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According to Variety, Jesse Eisenberg, the actor, writer, and director, was granted Polish citizenship by President Andrzej Duda on Tuesday (March 4) at a ceremony in New York.
Jesse Eisenberg wrote and directed the 2024 comedy-drama film A Real Pain. In it, Eisenberg plays David Kaplan, and Kieran Culkin plays Benjamin "Benji" Kaplan.
The two American cousins travel to Poland to honor their late grandmother, who was a Holocaust survivor.
While accepting the award, the actor discussed how, during the movie's filming, he realized that his family had lived in Poland for a long time until his great-aunt fled to the U.S. in 1938.
He said:
"I’m so unbelievably honored. This is an honor of a lifetime and something I have been very interested in for two decades. While we were filming this movie in Poland and I was walking the streets and starting to get a little more comfortable in the country, something so obvious occurred to me, which is that my family had lived in this place far longer than we’ve lived in New York."
The actor said that being in Poland reminded him of the disconnection between his family and the country. He expressed his desire to reconnect with the country through A Real Pain. He said:
"The history ended so tragically, but in addition to that tragedy of history was also the tragedy that my family didn’t feel any connection any more to Poland. And that saddened me and confirmed for me that I really wanted to try to reconnect as much as possible."
Jesse Eisenberg on writing A Real Pain and his view on filmmaking
In December 2024, while discussing his previous movie characters in an interview with GQ, Jesse Eisenberg talked about how he wanted to write about two characters who are complete opposites.
He said while the two brothers in A Real Pain are so different, they both have inner demons. He said,
"It's these two characters who both have what I would call modern-day demons. My character has like medicated OCD and anxiety. And Kieran's character has some darker but individual demons."
While appearing at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, Jesse Eisenberg sat down for an interview with the Sundance blog.
In the interview, the actor shared his love for films and filmmaking, claiming that film is a powerful medium for telling personal stories to the whole world. He said,
"Films are such a powerful, universally accessible way to tell intimate stories. When I think about the value it has in my life, I am drawn to the idea that it allows me to express myself through fiction. As cultural discourse becomes increasingly polarized, I take solace in the opportunity to make fictional stories that can transcend divisiveness while still expressing my thoughts."
For the unversed, A Real Pain received two nominations at the 97th Academy Awards, and Kieran Culkin won his first Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Culkin was also nominated and won in the same category at the 2025 BAFTA Awards and the Golden Globe Awards. Jesse Eisenberg won the 2025 BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay.
