Sarah Silverman (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Netflix) Actress Sarah Silverman accused Hollywood of engaging in “Jewface” due to its history of casting non-Jews to play the role of Jewish characters in television and movies.
The New York Post’s Page Six reported that Silverman said during the October 4 episode of “The Sarah Silverman Podcast” that Kathryn Hahn, who grew up in a Catholic household, will be playing Joan Rivers in the upcoming Showtime series “The Comeback Girl.” Silverman acknowledged that Hahn will likely be “great” in her role; however, she argued that there is a “long tradition of non-Jews playing Jews, and not just playing people who happen to be Jewish but people whose Jewishness is their whole being.”
Silverman then suggested a non-Jew portraying Rivers could be considered “Jewface,” which she defined as “when a non-Jew portrays a Jew with the Jewishness front and center, often with makeup or changing of features, big fake nose, all the New York-y or Yiddish-y inflection. And in a time when the importance of representation is seen as so essential and so front and center, why does ours constantly get breached even today in the thick of it?”
She also alleged that Jewish actresses never play female Jewish characters who are “courageous” and deserving of love. As examples, Silverman pointed to how the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was played by Felicity Jones, a Catholic, in the “On the Basis of Sex” movie as well as Mrs. Maisel was played by Rachel Brosnahan, a gentile, in the show “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”
“None of these actresses are doing anything wrong,” Silverman said. “But collectively it’s f—ed up, a little bit.”
Silverman acknowledged that “identity politics is annoying,” but “right now representation f—ing matters. So it has to also finally matter for Jews as well, especially Jewish women.” She also admitted that she didn’t know how to solve the issue, but suspected it stems from “Jewish writers” not wanting “to see themselves reflected in art, at least not the way they see themselves. They want an ideal instead, saying their words and representing themselves back at them through, like, crystal blue eyes.”
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PJ Grisar, The Forward’s culture reporter, wrote in an October 5 piece that “white Jews have been allowed to play other white people — often Italians — in a way that is more or less transitive” but it is “uncomfortable to see Ruth Bader Ginsburg portrayed by a Christian Brit or to read profiles in which Rachel Sennott professes that her Catholic culture and Jewish culture are close enough for ‘Shiva Baby’ work.” Grisar also took issue with Silverman’s use of the word “Jewface,” arguing that it “is clearly a riff on the practice of blackface and is nowhere near its equivalent. Blackface was a central part of minstrel entertainment of the 19th century, where white performers would paint their faces and exaggerate their lips to appear as caricatures of Black people. In entertainment it continued well into the 20th century — and 21st if you, again, count ‘Tropic Thunder.’” Grisar added that “white Jews have benefited from this racist mode of performance,” noting that Silverman once donned blackface in a 2007 episode of Comedy Central’s “The Sarah Silverman Show” to see if “it’s more difficult to be Black or Jewish.” Silverman distanced herself from it in 2019.
“Silverman’s argument for representation can be made without the glibness of ‘Jewface,’” Grisar wrote, concluding the piece noting that “we continue to be a people fortunate enough to have our stories represented in Hollywood — and that’s more important than the Jewishness of the representative.”
Sussex Friends of Israel tweeted, “To play a Jewish icon such as Joan Rivers, surely a Jewish actress is essential?”
Not just here that the issue of non Jewish actors playing Jews is being debated.
To play a Jewish icon such as Joan Rivers, surely a Jewish actress is essential? @nicolelampert @TracyAnnO https://t.co/Sb02SQdFGo
— Self Declared Zionists (@SussexFriends) October 5, 2021
Journalist and Zionist activist Eve Barlow tweeted that she doesn’t “mind non-Jews being cast as Jews. I’m more interested in Jewish visibility onscreen being something other than comic relief, evil mastermind or religious zealot.”
I actually don't mind non-Jews being cast as Jews. I'm more interested in Jewish visibility onscreen being something other than comic relief, evil mastermind or religious zealot.
— Eve Barlow (@Eve_Barlow) October 5, 2021
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