Jesse Eisenberg has officially become a Polish citizen, receiving the honor at a ceremony in New York on Tuesday, with President Andrzej Duda granting him citizenship.
The announcement comes shortly after Eisenberg’s film A Real Pain won Kieran Culkin the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Eisenberg expressed his deep gratitude during the ceremony, saying, “I’m so unbelievably honored. This is an honor of a lifetime and something I have been very interested in for two decades.”
The actor, known for his roles in The Social Network and Zombieland, drew inspiration from his own family’s history when writing A Real Pain. The film follows two American cousins, played by Eisenberg and Culkin, who visit Poland to honor their late Holocaust survivor grandmother. The idea for the film emerged after the death of Eisenberg's great aunt in 2019, who fled Poland in 1938. During the film’s production in Poland, Eisenberg felt a stronger connection to the country and realized that his family had lived in Poland far longer than they had in New York. This realization led him to apply for Polish citizenship, which is available to descendants of Polish nationals.
Eisenberg expressed his desire to reconnect with his family’s Polish roots, stating that the tragic history of his ancestors, along with the absence of a connection to Poland, had saddened him. He hopes that this ceremony marks the first step toward building a stronger relationship with the country on behalf of his family.
The film A Real Pain earned Eisenberg an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay and won the BAFTA for Original Screenplay in addition to Culkin’s Oscar win.
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