There are very few people I would take an interview with on Simchat Torah.
But when Netflix tells you you have seven (7!) minutes to talk to Jackie Tohn — Esther, as the fans know her — on their “Nobody Wants This” presser… well, you get in your car, turn your phone camera on (a very unflattering angle!) and you take that call. It’s a no-brainer.
I’m obsessed with Tohn. She’s inarguably (I mean, you could argue with me, but you would lose) one of the best part of season two of “Nobody Wants This,” and of any project she is in, especially when she plays Jewish roles. From guest spots in “The Nanny” early in her career to the one and only Melrose of “GLOW,” (ugh, seriously, so iconic) to a jaded musician turned reluctant camp counselor in the wonderfully hilarious and haimish “The Floaters,” Tohn always steals the show.
But Tohn isn’t just a wonderful talent on screen. She’s brilliant, whip smart, funny and, as she shared with a crowd at 92NY last week, a “big Jew” — one that feels that part of her identity in her kishkes.
Tohn brought her best energy to this new season of “Nobody Wants This.” She looks incredible with bangs, like a 70s Jewess legend. She is sassy and feisty and sweet and vulnerable. She’s relatable as someone going through an identity crisis and struggling to figure out who she wants to be, even as it shakes up her marriage with her menschy, kind, stoner husband, Sasha (Timothy Simons).
And she brings us the most meaningful Jewish monologue of the season in the finale of the show.
In our seven minutes together, Tohn showed that she is a true kibbitzer queen. We spoke about Jewish blessings, Jewish food and Esther’s journey this season.
I love Esther’s speech about being Jewish in the finale episode. How did you did you react when you read it? Did any of it come from you? I’m just so curious.
I called my mother. I called my mother and my best friend Chad in New York, and I was like, are you sitting — I gotta read you something, and I have full body chills right now… It made me feel like I did something right in life, to end up at a place on a TV show where I get to say these things to someone. It was really special. It was not lost on me. We had such a great time shooting that scene. It meant a lot to me.
It’s so real. Another thing that was real was Joanne eating her comfort kugel in the final episode.
Unbelievable.
What’s your Jewish comfort food?
My Jewish comfort food is a black and white cookie because I can just go get it anywhere, and what I do is — some might call it psychotic. Some might think I’m not okay — I cut it in half and I put the black on top of the white. Sandwich.
Oh, that sounds so good.
It’s a lot of cookie.
Would you ever put ice cream in the middle?
Oh my God, I just passed out.
That would be so good.
The sandwich version is a lot of cookie but what I do is I take smaller bites because I want a flavor of the black and the white. And what I did before that was, I would like bite a side of the white and bite a side of the black.
That’s what I do!
But it’s a little more psychotic, the “bite, bite.” So if you just make a fold, it’s kind of better. It makes you look a little less insane.
I like that, because I like the perfect bite.
I am a bite curator. From way back, I go to every corner of the plate. I need the right flavor profile in the mouth. But then my Jewish comfort food that I make — my sweet noodle kugel. I made it for Rosh Hashanah this year. It’s very big. It’s very filling. This was one of the first times it ever got finished, because she’s hard to finish. She’s in a 13 by nine pan.
She’s a serious girl! Do you do cornflakes?
I don’t do cornflakes. I do Graham Cracker crumbs.
GASP. That sounds amazing. I don’t think I could stop eating.
You don’t even know. I mean, it’s beyond.
So we got a Purim episode, which felt like a special gift to me because I’ve always wanted a Purim episode.
I don’t think any of us has ever gotten a Purim TV episode.
Your costume was badass.
Esther did not want to be Queen Esther, not this year.
Not anymore! She’s not a sweet princess.
She’s a sexy cat.
What other Jewish holiday would you like the show to explore, and what would it look like?
That’s a good question, because I feel like Purim would have been the first choice, because it’s the most fun to look at. I mean, we could do a Passover seder. That would be great. A seder is cute. Then we have the plate, and then there would have to be an orange on the seder plate, like [that line about] a woman [belonging] on the bimah [as much as an orange on a seder plate], and then we could tell that little story.
I love it, Esther bringing the feminism to the seder.
Of course, always.
Sasha is such a mensch this season.
Isn’t he such a mensch?!
Him dancing in that Valentine’s Day episode melted my heart.
I know and it breaks my heart that Esther feels the way about him that she does. And she does love him, but she’s going through this journey of deciding if this is the decision she would have made… She didn’t even make a decision. They were together, they loved each other, they got pregnant, and it was like, OK, well, this is what we’re doing. And I think she’s looking back on her life and taking stock of things.
I do love that, that we get to see her go on that journey. It’s not really something we see enough of on TV.
I think you’re right. I think it’s because in rom-coms, it’s very much like, run into each other, meet cute, and this is what it looks like right at the beginning… Sasha and Esther are so far in that it’s like, wait a minute. What is this? Is this it? Did we quite do this right?
I also loved the Shabbat dinner. It was nice to hear Hamotzi [the Jewish blessing over the bread]!
Of course. I had a different melody than Tovah. But you know who won!
So what is your melody?
[Reader, at this point, I asked Jackie about her melody; she asked me to start her off, and then she sang it so beautifully!]
[After I sang mine on set], Tovah looked at me with swords in her eyes, and then she’s like, teaching everybody, singing way too well… we’re like, OK, we get it, she’s the best ever!
Of course, Tovah brought that good Broadway energy.
Yeah, the matriarch had to bring the proper Hamotzi melody to us.
