Jesse Eisenberg became Polish citizen after his film A Real Pain won in the Best Supporting Actor category by Kieran Culkin.
The actor, writer and director of the film was granted citizenship by the Polish President at a ceremony in New York on Tuesday.
“I’m so unbelievably honoured,” Eisenberg said in a speech at the ceremony via Radio RAMPA. “This is an honour of a lifetime and something I have been very interested in for two decades.”
The film, A Real Pain follows the story of two American cousins, played by Eisenberg and Culkin, who take a trip to Poland to honour their late holocaust survivor mother. Filming the movie in Poland inspired Eisenberg to apply for the citizenship.
The idea came after the 2019 death of his great aunt, who fled Poland for the U.S. in 1938.
“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,” he said.
“And of course, 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 anymore to Poland. And that saddened me and confirmed for me that I really wanted to try to reconnect as much as possible.”
The Social Network actor said that the broken connection between his family and Poland made him want to reconnect with the country.
“And of course, 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 anymore to Poland. And that saddened me and confirmed for me that I really wanted to try to reconnect as much as possible.”
A Real Pain also earned an Oscar nomination for Eisenberg’s original screenplay. At the BAFTAs, Eisenberg took home the original screenplay prize in addition to Culkin’s best supporting actor win.
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