On top of writing, directing, producing and acting in his new movie The Debut, Jesse Eisenberg took on an additional unexpected role: songwriter.

For the film — which follows a shy housewife (played by Julianne Moore) cast in a community theater production who loses herself in the performance — Eisenberg wrote seven of the original songs that comprise the movie’s central show, called Nosy Neighbors; one of those tunes, “This City May Have Chewed Me Up (But It Hasn’t Spit Me Out),” is getting a best original song awards push.

At a screening on the Fox lot on Monday, Eisenberg joined composer Emile Mosseri and moderator Justin Hurwitz to break down his musical process, teasing, “My brain goes to musical theater cliches more than it goes to like sports or women — my wife! One woman, one woman.”

The star emphasized that he is not classically trained but writes music on the piano or while playing guitar, “and again, the thing I can write is musical theater music. It’s not like I also do like what you do [in composing scores]. This is the extent of my talents and I worked really hard on it, but that’s my ceiling.”

Eisenberg recalled working with Mosseri on 2022 film When You Finish Saving the World and writing a song for Finn Wolfhard’s character. “I sent it to Emile and Emile was so sweet, but he was like, ‘This is really good if he was doing musical theater music, and he’s more doing rock music,’” Eisenberg explained. “And so I was like, ‘OK, can you rewrite the music?’” Mosseri did, but Eisenberg said it made him realize “I’m not a good enough musician to then do jazz or something like more complicated…. I really like musical theater music and I like a lot of songs I’ve written. But like that’s the extent of my skillset.”

Mosseri responded by noting how Eisenberg is “very humble and very sort of downplays his musical prowess because he wrote these incredible songs,” as the filmmaker explained that with a story set in the world of the theater, “it gave me permission in a way to make things heightened, because musicals are heightened and silly and absurdist.”

That doesn’t mean he didn’t take the songwriting seriously, though, with Eisenberg explaining, “I wanted to feel like this is a real thing. So I’m making fun of the songs, but when I’m sitting there writing ‘This City May Have Chewed Me Up,’ I’m crying. Like I am feeling the city have chewed me up, Jesse, and it hasn’t spit me out, Jesse. Like it’s very personal, but I knew the context around it is going to feel silly.”

He added that he was particularly inspired by the wave of ’90s musicals that “kind of fetishized New York City,” which he was obsessed with growing up. “All the songs in the movie are like in the spirit of that weird thing, like ‘Finding a good guy in town is like a needle in a haystack,’” Eisenberg joked. “This stuff where like I don’t think any real person who’s self-actualized can relate to that feeling, but they work in the musical theater.”

The Debut hits theaters Dec. 11.

Lucian Piane, a songwriter and music producer known best for his work on multiple seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race, died October 12, according to Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office records. He was 46.

The online records note Piane died in the street. Piane reportedly was struck by a car Monday morning in Glendale, CA and died from his injuries.

Piane worked as a composer and producer on the first eight seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and was behind some of the show’s biggest musical numbers including The Baddest Bitches in Herstory”, “Shade: The Rusical,” “Rucapella,” “Glamazonian Airways (Part 1 and Part 2),” “Hot in Tuckahoe” as well as several finale songs including the three from season 8: Bob the Drag Queen’s “I Don’t Like to Show Off,” Naomi Smalls’ “Legs” and Kim Chi’s “Fat, Fem & Asian.”

He co-wrote and produced RuPaul‘s biggest hits including “Cover Girl,” “Sissy That Walk,” “Jealous of My Boogie,” “Peanut Butter,” “Geronimo,” “Freaky Money,” “The Beginning,” “Born Naked,” “Champion,” “Sexy Drag Queen,” “I Bring the Beat,” “Let the Music Play,” “Feel Like Dancin” and “Main Event.”

A classically trained composer and graduate of New York University, he composed scores for the HBO documentary An Omar Broadway Film and the film Pretty Ugly People. He wrote the song “Year End Rap” which blogger Perez Hilton performed on his VH1 special, What Perez Sez. Piane also wrote the song “Stunning” for Calpernia Addams for her reality television show, Transamerican Love Story.

He earned a Grammy nomination and an RIAA Platinum Album Award for his production work alongside Marc Shaiman on the Hairspray film soundtrack. His additional credits included arrangements for the film Team America: World Police and writing music for the 76th Annual Academy Awards.

Prior to his death, on October 10 he was taken into custody by Glendale police for allegedly being under the influence of a controlled substance. He was detained again the following day for an alleged assault on an officer or emergency personnel. He was issued citations for both incidents and given a court date of October 12. Worried fans and friends had previously commented on some alarming videos he had posted on Instagram, saying “You gotta get sober and stay sober Lucian. Please ❤️ we love you” and “This is so sad to see. Lucian please seek help.”