‘A Real Pain’s Jesse Eisenberg Reflects On Anti-Semitism, Says He “Knows People Hate Him, And Why”

On the arrival of his film A Real Pain about two Jewish cousins seeking to make sense of their history by joining a Holocaust tour group in Poland, Jesse Eisenberg says he feels he has been the target of anti-Semitic prejudice his entire career.

Eisenberg, who directed and co-stars with Kieran Culkin in the project, told The Times of London that around the time of his first film Roger Dodger, aged 18, he saw a comment made about his appearance, calling him “short, ugly and Jewish,” while another read: “I hate Seth Rogen and Jesse Eisenberg. I like their movies, but something about them makes me hate them.”

Eisenberg told The Times: “I could have told them what they hate about us! So I know people hate me. It is just something you take as a given and, you know, register as a handicap.”

His new film, he said, was motivated by “a lack of connection to something bigger than my world.”

He said: “There’s also guilt that I live in a materially comfortable world, yet know what’s happening in other places — and that feeling of helplessness and disconnect makes you feel small and meaningless.”

Eisenberg was previously Oscar-nominated for his role of Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network (2010), and has mixed theatrical projects and writing with more mainstream fare including Now You See Me, the third instalment of which is due this year.

He told The Times there was only one project on his screen resume he hadn’t wanted to do, although he wouldn’t provide the title. He said:

“The only thing I’ve done that I didn’t want to was a film most people would think was a passion project. I won’t name it, but it was arthouse. All the studio things that I’ve done have just been dreams.”