American actress and comedian Sarah Silverman has recently addressed the practice casting of non-Jewish people as Jewish characters in movies and on TV, The Times of Israel reports.
Speaking about a "long tradition of non-Jews playing Jews” and "people whose Jewishness is their whole being", Silverman noted how non-Jewish actress Kathryn Hahn being cast as the late Jewish comedian Joan Rivers in the upcoming "The Comeback Girl" mini-series.
"One could argue, for instance, that a gentile playing Joan Rivers correctly would be doing what is actually called ‘Jewface'," she said in her podcast.
According to the newspaper, Silverman elaborated that the “Jewface” is “defined as when a non-Jew portrays a Jew with the Jewishness front and centre— often with makeup, or changing of features, big fake nose, all the New York-y and Yiddish-y inflection.”
"The pattern in film is just undeniable, and the pattern is — if the Jewish female character is courageous or deserves love, she is never played by a Jew. Ever!" she stated.
The actress reportedly did state, however, that she didn’t believe Hahn had done anything wrong.