WARSAW, March 15 — Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk yesterday jokingly suggested US actor and producer Jesse Eisenberg, freshly given Polish citizenship, may have to undergo military training in line with a new law.
“Dear Jesse, get ready! I’ll have news for you tomorrow,” Tusk posted on social media site X after Eisenberg, 41, recently told NBC’s The Tonight Show he was honoured to have had the nationality of his great-grandparents bestowed on him.
Eisenberg earned an Oscar nomination for best original screen play for “A Real Pain”, which was filmed in part in Poland.
The film, which Eisenberg wrote, directed and starred in, recounts the story of Poland’s Jewish population, focusing on two American cousins who travel there to honour their grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, based on Eisenberg’s own great aunt.
Eisenberg himself played one cousin, with Kieran Culkin securing a best supporting actor Oscar for playing the other.
The actor and director had for some time expressed his desire to take Polish nationality and Polish President Andrzej Duda duly granted his wish last week during a visit to New York.
At the ceremony, Eisenberg said he realised how his family felt they had lost their connection to Poland after the tragedy of World War II and the Holocaust, which claimed the lives of several family members.
His great aunt Doris managed to flee in 1938 to the United States.
Alongside his social media post, Tusk also liked a video of Eisenberg’s appearance on The Tonight Show where the actor said he was aware of the new law.
He said that the day after receiving citizenship he saw the “top news was that Poland now requires all males to participate in military training”.
Poland has sent several years modernising its armed forces to counter a perceived threat posed by neighbouring Russia after the latter invaded Ukraine three years ago.
Tusk said on Tuesday that his government wanted to provide military training to 100,000 volunteers annually. — AFP
