If you were an IU student and you watched the Oscar-nominated film “A Real Pain,” you may have noticed a familiar crimson hat atop Jesse Eisenberg’s head. When I watched it with my mom, I excitedly pointed out this detail, eager to tell her about the “lore” surrounding one of my favorite actors.
Eisenberg wrote, directed and starred in “A Real Pain” alongside “Succession” fan-favorite and Oscar-nominee Kieran Culkin. The film follows the two actors as cousins who travel to Poland to see where their Holocaust survivor grandmother lived. The film itself is phenomenal and well deserving of the Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination it received (even though I firmly believe it should’ve earned a Best Picture nod as well).
With the Oscars coming up, Eisenberg sat down with CBS News to discuss the film and gave some rare insights into his personal life. He talked with CBS News correspondent Tracy Smith at Canter’s Deli in Los Angeles. The lunch was filled with my personal favorite foods: chocolate babka and pickles. In the extended interview that aired Feb. 2, he explained his passion for our beloved Bloomington. .
Eisenberg’s wife, Anna Strout, is an Indiana native and IU alumna. The 2000 graduate, Strout was the recipient of the Richard D. Young Award. This award has been given to students in the Individualized Major Program whose “combination of academic excellence and civic engagement exemplifies the ideals the program exists to nurture.”
Strout’s late mother, who died in 2017, was the executive director of the Middle Way House, a nonprofit domestic violence shelter and sexual assault resource center in Bloomington. After her death, Eisenberg and Strout dedicated time to helping with the nonprofit. In a 2018 interview with Chicago Reader, Eisenberg described Bloomington as a “hotbed of activism.”
The couple moved to Bloomington during the pandemic and took up volunteering with Middle Way House. Many of the usual student volunteers had gone home, so they found themselves helping in whatever way they could. They coordinated donations from local businesses like Inkwell Bakery, who donated food to the shelter.
In his recent CBS News interview, Eisenberg talked about the peace he found from volunteering almost every day at the shelter.
"It sounds weird to say this, and I don't mean this for any kind of – it was, like, the happiest time of my life. I was painting walls and fixing garbage disposals. And I just loved it so much,” he said. “I loved being able to, like, accomplish something where there was no, like, critique of it, you know what I mean?”
Throughout his career, Eisenberg has been spotted showing his appreciation for IU. In 2017, he spent time with the IU women’s basketball team speaking with head coach Teri Moren. In 2016, he surprised Alpha Chi Omega whose philanthropy supports Middle Way House. .
There is even a Reddit discussion on his time in Bloomington in which one commenter claims the actor as a Bloomington local.
“I will always consider Jesse a Bloomingtonian,” they wrote. “I’ve seen him around too many times to count."
Eisenberg’s love for Bloomington is a very popular conversation starter these days. Every one of my friends had received a call or text from their parents when the CBS News interview aired. It was a sweet reminder of all of the good that goes on behind the scenes in Bloomington.
Eisenberg perhaps said it best himself when discussing Bloomington in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“I think college towns are just the best place on earth because they attract the most interesting people to one area,” he said. “Based around one thing: academia.”
