Jenny Slate has a movie coming out today. She’d rather talk about “Landline” — a project she worked hard on and wants people to see — than who she’s sleeping with. And she’s not afraid to spell that out. The “Parks and Recreation” alumna recently spoke with Vanity Fair, and she did not hold back. The delightfully candid actress speaks to “the patriarchal system” in the profile, a reference to the fact that the media is so fixated on who is dating who in Hollywood and defining women accordingly.
“I don’t think anybody would [enjoy having their personal life covered],” Slate says. “For me, it connects to a very deep-seated belief within a patriarchal system. If you’re a woman, the system actually owns your private life; the system has an opinion on your decisions; the system has a verdict on how you have sex and who you have sex with, and anything in between. For me, I am not open to that. I get really pissed about it, because it’s only my business.” It’s not uncommon for stars to articulate their right to privacy, but Slate takes things further by pointing to the sexism that often fuels this coverage.
“What they like is the gossip. What they like is the uncertainty and conjecture and all of that,” she observes. “What I like is my privacy and to be able to just do whatever I fucking want and kiss whoever I want in my own time because I’m a woman in 2017.”
The Critics Choice Award winner adds, “I’m also just really not open to being known as the woman dating so-and-so. I think that’s four tiny steps away from being Offred,” which, as Vanity Fair points out, is a reference to the fact that the handmaids in “The Handmaid’s Tale” “are named in reference to the men they’re assigned to.”
In other words, Jenny Slate has an extensive and impressive body of work. Ask her about all of her roles in shows like “Bob’s Burgers,” “Girls,” and “Lady Dynamite,” or her voice work in films such as “The LEGO Batman Movie” and “Zootopia,” or reuniting with her “Obvious Child” writer-director Gillian Robespierre for “Landline.” Define her by what she does and who she is, not by which famous guy she’s dating or has dated.
Robespierre told us that the first time she encountered Slate was when she watched her perform stand-up. “She was just telling a story,” Robespierre recalled. “She wasn’t going up there necessarily telling jokes that had classic punchlines, but more weaving a story that had ups and downs and was so relatable and sad at moments and suddenly you’re cracking up. She felt like a sister, or a camp friend, or myself in ways.”
“Landline” is in theaters now. The ’90s-set dramedy centers on sisters who discover their father is having an affair and realize that there’s more than one cheater in the family.
