Jesse Eisenberg has revealed that he’s donating one of his kidneys to a complete stranger later this year.
The Oscar-nominated actor opened up about the selfless decision while promoting his newest movie, “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t,” on the “Today” show Thursday morning.
Eisenberg began by discussing a blood drive he participated in that was sponsored by the NBC program over the summer.
“I just have so much blood in me, and I feel like I should spill it,” he joked. “I really like doing it, and I don’t know why.”
“I’m actually donating my kidney in six weeks,” Eisenberg, 42, added. “I really am.”
After “Today” host Craig Melvin called the “Real Pain” star’s decision “amazing” and “a big jump” from donating blood, Eisenberg revealed that he is scheduled to donate his kidney in less than two months.
“I got, like, bitten by the blood donation bug. I love it,” he explained. “I’m doing an altruistic donation in mid-December.”
An altruistic donation, which is also known as a non-directed living donation, is when an individual donates an organ to a stranger, per Weill Cornell Medicine. The person receiving the organ is always selected by medical compatibility.
Eisenberg opened up about his upcoming kidney donation further during a separate interview with Today.com published Thursday.
“It’s essentially risk-free and so needed,” he told the outlet. “I think people will realize that it’s a no-brainer, if you have the time and the inclination.”
The “Zombieland” star went on to explain exactly how the process works.
“Let’s say person X needs a kidney in Kansas City, and their child or whoever was going to donate to them is, for whatever set of reasons, not a match, but somehow I am,” he began.
“That person can still get my kidney, and hopefully that child of that person will still donate their kidney, right?” Eisenberg continued. “But it goes to a bank where that person can find a match recipient, but it only works if there is basically an altruistic donor.”
Although the “Social Network” star said that he first got the idea to donate around 10 years ago, it wasn’t until recently that he had the opportunity to actually do it.
“I was in the hospital the next day and went through a battery of tests, and I’m now scheduled in mid-December,” he shared.
As for those who might be scared to become altruistic kidney donors because someone in their own family might need a kidney at some point, Eisenberg clarified why that wouldn’t be a problem.
“The way it works now is you can put a list of whoever you would like to be the first to be at the top of the list,” he shared regarding the National Kidney Registry’s family voucher program. “So it’s risk-free for my family, as well.”
Elsewhere during his appearance on the “Today” show this week, Eisenberg addressed why he chose not to reprise his “The Social Network” role as Mark Zuckerberg for the 2010 film’s upcoming “The Social Reckoning” sequel.
Following an awkward back-and-forth with Melvin, the “Adventureland” star said that he wasn’t returning for “reasons that have nothing to do with how amazing the movie will be.”
“When you play a character, you feel, you know, at some point you’ve grown into something else,” he acknowledged.
“But it’s a really wonderful movie. I’m friends with Aaron Sorkin, who wrote and is directing this movie, and all of the reasons that I am not in it are completely unrelated to how brilliant it will be,” Eisenberg concluded.