Tony Shalhoub Reacts to Sarah Silverman's 'Jewface' Comments

Tony Shalhoub is sharing his thoughts on Sarah Silverman‘s recent comments.

Last week, the 50-year-old actress discussed Hollywood’s “jewface” problem and the frequency with which non-Jewish people are hired for Jewish roles.

Tony responded to her podcast in an interview with Page Six at the premiere of his new show Mass.

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“I always feel that we’re actors,” he said. “We were trained to — at least I was — to not play myself, to play characters and so it’s troubling to me that they’re limiting actors.”

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star plays a Jewish professor in the Amazon series and is a Maronite Christian in real life. He won an Emmy Award for his role on the show in 2019.

“I just don’t know,” he continued. “If we start to go down that road, I don’t know where it ends. Are people who are members of the Mafia, are they going to be upset that people who haven’t actually committed those types of crimes are playing those roles?”

“When you extrapolate it all the way out the way lies complete chaos,” the actor added.

In her podcast, Sarah noted that Kathryn Hahn, who is not Jewish, would be playing the late Jewish TV personality and actress Joan Rivers in a new Showtime series called The Comeback Girl.

“Kathryn Hahn did absolutely nothing wrong. She’s a brilliant actor … [But] there’s this 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,” the comedian explained.

Kathryn‘s casting was announced late last month. Find out more…