The BBC reported that American actor Jesse Eisenberg has been granted Polish citizenship for his movie True Grit, which tells the story of Jews during World War II.
Jesse Eisenberg wrote, directed, and starred in the film. According to the plot, two American cousins travel to Poland to honor their grandmother, who survived the Holocaust. The story is based on the life of Eisenberg’s aunt.
“While we were shooting this movie in Poland, I was walking the streets and feeling a little more comfortable in the country. Something so obvious occurred to me: my family had lived in this place much longer than we had lived in New York. That story ended tragically,” Jesse Eisenberg said at the citizenship ceremony.
He added that, besides the tragic story, he was saddened by the fact that his family no longer felt any connection to Poland. So he wanted to change that.
Eisenberg was inspired to create True Pain by the death of his aunt Doris in 2019. She was 106 years old. She grew up in Poland but fled to the United States in 1938. Other family members who remained in Poland were killed during the Holocaust.
Jesse Eisenberg was nominated for an Oscar for the film’s screenplay, and his co-star Kieran Culkin won the award for Best Supporting Actor.