Floortje Smit, film critic, casts her eye on contemporary visual culture.
In the movie Licorice Pizza main character Alana reports to a casting agent. He is immediately away from her. Also because of her appearance. ‘It’s all about Jewish noses at the moment’, she almost purrs.
Could this scene have happened if Alana was played by a non-Jewish actress? Awkward question, which ties into a discussion about casting now going on in Britain and the US. The fact that white actors cannot play people of color seems to be so sweetly convinced in the film world. You will no longer see actors without a disability as characters with a disability; the same goes for straight actors in outspoken LGBTI roles.
Then why, asked actress Maureen Lipman (The Pianist) in an opinion piece, may the non-Jewish Helen Mirren or Golda Meir playIsrael’s first female prime minister, in the biopic golda† “I’m sure she’s fantastic, but Ben Kingsley would never play Nelson Mandela. That’s just not possible.’ ‘Jew face’, called Sarah Silverman mentioned this phenomenon before.
There was a lot of criticism. Arguments: Jewish actors are not discriminated against in the film world like other minorities. It’s a religion, not an ethnicity. Everyone should be able to play everything. But, Lipman and Silverman, among others, argue, there is a whole culture attached to it, one that can be easily stereotyped. Anyone who has grown up in it has a better feel for the nuances. Had Fran Fine, the hysterical nanny out The Nanny, can be played by a non-Jewish actor? House father Larry from A Serious Man† Alana in Licorice Pizza†
It is extremely complex; no one comes out. And what also makes the issue so uncomfortable is making the distinction itself. Determining whether someone is Jewish – when registering for a casting agency, for example – or saying something about physical characteristics is historically extremely sensitive, for both Jews and non-Jews.
Actress Helen Mirren did have the issue herself raised with director Guy Nattiv, she said this week in a response. “Listen, I’m not Jewish,” she’d said, “and if you decide to go that way, no problem. I totally get that.’
But Nattiv – an Israeli American, grandson of two Holocaust survivors, best known for his nuanced film skinabout a converted neo-Nazi – Mirren simply thought the best for the role.
Just trust his judgement.