'Oppenheimer' Casting of Non-Jewish Actors Reignites Fierce Debate

The casting of non-Jewish actors to play Jewish roles in Oppenheimer has raised eyebrows. However, two Jewish actors have told Newsweek they see nothing wrong with the practice, as arguments rage over the representation of minorities in popular culture.

Christopher Nolan's latest blockbuster Oppenheimer, a biographical drama about the creation of the atomic bomb, is out in cinemas now, and the casting has reignited a debate relating to who actors should and shouldn't play.

British comedian and writer David Baddiel told Newsweek that "not every Jewish part has to be played by a Jewish actor" but he feels it's important for a conversation to take place beforehand.

The historical movie, centered around the invention of the atomic bomb during World War II, features the real-life characters of J. Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein, both of whom were Jewish. Within Oppenheimer the movie, they're played by Cillian Murphy and Tom Conti, neither of whom are Jewish.

This isn't an isolated incident in the entertainment industry. There are many prominent examples of gentile actors portraying Jewish characters including Rachel Brosnahan in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Felicity Jones in On the Basis of Sex, Daniel Craig in Defiance, Rachel McAdams in Disobedience, Gary Oldman in Mank, Will Ferrell and Kathryn Hahn in The Shrink Next Door, and the list goes on.

Should Only Jewish Actors Play Jewish Roles?

Whether it's appropriate to cast non-Jewish actors in Jewish roles has been debated for many years now.

Comedian Sarah Silverman voiced her displeasure in September 2021, saying on her podcast that she doesn't blame the actors, "but collectively, it's "f***** up." Silverman was speaking on the issue after reading the book Jews Don't Count by Baddiel, who told Newsweek his opinion on the matter.

"I don't blame actors. Actors need to work (although presently not, because of the strike)," Baddiel told Newsweek. "I blame casting directors a little, at least if they are not even thinking about it. My sense of Christopher Nolan, who seems a very epic, grand kind of director, is that such a conversation might seem to be beneath his notice. I could be wrong; maybe they spent ages looking for a Jewish Oppenheimer/Einstein, but I sense it would be dismissed as an issue."

Newsweek reached out to Christopher Nolan's representatives for comment via email, though in an interview with New York Times, Nolan admitted he wrote the film with Murphy specifically in mind.

Baddiel's acclaimed book Jews Don't Count received widespread praise upon release in 2021. He said that since it was published, he has noticed a small shift in casting, but mainly in the United Kingdom.

"I occasionally get calls now from casting directors, who want to check with me that x or y actor is—I'm going to use the word kosher—to play a Jewish part. This, in a way, is what I want. Not that every Jewish part has to be played by a Jewish actor—we know that's not going to happen—but that there is at least a conversation about it, a recognition that the question should be asked." He added, "It seems to me that that question is being asked less in the US., which is odd because there are more Jews there than anywhere."

Baddiel has noted in the past that while some projects have been met with outrage over the miscasting of cultures or races, the Jewish community rarely receives the same attention.

"Getting casting wrong for most minorities can now lead to the absolute crashing and burning of a movie if an online campaign is waged against it. But for Jews, it's not really an issue, beyond, you know, op-eds in Newsweek. There will be no demonstrations outside cinemas about Oppenheimer, no hashtags trending on Twitter, which is fine, because truth is, that kind of public outrage isn't very Jewish. But the conversation— what this lack of outrage means for Jews—still needs to be had," Baddiel told Newsweek.

Newsweek reached out to the Jewish NGO the Anti-Defamation League and other prominent Jewish voices for comment. While many have previously spoken against Jewish characters being played by non-Jews, there are others who disagree.

"My inclination as an actor is to say that anyone can play anyone," Jewish actor Joshua Malina told Newsweek.

The 57-year-old is known for playing roles such as Will Bailey on The West Wing, Attorney General David Rosen on Scandal and Caltech President Siebert on The Big Bang Theory. He is currently starring in Leopoldstadt on Broadway, a play about a wealthy Jewish community in Vienna.

He continued, "Most of the time, I care only whether a Jewish role has been played convincingly, but at a time when minority groups are being given great consideration in casting, it would be nice for Jews to be recognized as such a group."

Another Jewish actress, Stacey Nelkin, called the uproar about gentiles playing Jewish characters "ludicrous."

The actress-turned-self-styled relationship expert claimed in 2011 that she had a relationship with Woody Allen while she was on the set of Annie Hall when she was 17 years old. She told Howard Stern in 2011 that the relationship was the basis for his movie Manhattan.

"As a Jewish woman who is also an actress, I find all of this to be ludicrous.
Acting is pretending to be someone else—nothing more," she told Newsweek.

In regards to the roles in Oppenheimer, social media users and some movie critics have voiced their opinions of certain roles being played by non-Jewish actors.

A columnist for the Jerusalem Post, Ben M. Freedom, wrote on Twitter earlier in July that while he was sure actor Murphy would be brilliant, "J. Robert Oppenheimer should have been played by a Jewish actor."

"While the actor in the movie is a white male, the real Oppenheimer was Jewish, not considered white in Europe, and his people were being slaughtered in the largest single mass killing in history for their ethnicity and had been slaughtered in Europe for centuries," journalist Peter Tedeschi wrote on Twitter.

While The Guardian's film critic Peter Bradshaw gave Oppenheimer a positive review, he suggested the writer and director Christopher Nolan may have missed the mark with his casting.

"It has to be said that Nolan, rightly or wrongly, uses non-Jewish actors for Oppenheimer and Einstein, two of the most famous Jewish people in history and in fact doesn't quite get to grips with the antisemitism that Oppenheimer faced as an assimilated secular American Jew," Bradshaw wrote.

While representation seems to be a factor, film and television producer Stefano Da Fre, who is not Jewish, suggests it may have led to negative sentiments towards the Jewish community.

"Given the rise of antisemitism in recent years, including mass shootings in synagogues here in our own country, and further compounded by Holocaust deniers for several decades across the globe, it's no wonder why members of the Jewish faith have had felt unsafe, threatened and poorly listened to over the past 50 years. This aspect is important to contextualizing grievances Jewish actors have within the Hollywood Studios casting system."

Da Fre, the president of Rosso Films International, continued, telling Newsweek, "However, being an artist, especially an actor who is given the task to use his or her talent to interpret a piece of material should not be limited to identity politics. Often we use Art to go 'beyond' ourselves, to reach into our souls, and connect with other souls, beyond our identity, skin color or religion."

He highlighted an upcoming example that may get more people talking. Bradley Cooper, who is non-Jewish is set to portray American-Jewish composer Leonard Bernstein in a biopic he's co-written and directing, Maestro. Da Fre pointed out that Steven Spielberg, who is Jewish, is credited as a producer on the project, suggesting he has no problem with Cooper's portrayal. Maestro, a Netflix release, is expected to be released later in 2023.

"The film looks to be excellent; however, the conversation has not been 'Is this movie good?' Or 'Did Bradley Cooper capture the character, and soul, in the most authentic way possible?' Instead, it was about delaying the release of the film because of Cooper's non-Jewish ethnicity," Da Fre said.

With a newly released blockbuster, and future major motion pictures displaying cases of casting non-Jewish actors in Jewish roles, Baddiel believes it softens the impact of the character's background.

"In Oppenheimer, two very well-known Jewish figures from history [J. Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein] are played by non-Jews. The other issue here is that what that means is that the Jewishness within the story becomes less important...

"If you cut out the Jewishness of these characters, history and context is lost. This doesn't mean non-Jews can't play them, but it makes doing so more complex, and it may seem easier to scriptwriters just to miss that context out. What this can amount to, down the line, is a kind of denial of suffering."

Oppenheimer is out in movie theaters everywhere now, sharing its opening weekend with Greta Gerwig's Barbie in a box office showdown that has been termed "Barbenheimer."