“Stop Calling It Jewface: When Gentile Actors Play Jewish Roles” Dr. Bial

305 East 23rd Street,Austin TX 78712

08 March, 2023

Description

Frequently derided as “Jewface," the practice of non-Jewish actors playing Jewish roles in film and television is hardly new, but it has attracted greater scrutiny in recent years due to high-profile examples such as the casting of Helen Mirren as Golda Meir, Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein, and Rachel Brosnahan as the fictional title character in Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Such casting controversies occasion critical conversations about American Jews' changing relationship to the entertainment industry, and to the dominant culture more broadly. The reflexive application of the term Jewface, however, misrepresents these real and pressing issues.