Jenny Slate "never felt" her Everything Everywhere All At Once character was antisemitic
Jenny Slate's role in Daniels' verse-jumping hit as a dog-wielding laundromat customer faced backlash for being credited as "Big Nose"
Since her first episode of Saturday Night Live back in 2009, Jenny Slate has been no stranger to controversy. Whether facing criticism for a stray F-bomb or voicing a Black character on Big Mouth, Slate has had to address various missteps across her career thoughtfully and directly. But in response to backlash against her Everything Everywhere All At Once character—a dog-wielding, athleisure-clad patron of Evelyn’s (Michelle Yeoh) laundromat—Slate stands steadfast in her defense of directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s decisions.
The backstory: Slate’s character, a clear representation of the Jewish American Princess stereotype, was initially credited as “Big Nose,” a choice some viewers read as antisemitic. Daniels have since explained that “Big Nose” is a moniker often used in Chinese culture to describe white people, but recognized the “blind spot” they encountered in using the descriptor for a Jewish character.
Slate, who is a Jewish woman herself, says clear communication from the directors meant she never interpreted the character as derogatory. “[The Daniels] explained it to me,” she tells The Independent in a new interview. “They explained it to me right away, so I never felt it was antisemitic.”
Although Slate is “not on social media much,” by her own description, she said Kwan and Scheinert reached out to her after the character received backlash to talk things through.
“They made me aware of it, like, ‘There’s this discussion and it sort of breaks our hearts that you would ever feel that there was something antisemitic or that we were commenting on you, or saying that you’re not beautiful’,” she recalls. Slate “And I was like, ‘You guys explained this to me right away. I thought it was funny.’”
In response to the criticism, Slate’s credit has since been changed to “Debbie The Dog Mom.” But per Slate, “on my end, I was always very clear and I made the decision to play the character knowing what the name or non-name was.”