{"id":67125,"date":"2022-04-19T06:03:17","date_gmt":"2022-04-19T11:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=67125"},"modified":"2022-04-20T09:31:32","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T14:31:32","slug":"beanie-feldstein-opens-up-on-funny-girl-role-incredibly-meaningful-for-me-as-a-jewish-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/beanie-feldstein-opens-up-on-funny-girl-role-incredibly-meaningful-for-me-as-a-jewish-woman\/","title":{"rendered":"Beanie Feldstein opens up on \u2018Funny Girl\u2019 role: \u2018Incredibly meaningful for me as a Jewish woman\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(<em>New York Jewish Week <\/em>via JTA) \u2014 \u201cFunny Girl\u201d is so deeply ingrained in Beanie Feldstein\u2019s life that she doesn\u2019t even remember the first time she watched the movie. \u201cFrom my developmental psychology classes in college, I think I remember that your first memories are around 3 years old,\u201d she told the New York Jewish Week. \u201cFunny Girl\u201d \u201cprecedes my memory. I\u2019ve always loved it as far as I\u2019m concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_67126\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Beanie-solo-shot.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-67126\" class=\"wp-image-67126 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Beanie-solo-shot-300x167.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Beanie-solo-shot-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Beanie-solo-shot-1024x569.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Beanie-solo-shot-768x427.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Beanie-solo-shot-1536x853.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Beanie-solo-shot-2048x1138.jpg 2048w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/167;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-67126\" class=\"wp-image-67126 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Beanie-solo-shot-300x167.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Beanie-solo-shot-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Beanie-solo-shot-1024x569.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Beanie-solo-shot-768x427.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Beanie-solo-shot-1536x853.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Beanie-solo-shot-2048x1138.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-67126\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Beanie Feldstein stars in the Broadway revival of &#8220;Funny Girl.&#8221; (Matthew Murphy)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Even if she doesn\u2019t recall all the details now, the 1968 movie \u2014 starring Barbra Streisand, who plays real-life Jewish vaudeville star and comedian Fanny Brice \u2014 made enough of an impression that Feldstein had a \u201cFunny Girl\u201d-themed birthday party when she turned 3, leopard-print costume and all.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, now, in an incredible turn of events, Feldstein, 28 \u2014 known for movies like \u201cLady Bird\u201d and \u201cBooksmart\u201d \u2014 is starring in the first-ever Broadway revival of \u201c<em>Funny Girl<\/em>.\u201d (The musical, which also starred Streisand, opened on Broadway in 1964 and ran for more than three years.)<\/p>\n<p>What did such a young girl find appealing about a show about a strong-willed performer \u2014&nbsp;with a story that also focuses on Brice\u2019s rocky relationship with her suave, gambler husband, Nick Arnstein? \u201cThe biggest thing that impacted me was her ambition,\u201d Feldstein said. \u201cThe character of Fanny Brice was so unrelenting in her pursuit of her own career and her love of her performing and I think, even at a young age, I really latched onto that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She was also drawn to the score, featuring songs like \u201cDon\u2019t Rain on My Parade,\u201d \u201cI\u2019m the Greatest Star,\u201d and \u201cPeople,\u201d all of which have become standards of the American songbook.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose songs have lasted in our hearts and our ears for almost 60 years now \u2014 and I\u2019m sure they will continue to, forever,\u201d Feldstein said. \u201cYou can\u2019t hear the opening chords of \u2018Don\u2019t Rain on My Parade\u2019 and have it not just course through your body \u2014 even now, night after night.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Currently in previews, the show officially opens at the August Wilson Theatre on April 24. The New York Jewish Week spoke to Feldstein about her Jewish identity, perfectionism, and what it\u2019s like to portray a Jewish icon who is so closely connected to another Jewish icon.<\/p>\n<p>This interview has been lightly condensed and edited.<\/p>\n<p><strong>New York Jewish Week<\/strong>: <em>What does it mean to you, as a Jewish woman, to get to play this role?<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_67129\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Funny-Girl-cast.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-67129\" class=\"wp-image-67129 size-large lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Funny-Girl-cast-1024x569.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"569\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Funny-Girl-cast-1024x569.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Funny-Girl-cast-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Funny-Girl-cast-768x427.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Funny-Girl-cast-1536x853.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Funny-Girl-cast-2048x1138.jpg 2048w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1024px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1024\/569;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-67129\" class=\"wp-image-67129 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Funny-Girl-cast-1024x569.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"569\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Funny-Girl-cast-1024x569.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Funny-Girl-cast-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Funny-Girl-cast-768x427.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Funny-Girl-cast-1536x853.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4-18-2022-Funny-Girl-cast-2048x1138.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-67129\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Beanie Feldstein, center, stars as Fanny Brice in the Broadway revival of &#8220;Funny Girl.&#8221; (Matthew Murphy)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Feldstein<\/strong>: It\u2019s such a big question, I could write a dissertation on it. But I truly believe that any Jewish woman who wants to be funny and perform and sing owes something to Fanny Brice. So, to get to play that trailblazing woman and bring her story back to Broadway 60 years after the original production, and over 100 years after she was a star herself, it\u2019s all-encompassing and it\u2019s very surreal and it\u2019s incredibly moving because she opened a door that none of us could have walked through if it wasn\u2019t for her. That\u2019s a tremendous legacy. I think her legacy lives, of course, in Barbra Streisand, but [also] in people like Bette Midler and Sarah Silverman. Any of us who are bagels on plates full of onion rolls, we know that feeling and it\u2019s very meaningful to me to get to bring her story back to 2022 Broadway audiences.<\/p>\n<p><em>You mentioned Bette Midler, who you worked with in your Broadway debut in \u201cHello, Dolly!\u201d in 2017.&nbsp; What did you learn working with her?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>So much. To get to work with Bette Midler any time in your life, but specifically in your early 20s in your Broadway debut, was incredibly formative. She never sits down. I mean that so literally. She is the most hardworking person in the room. And when you\u2019re someone like Bette Midler and you have such a tremendous body of work and following and people just adore every word that comes out of your mouth, she didn\u2019t have to work hard. She could have walked onstage and the audience would have been in the palm of her hand. But the reason that she\u2019s as genius as she is, and as beloved, proves to me that she is that way because she puts in the work every minute of every day to make whatever she\u2019s working on the best, the most funny, the most precise. She\u2019s so detailed. That was such an incredible kind of master class to witness her work. And she\u2019s also one of the funniest people you\u2019ll ever be in a room with, so there\u2019s that, too.<\/p>\n<p><em>There has been a lot of talk lately about whether Jewish characters, especially women, should always be played by Jews. Do you have thoughts on this?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Again, I think it\u2019s too big of a conversation to answer in three or four sentences. I was a sociology major in college, so I could write 15 academic articles about the topic. There\u2019s so much to say. I\u2019m playing Fanny Brice and I just finished playing Monica Lewinsky [in \u201cImpeachment: American Crime Story\u201d] and I think for me, as a Jewish woman, it\u2019s been very meaningful to play Jewish women in history. And I love and cherish that we\u2019ve added a lot of Yiddish to the show. The fact that I\u2019m on a Broadway stage dancing under a huge banner that says \u201cMazel tov, Fanny!\u201d is for me, as a Jewish woman, very meaningful and fulfilling and emotional and special. I think to get to play one of the most tremendous Jewish women in our history, especially entertainment history, is incredibly meaningful for me as a Jewish woman.<\/p>\n<p><em>What was your own Jewish upbringing like?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I was a junior cantor. Not to flex, but I was a junior cantor. I grew up going to a Reform synagogue [Temple Emanuel] in West L.A. and I became very close with my cantor. I\u2019m still very close to him, Cantor Yonah Kliger. And he has always been a beautiful mentor in my life. Obviously, I love to sing. I grew up singing, so he quickly kind of roped me into doing a lot of singing with him at shul. We used to sing before I went away to college [at Wesleyan University]. We used to sing \u201cSim Shalom\u201d every year during the High Holiday services. I do remember the day before my bat mitzvah, he was like, \u201cBeanie, I really think that when you\u2019re older you should become a cantor,\u201d and I remember looking at him and just shaking my head and I was like, \u201cI\u2019m so sorry to disappoint you, but I want to be an actor.\u201d My path as a cantor ended very soon. But I was always very close to him so he\u2019s a wonderful influence in my life. I\u2019m very culturally Jewish. And always singing in different ways at synagogue.<\/p>\n<p><em>Do you feel a lot of pressure since this is the first Broadway revival of \u201cFunny Girl\u201d and if so, how are you dealing with that?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I mean how could you not? I\u2019d like to meet the person who wouldn\u2019t be feeling the pressure. But I think I\u2019d feel that way in any job. I hold myself to really high standards and I\u2019m a perfectionist and I always want to do my absolute best. I\u2019m unrelenting in that pursuit and I\u2019m very focused and committed. I felt that way about \u201c<em>Hello, Dolly!<\/em>\u201d I feel that way about any opportunity. So then, of course, when you layer on the fact that I\u2019m leading a Broadway show for the first time and then the fact that it\u2019s \u201c<em>Funny Girl<\/em>,\u201d of course there\u2019s added expectations and pressure, whatever word you want to use. But I think I just have to focus on my company of actors and our crew offstage and I think it\u2019s such an extraordinary group of people. Whenever I get nervous, I look at Ramin [Karimloo], who plays Nick Arnstein, or I look at Jared [Grimes] who plays Eddie. I look at my incredible company of collaborators and I feel so safe.<\/p>\n<p><em>Do you think because you know the original so well, does that make it easier or more difficult to make it your own?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In some ways I think I do and I don\u2019t because I really know it through a child\u2019s eyes. I think the last time I watched it was when I was a junior in college. My roommate and one of my dearest friends admitted she had never seen it and we watched it. But I haven\u2019t seen it since then. I didn\u2019t rewatch it between then and when I got the audition. And then, once I got the audition, I knew that I couldn\u2019t watch it. I had to approach it as if it was brand new material, as if I was a person who was like what \u201c<em>Funny Girl<\/em>\u201d is about and I\u2019ve never heard this song \u201cPeople\u201d before. I really tried to approach it like that because I knew that if I was going to do this, I had to do this my way and just bring my own bagelness, if you will, to the role. What I love so much about Fanny is she knows she can only be herself, so I knew in order to play the role I had to approach it that way.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Beanie%20Feldstein%20opens%20up%20on%20%E2%80%98Funny%20Girl%E2%80%99%20role%3A%20%E2%80%98Incredibly%20meaningful%20for%20me%20as%20a%20Jewish%20woman%E2%80%99\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":67126,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7122],"tags":[12213,8792,12214,8162,8790,8795,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67125"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67125"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67142,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67125\/revisions\/67142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}