Jesse Eisenberg Is Donating His Kidney to a Stranger

Turns out Lex Luthor has a heart . . . and a spare kidney.

Actor Jesse Eisenberg, who played Superman’s arch-nemesis in the Zack Snyder “Justice League” film and Mark Zuckerberg in “The Social Network”, is donating one of his kidneys this December. Not to a friend or relative, but to someone he’s never even met.

“I’m doing an altruistic donation,” Eisenberg explained, adding that it’s “essentially risk-free and so needed.”

He hopes his example inspires others, saying, “I think people will realize that it’s a no-brainer, if you have the time and the inclination.”

For anyone unfamiliar, an altruistic or non-directed living donation means the donor doesn’t know the recipient. Instead, doctors match the donated kidney with someone who’s medically compatible and waiting on the transplant list. Eisenberg’s doing it through the National Kidney Foundation’s family voucher program, which ensures his family would get priority in the future if they ever needed a kidney themselves.

Eisenberg also shared that he’s a regular blood donor, and he’s surprisingly enthusiastic about it.

“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 got, like, bitten by the blood donation bug. I love it.”

It’s not every day that you hear about a Hollywood star giving away an organ out of pure generosity. But Eisenberg’s upcoming surgery shines a light on how powerful one act of kindness can be, and how lifesaving living donations are. According to the National Kidney Foundation, more than 100,000 people in the U.S. are waiting for a kidney transplant, and living donors help reduce that number in a major way.

So while Jesse Eisenberg might be known for playing villains on screen, in real life he’s making a move that’s nothing short of heroic.