{"id":505520,"date":"2026-06-18T05:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T05:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/505520\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T05:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T05:23:10","slug":"why-jesse-eisenberg-donated-his-kidney-to-a-complete-stranger-nbc-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/505520\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Jesse Eisenberg donated his kidney to a complete stranger \u2013 NBC New York"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jesse Eisenberg didn&#8217;t need a compelling reason to donate his kidney. In fact, he did so for a complete stranger.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;Social Network&#8221; actor sat down with Jimmy Fallon during Tuesday&#8217;s episode of &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbc.com\/the-tonight-show\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Tonight Show<\/a>&#8221; to explain the rationale behind the selfless act.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Well, I learned about this, and this is just, like, something anybody could do,&#8221; Einsenberg said. <\/p>\n<p>The donation was pain-free and the 42-year-old said he now lives a &#8220;perfectly normal&#8221; life. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And somebody else who was on dialysis or dying is able to have a real life now,&#8221; Eisenberg added.<\/p>\n<p>He also quipped that, due to the battery of health tests that kidney donors must pass to be eligible for donations, they often end up living longer than non-donors.<\/p>\n<p>Eisenberg first revealed the decision to donate his kidney during an appearance on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.today.com\/health\/news\/jesse-eisenberg-donating-kidney-rcna240753\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">&#8220;TODAY&#8221; in October 2025<\/a>. At the time, he said he didn&#8217;t have a reason other than &#8220;it&#8217;s really needed.&#8221; In fact, there are more than 90,000 people on the national transplant list in the U.S. and an average of 13 die every day while waiting, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kidneyfund.org\/kidney-donation-and-transplant\/transplant-waiting-list\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">the American Kidney Fund.<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>While most kidney donations are done directly to someone the donor knows, Einsenberg donated his kidney through a nondirect donation at <a href=\"https:\/\/nyulangone.org\/news\/what-its-really-donate-kidney-jesse-eisenberg-shares-his-experience\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">NYU Langone Health in New York<\/a>, an act known as an altruistic donation. <\/p>\n<p>Eisenberg was on &#8220;The Tonight Show&#8221; to promote his new movie, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnewyork.com\/the-scene\/minions-mega-movie-summer-universal-studios-hollywood\/3896981\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Minions and Monsters<\/a>,&#8221; the latest installment in the &#8220;Despicable Me&#8221; and Minions universe.<\/p>\n<p>Set in 1920s Hollywood, the story follows the Minions as they attempt to make their own monster movie, only to unleash real monsters into the world.<\/p>\n<p>Eisenberg, who voices the villanous robot Dort, described the movie as a clever ode to the history of filmmaking and a delight for kids.<\/p>\n<p>The film is set to release July 1 in theaters across the U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jesse Eisenberg didn&#8217;t need a compelling reason to donate his kidney. In fact, he did so for a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[922,93,61,60,270,215689,282],"class_list":["post-505520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-celebrity-news","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies","tag-tonight-show-with-jimmy-fallon","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}