Breaking: Jewish actor cast in show about Jews

Well, have you looked at that — a few b’nei mitzvah set to star in FX on Hulu’s Fleishman is in trouble. Trade Publications Thursday reveal that the lead role of the highly anticipated film adaptation, a mediocre doctor facing unprecedented sexual freedom, will be played by Jesse Eisenberg. News of his casting came a day after the transaction announced that the show’s other lead, journalist Libby Epstein, will be played by Lizzy Caplan.

Like the characters they will play — and Fleishman Executive Producer Taffy Brodesser-Akner, who also wrote extremely Semitic novels based on the series — Eisenberg and Caplan are Jewish. This is not a big deal. But it’s like one, because their casting comes on the heels of a conversation that’s been dominating certain niches (read: Jewish) on the internet lately — the odd tendency that actors Does the Hollywood project cast non-Jewish actors, and especially non-Jewish women, to play Jewish characters marked and molded by their religious and ethnic identities.

“If there’s a role that’s a Jewish woman, this rarely happens,” Sarah Silverman told Howard Stern last year, “If the role is a Jewish woman, but she is courageous, or she is worthy of love, or brave, or selfless in any way, then she is played by someone who is not a Jew. Closed Jews.” Think Rachel Brosnahan like Midge above Miraculous Mrs. Maisel, or Felicity Jones as Ruth Bader Ginsburg in On the basis of sex.

The debate started last month (high schmear?) Last month, when words broke it Kathryn Hahn—A Catholic raised, but frequently plays Jewish women on shows like Transparent and the new Apple TV+ series The next door narrows—Will be a pioneer member of the Joan Rivers Tribe in a Limited Time Series Is called The girl is back. “She’s a great actress and… she’s going to be amazing,” Silverman said on her podcast after the selection is announced. However, the comedian added, the announcement made her feel nervous: “In a time when it’s so important to represent yourself that it’s essential to be righteous and centered, why is it today? now we are constantly being violated? … None of these actresses did anything wrong but all in all, it was terrible. ”

A few weeks after Silverman recorded that podcast, Hahn .’s Joan Rivers project dead on the vine—Apparently due to problems with Rivers gaining the right to life. Fleishman, however, seems to be moving fully forward and avoiding representative pitfalls in the process. (Though casting for Fleishman’s estranged Jewish wife Rachel has yet to be announced.) Is it too early to call this a Hanukkah miracle?

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