as being sort of the comic relief... You know, I can't get off that stage. But also, just because they're not laughing doesn't mean they don't like the play. They might really be processing it. To be honest, I think Jesse and Kunal like the quiet shows better than the louder ones. I guess they feel like the audience is listening. But they're listening anyways, I don't necessarily agree with that. I do sometimes feel, like, useless because of the fact that they're not laughing at me, but I know that that's not true.

You've had such a career working in films and movies and now plays that depict a younger generation struggling. Do you think this is a unique thing to our generation, to struggle so much with what it means to grow up?

Well, I do think that times have probably changed a bit. I think a lot of young people are more aimless now maybe? Cause they do have the freedom to take their time deciding what they want to do with their lives as opposed to, in years past, when it was kind of set from the get go what you were going to do. I mean people used to get married in college and they knew what they were going to be doing right out of college. From 22 on you knew what your career path was going to be. We have a little more freedom these days.

Which can also lead to crisis...

(Laughing) It usually does... And hopefully you don't turn into Ben.

I don't know if it's necessarily a problem, people seem to be getting along just fine, but there comes a point in your life when you do need to decide what to do. Luckily, I've been playing all these characters in these kinds of aimless projects, or projects about aimless young people, and yet I've kind of always known what I wanted to do since I was a little kid.

And often times you are the foil. Even in The Spoils, you're that contrast of someone who is living a successful life and behaving like more of an adult.

Yeah, in some of these I play the character who has his shit together. I do find it interesting that I keep getting cast in these things (laughs).

Any upcoming projects you want to talk about or mention? You did say that theater is pretty time consuming...

We have nine shows now a week, I can't even wrap my head around that. Nine shows. It's great, don't get me wrong, it's great that they're adding shows cause it's doing so well and we're selling out. I want to support the New Group, I feel happy for Jesse. But at the same time, it's like, oh man! (Laughs) This is work, it's really work.