Jesse Eisenberg Shares Rare Insight Into Life at Home with His, Anna Strout’s 8-Year-old

And while Jesse has learned plenty of tricks for the Now You See Me films, the one he’s most proud of is a simple one he learned for the first film: the Snap Change. 

“[It’s] basically a little card shift where you're holding one card and then in an instant it appears you're holding another card,” the Oscar nominee explained. “It's a very quick thing, but it took me months to get right. It really did.”

Despite the simplicity, he was “proud to know that one trick,” because while it’s “not that impressive,” he knows “it as good as anybody else.”

And the movie didn’t just inspire him to share magic at home, but also to make some magic for someone else with his recent kidney donation—all of which stemmed from an experience on the set of the original film.

“There's a scene where the characters are on stage and we are in a harness, and we get pulled up to the top of the stage. So we essentially fly up to the top of the rafters,” Jesse recalled. “We were about to take a long break and I asked the effects people, ‘Do you mind if I stay up here? I really like being up here.’”

As Jesse explained, he’d always had a fear of heights but found himself not scared of being so high up because he had a purpose. “I was up there for the part—for a movie.”

“Then I thought, ‘I’ve always had a fear of needles. I wonder if I start donating blood, I won't have a fear of needles because I'm doing it for a reason—for a good reason,’” he said. “And so I started donating blood and I realized I had no fear of needles anymore.”

From there, it made sense that the “next step” for him would be to do something that would help someone else, like donating a kidney. 

“I realized when I have a purpose, when I'm doing something,” he added, “then I have no hesitation.”

Check out what inspired Jesse to abracadabra away his fears when Now You See You: Now You Don’t hits theaters Nov. 14 and keep reading to see what other films will be magically appearing on a big screen near you.

—Reporting by Nikaline McCarley