Jenny Slate responds to Everything Everywhere antisemitic criticism
Jenny Slate has responded to antisemitic criticism surrounding her character in the critically acclaimed film Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Released last year and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere tells the story of a Chinese immigrant who becomes unwillingly swept up in an adventure where she must connect different versions of herself in parallel universes to stop someone who intends to harm the multiverse.
The film – starring the likes of Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, Jamie Lee Curtis and James Hong – was a hit, garnering a number of accolades as well as 11 nominations at the 95th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, becoming the most nominated film of the ceremony.
Related: Everything Everywhere All at Once makes you want to be a better person
However, some have criticised Jenny Slate's character, who portrays a Jewish American Princess stereotype in the film. The film sees Evelyn, played by Yeoh, refer to Slate's character as 'Big Nose' throughout Everything Everywhere, and is even credited with that name at the end.
The directors have since explained that 'Big Nose' is often used in Chinese culture to refer to white people in general but now acknowledge that term shouldn't have been used.
Slate has also insisted that there was no ill intention behind the writing, saying the directors explained the name to her.
"They explained it to me right away, so I never felt it was antisemitic," she said in an interview with The Independent.
She also spoke about how the directors sent an email to her to make her aware of the controversy surrounding her character when it began.
"I'm not on social media much so 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 said. And I was like: 'You guys explained this to me right away. I thought it was funny'."
Her credit in Everything Everywhere has since been changed to Debbie the Dog Mom.
The Daniels have also addressed the controversy, saying they can now "see how dehumanising it is".
In an interview with Digital Spy, Kwan said: "It was meant to be a world in which everyone was mean to each other, but not intentionally. There's fat-shaming, there's sexism, there's racism, there's just a lot of microaggressions that come up from the fact that when you live a busy life and you're so distracted, you just can't see each other – you don't see humans, you're not afforded that time. By the end, when [Evelyn] has the power to see people fully you can really see [her] transformation."
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Kwan and Scheinert confirmed that Slate's character was meant to have her own moment in the 'empathy fight' as Kwan calls it, but that it had to be cut, and with it, we get no context or growth of the 'Big Nose' reference.
"I don't blame them for being – if they are – offended." Kwan continued. "But now we're realising: 'Oh, the biggest offence of that whole thing is the fact that we just never gave her a proper name in the credits, right?'"
Everything Everywhere All At Once is available to rent or buy now in the UK from Prime Video, iTunes, Microsoft Store and other digital retailers.
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