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Sarah silverman called on the Hollywood trend to choose non-Jewish actors to play Jewish characters, calling the practice “Jewface.”
The comedian, 50, cited Kathryn Hahn as the most recent example after the Catholic-born actress, 48, was cast to play the late Joan Rivers, who was Jewish, in an upcoming limited series.
“There’s this long tradition of non-Jews playing Jews, and not just people who happen to be Jews, but people whose Jewishness is their whole being,” Silverman said in Thursday’s episode of his eponymous podcast, adding: “One could argue, for example, that a Gentile [a non-Jew] playing Joan Rivers properly would be like doing what is actually called “Jewface”.
She continued: “It is defined as when a non-Jew portrays a Jew with Jewishness in the foreground, often with makeup or changes of features, a big fake nose, all the New York or Yiddish inflection -y. And at some point when the importance of representation is seen as so essential and so central, why is ours constantly being violated, even today, in the thick of it? “
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The “School of Rock” actress pointed out the mainstream anti-Semitic tropes that are so often thrown out like “Jews run Hollywood,” “Jews are rich” and “Jews are powerful,” which she says “makes people very justly unfriendly to the Jews. “
“I wish they realized this is by design,” she said.
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Silverman expressed his belief that if there is a Jewish female character who is “brave or deserves love, she is never played by a Jew.”
She then listed other examples, noting that Felicity Jones played Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Rachael Brosnahan played fictional Jewish character Miriam Maisel, Margo Martindale played Bella Abzug, and Tracey Ullman was Betty Friedan.
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While Silverman noted that she thinks none of the actresses she named “is doing anything wrong”, she said the theme is “fucked up”. She added that she understood identity politics to be “boring” and “to act is to act”, but then doubled down by saying, “Right now, representation is important. “
“It must also finally matter to the Jews,” she added. “Especially Jewish women.”
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