Acting roles leave comedian with a full Slate
Actress and standup comic Jenny Slate doesn’t find humour in gossipy items about being linked to famous leading men such as Jon Hamm and Chris Evans, so she ignores the hearsay.
Slate even promoted the comedy-drama Gifted last spring alongside her former boyfriend Evans after they had broken up. Now that’s a trooper.
Others might lose their focus. But not Slate, who is so busy with her film career these days she doesn’t have time to pay attention to the whispering tidbits, or for that matter, performing her standup act.
Landline is another one of those cinematic distractions. The 35-year-old couldn’t resist the invitation to reunite with Landline writer-director Gillian Robespierre and writer Elisabeth Holm, who had hired Slate for her break out role in 2014’s Obvious Child.
“We wanted to do something together again,” says Slate from L.A. “The (Landline) story came from the fact that they both grew up in New York in the ’90s, and both parents were divorced and they were 16 years old, so they had this shared experience of going through a family crisis.”
Set in 1995 Manhattan, Landline features a family in social turmoil with a twist of wit. Slate portrays the older sister trying to mentor her teen sibling (Abby Quinn) even as she flirts with cheating on her fiancé (Jay Duplass). Even worse, both daughters suspect their father (John Turturro) is being unfaithful to their mother (Edie Falco).
Besides loads of references to the ’90s, including pop music, posters, a younger Hillary Clinton and the title, there is the necessary absence of social media, a positive which Slate thinks helps the narrative.
“There are no social-media devices to distract, so the characters have to talk it out,” Slate says. “If you don’t, you end up turning your life into an emergency.”
And talk they do. The dialogue-heavy film leans on the ensemble approach, but luckily the cast came together quickly despite having “only an afternoon of rehearsal” before filming began.
“I think Gillian and Liz have wonderful taste in casting and they hired performers who were ready to open up immediately,” Slate says. “The script had an energy of its own, but I don’t think it could be done without that community experience; everybody arrived ready to connect and that was intense and gratifying.”
Despite the nostalgia trappings and the familiar dysfunctional family trope, Landline contains a more serious feminist purpose.
“I think they were very interested in the three women in the movie who are at different stages in their lives,” says Slate of Robespierre and Holm. “They are examining their partnerships at different stages, and how it causes a ripple effect.”
In fact, the sister sub-plot is especially vital and provides some of the film’s strongest moments. “The sisters are like the people who put on those padded Sumo suits and bounce off of each other,” says the actress. “We were completely going for it.”
The movie also has a modern subtext, referencing the age of U.S. President Donald Trump and his controversial ways.
“I see a president who is trying to silence all of us,” Slate says. “Landline is basically a romantic comedy, but the message is clear: Speak your mind.”
After graduating from Columbia University, Slate was all about comedy. She was part of a comedy duo with Gabe Liedman, and then a caustic commentator on VH1 followed by a pretend page on one of Jimmy Fallon’s late-night talk shows. She joined the Saturday Night Live cast in 2009, but left before the next season.
Guest spots on sitcoms came along while she continued to perform standup and do voice roles in animated features. It was her Obvious Child portrayal of a comic coping with an unplanned pregnancy that made things happen for her as an actress.
Next up for her is the futuristic thriller Hotel Artemis with Jodie Foster, Sofia Boutella and Dave Bautista.
“I choose acting jobs for different reasons,” says Slate. “But I guess I mostly choose jobs like I choose people I want to hang out with.”
Meanwhile, her comedy career has to be relegated to the sidelines, although she is booked at Toronto’s Comedy Festival on Sept. 24.
“I do have a monthly show in L.A.,” Slate says of her solo act.
“But once a month is not enough. When my film career started to happen it just became harder, but I can’t help myself, I still love standup.”