Jesse Eisenberg has grown on me so much in recent years. I used to think he was rather cold and pretentious, but maybe he just always had a dry sense of humor. Maybe he’s just lightened up as he’s gotten older. I was so impressed with his work in A Real Pain, which he wrote, directed and starred in… and then he watched as Kieran Culkin won award after award for the movie. Anyway, Jesse is currently promoting Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, and he appeared on the Today Show on Thursday. Craig Melvin praised Jesse for being a long-time blood donor and blood-drive organizer, and Jesse revealed something major: he’s about to donate a kidney.
Jesse Eisenberg is donating a kidney to a stranger, calling it a “no-brainer.”
The Now You See Me: Now You Don’t star, 42, shared the news while recalling his participation in a Today show-sponsored blood drive over the summer. “I just have so much blood in me, and I feel like I should spill it,” Eisenberg quipped during an Oct. 30 appearance on the NBC morning show. “I really like doing it, and I don’t know why.”
“I’m actually donating my kidney in six weeks. I really am,” Eisenberg shared.
“That’s amazing,” host Craig Melvin said.
Eisenberg explained that “I got, like, bitten by the blood donation bug. I love it.”
“That’s a big jump up,” Melvin commented.
“I’m doing an altruistic donation [in] mid-December,” Eisenberg said.
An altruistic donation — also known as a non-directed living donation — is when someone donates an organ to a stranger, Weill Cornell Medicine explains. The recipient is selected by medical compatibility.
“It’s essentially risk-free and so needed,” Eisenberg told TODAY.com separately. “I think people will realize that it’s a no-brainer, if you have the time and the inclination.”
The dad to son Banner, 8, said that by becoming a donor, his family would be prioritized in the future should they ever need a living kidney donation, via the National Kidney Foundation’s family voucher program. “The way it works now is you can put a list of whoever you would like to be the first to be at the top of the list. So it’s risk-free for my family, as well.”
After a kidney donation, most donors are able to resume their normal activities within 2 to 4 weeks, the Mayo Clinic explains. Approximately 5,000 living kidney donations are performed annually in the U.S.
Jesse “said that by becoming a donor, his family would be prioritized in the future should they ever need a living kidney donation, via the National Kidney Foundation’s family voucher program.” I had no idea that program existed! Because that would be my concern about donating a kidney – what happens if I only have one and it goes kaput? If you’ve donated a kidney, you and your family get prioritized with the family voucher program. They should really publicize that, because that alone would probably guarantee more altruistic kidney donations. As for Jesse’s selflessness… it’s remarkable. He gets a pass forever, actually. What a truly lovely thing to do.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
-
- Jesse Eisenberg attends the 2025 EE BAFTA Film Awards at The Royal Festival Hall in London, England. UK. Sunday 16th February 2025.,Image: 965159693, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NORESTRICTIONS, Model Release: no, Pictured: 2025 EE BAFTA Film Awards, Credit line: James Warren/Bang Showbiz/Avalon
-
- SANTA MONICA, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – FEBRUARY 22: Jesse Eisenberg arrives at the 40th Annual Film Independent Spirit Awards 2025 held at the Santa Monica Beach on February 22, 2025 in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 967916945, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Jesse Eisenberg, Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
-
- Jesse Eisenberg arrives on the red carpet of the 97th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 2, 2025.,Image: 971227566, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** EDITORIAL USE ONLY! * NB: Fees charged by Avalon are for Avalon’s services only, and do not, nor are they intended to, convey to the user any ownership of Copyright or License in the material. Avalon does not claim any ownership including but not limited to Copyright or License in the attached material. By publishing this material you (the user) expressly agree to indemnify and to hold Avalon and its directors, shareholders and employees harmless from any loss, claims, damages, demands, expenses (including legal fees), or any causes of action or allegation against Avalon arising out of or connected in any way with publication of the material. * Handling Fee Only ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red/Avalon
-
- 97th Annual Academy Awards OSCARS at the Dolby Theater on March 2, 2025 in Los Angeles, CA,Image: 971317873, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Jesse Eisenberg, Credit line: Nicky Nelson/Wenn/Avalon
-
- BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 02: Jesse Eisenberg attends the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 02, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California.,Image: 976302559, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Jesse Eisenberg, Credit line: Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon
-
- Jesse Eisenberg, winner of the Screenwriter of the Year award for “A Real Pain” and accepting the Supporting Actor of the Year award on behalf of Kieran Culkin, in the winner’s room at the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards at the May Fair Hotel Featuring: Jesse Eisenberg Where: London, United Kingdom When: 02 Feb 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
I’m a living kidney donor, I donated in October 2008. I have had complications, but I don’t regret it. I hope he recovers quickly and brings more awareness and attention to organ donation, it’s needed.
I assume I’m disqualified for this because I’m diabetic but otherwise, heck yes!
Thank you! <3
This is absolutely amazing. My best friend’s partner is currently going through bone marrow transplant treatment and it’s been complete hell for them but they had an anonymous donor match and the sacrifice involved in donating bone marrow is incredible. I have so much admiration for anyone doing something so amazing and selfless for a stranger.
Have always had a 😍 on him & Michael Cera (I always link those two…same energy ✨️)…so glad to see that 😍 is CONSTANTLY quantified
He’s good people!
That is so lovely and altruistic, wow. I would be a donor if somehow the need arose for someone in my community or family and I happened to be a match, but I don’t know that I would sign up to do it for a stranger. There was a boy at my son’s school who needed a donor, and everyone and their brother came out to be tested for compatibility. Hundreds of people. They found someone and it was successful.
What a mensch! “A Real Pain” was great, too.
I don’t know whether Jesse has any sort of diagnosis, and it’s not our business anyway unless he wants to share, but he reminds me of some of the hyper-verbal, hyper-intelligent kids I’ve worked with who are on the spectrum: lovely human beings who can sometimes come off as awkward/anxious (perhaps what you have read as “cold and pretentious” in the past). I personally find the awkward honesty refreshing, and I also think the combo of empathy + neurospicy social skills is so heartening. I was working with a student over Zoom last week who interrupted my explanation of whatever with a deep lean into the camera: “You have a bruise on your forehead. Why do you have a bruise?” I had chosen to leave the light off for an early morning flight departure and had fallen down the last few steps in our house into a shelf corner. He was the only student who noticed. Jesse as a grown-up reminds me of this kid. Not surprised at all that he’s donating a kidney.
I’m so in awe! My husband is in need of a kidney and on the recipient list. It’s all very scary and it gives me so much hope that there are people out there willing to do this for someone they have never met! I am unfortunately excluded from donating due to a health condition, but I would have given anything to give my kidney to my hubby. But it has never occurred to me before that you could do this altruistically and it gives me goosebumps every time I hear something like this. Humanity is not totally screwed, guys!
Good thoughts and prayers that your hubby gets one and it all goes well!
Very kind of him! I donated a kidney to my daddy in 2009. I would do it a thousand times over BUT it is not “essentially risk free”.