Entertainment gossip and news from Newsweek’s network of contributors
Jesse Eisenberg recently shared a rare update about his son, Banner, 7, revealing that music is already a big part of his life.
“We write songs together,” the 41-year-old Zombieland star told People while attending the Writers Guild Awards on Saturday, February 15. “My kid is a brilliant musical kid.”
Banner even made his big-screen debut in Eisenberg’s 2024 film, A Real Pain. The award-winning actor joked that he might have second-guessed including his son if he’d realized how big the movie would become, but in the end, Banner “was happy” to be part of it — he’s “an artsy, interesting kid.”
Eisenberg, who shares his only child with wife Anna Strout, usually keeps quiet about his family. But at the SXSW premiere of Sasquatch Sunset in March 2024, he admitted that becoming a dad changed everything.
“My general feeling is I spent the first 35, sorry, 33 years of my life worrying about myself,” the proud parent told People. “And a lot of these concerns were just narcissistic, self-involved, fantastical problems that I created to just ruin my life.”
Things shifted when Banner was born in 2017. “Then I spent the next seven years of my life worrying about real things, worrying about another person,” Eisenberg continued. “And I know it sounds like a self-serving excuse, but it’s made me a lot happier.”
Despite keeping his personal life under wraps, the Now You See Me star has shared glimpses of what it’s like raising a kid. In a 2023 Today interview, he revealed he’s both “terrified” of Banner gaining independence and “thankful” that he takes after his mom.
Jesse Eisenberg is taking his talents behind the camera for his latest role as the director of the new movie “When You Finish Saving the World.” He also talks about not having New Year’s resolutions and fatherhood. pic.twitter.com/NYI01TSHUu
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) January 19, 2023
“I was just praying, probably like a lot of parents, please don’t have all the things I have that I hate about myself,” Eisenberg said at the time. “I married an amazing woman. I’m praying just be like her, just be like her, please just be everything like her.”
Eisenberg and Strout, 41, met on the set of The Emperor’s Club in 2001, where she worked as a producer’s assistant. After dating for about a decade, they briefly split before reuniting in 2015. Two years later, they tied the knot — and later traded Hollywood for a quieter life in Indiana.
The couple moved to Strout’s hometown of Bloomington in 2020, where Eisenberg spent time volunteering at her mother’s domestic shelter. “I was just volunteering every day at the shelter,” he shared with CBS News earlier this month. “I was painting walls and fixing garbage disposals. I just loved it so much. I loved being able to accomplish something where there was no critique of it.”
The post Jesse Eisenberg Shares Rare Update on 7-Year-Old Son appeared first on Newsweek.
