In Last Awakened War on Acting, Sarah Silverman Says Only Jews Should Play Jews

Comedian and alleged actress Sarah Silverman has one complaint: What about all the actors who play the role? Don’t they know that the only role you are allowed to play is yourself?

On his podcast, Silverman complained, “There’s this long tradition of non-Jews playing Jews, and not just people who happen to be Jewish, but people whose Jewishness is their whole being. . . . One could argue, for example, that a Gentil playing Joan Rivers properly would do what is actually called “Jewface”. “

You could tell, but only if you had the IQ of what grows on your kitchen sponge.

Silverman is the kind of person who advocates for inclusiveness by telling us all about who should be excluded from what. It’s the Clancy Wiggum of the Cultural Appropriation Police. In 2007, on her Comedy Central show, she actually wore a blackface, proving she was guilty of culturally appropriate humor from 1936. In 2016, she appeared as Adolf Hitler in one episode of “Conan”. Only the Aryans can do that, dummkopf!

Silverman says “Jewface” is “defined as when a non-Jew portrays a Jew with Jewishness in the foreground, often with makeup or feature changes, a big fake nose, any New York or Yiddish inflection. -y “. She added, “When the importance of representation is seen as so essential and central, why is ours constantly being violated, even today, in the thick of it? “

“Ours”? As such, the Jewish roles belong exclusively to the Jews? Are Jews supposed to refuse the roles of non-Jews? Jews are a small minority. They would have to turn down the vast majority of roles if they were only playing roles that are “ours”. Or does this rule somehow work only one way? Christianity is a culture. Should only Christian actors be chosen in Christian roles? Pretending to be someone you are not is not a cultural “violation”. It’s just . . . acting.

Arriving at the movies we will see Englishman Benedict Cumberbatch playing a rough 1925 Montana cowboy in “The Power of the Dog”, Denzel Washington playing a Scottish usurper in “The Tragedy of Macbeth” and Matt Damon playing a 14th. French century in “The last duel”. Silverman is upset that Rachel Brosnahan (Anglo-Irish) plays a Jew (inspired by Rivers’ early career) in “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”, but here’s the thing: Rachel Brosnahan is really good at playing the part, which is why Amy-Sherman Palladino, the creator of the series (who is half Jewish) chose her. When it comes to putting on a good show, talent speaks, identity politics works.

The many Jews working in TV and film production and as studio heads understand this, which is why they don’t think of roles in terms of what is “ours”. Does Silverman have a problem with the inclusive casting decisions made by Jews?

One of the most memorable Italian-Americans, Sonny Corleone, was played by Jew James Caan, and another, Loretta Castorini in “Moonstruck”, was played by Cher, an Armenian-Cherokee. Israel-born Jewish actress Natalie Portman played Jackie Kennedy. Harvey Keitel is Jewish, but he’s been a gangster so many times you probably think he was Italian by now. If we had had an ethnically correct cast, we would have been deprived of the joy of seeing Meryl Streep making the choice of Sophie, Dustin Hoffman playing the California WASP being seduced by Mrs. Robinson and Al Pacino inviting us to greet her leetle fren ‘.

“Sticking to your own genre” is a misguided orientation of “West Side Story”, not the secret to making good art.