Well, at least one good thing came from “Don’t Worry, Darling.” Jewish Tony winner Ari’el Stachel and actress Kiki Layne, who met on the set of the ill-fated Olivia Wilde movie in 2020, are engaged!
But the couple, being the creatives they are, didn’t announce their pending nuptials with a run-of-the-mill press release. Instead, the announcement came last week in the form of a funny and sweet Instagram reel in which Ari’el and Kiki tease their respective Jewish and Black heritages. In the video, titled “A Black and Jewish Love Story,” the pair sit on a couch and try to figure out what to watch.
“Oh, I want to see ‘The Brutalist.'” Ari’el suggests. But Kiki is not quite as enthusiastic about the idea. “A Holocaust movie, Ari?” She pushes back. “We gonna watch ’12 Years a Slave’ next?”
The scene immediately cuts to Ari’el as a Jewish man with a tallit and payot — it seems to be his inner Jewish voice. For any Jewish person who has ever considered dating or marrying a non-Jew, his response is an all-too-familiar refrain. “This what happens when you don’t marry Jewish!” he shrieks in a Yiddishkeit accent.
It’s Kiki’s turn next. The scene cuts to Kiki’s version of an inner voice, a stereotypical Black Southern woman with a hair wrap and a Bible. “I told you this white boy wasn’t gonna get you,” she says in a slight drawl.
Back on the couch, the pair start arguing. Ari’el suggests they watch “Seinfeld,” but that doesn’t seem to fly. (“She doesn’t like ‘Seinfeld’? Run!,” Ari’el’s inner voice cuts in.) Kiki says they should watch “Abbott Elementary,” but Ari’el says he doesn’t get the show. (“He don’t get ‘Abbott’? Run!,” Kiki’s inner voice interjects.) They start accusing each other of not wanting to watch shows and movies about the other’s culture when Ari’el realizes it’s Friday night.
“Oh, shit, ” he exclaims. “It’s Shabbat.” Ari’el and Kiki’s inner voices collide, arguing about Ari’el lighting the Shabbat candles and Kiki going to church on Sunday. They push each other, each trying to gain the upper hand as the Jewish inner voice begins a prayer and the Black inner voice starts singing “Something in the Name Jesus.”
Ari’el rushes out of frame and returns with two large Shabbat candles. The two inner voices disappear and he asks Kiki if they can light them. “Of course,” Kiki replies gently. “Can we watch Beyonce’s ‘Homecoming’?” she asks in turn. Ari’el smiles. With Beyonce on in the background, Ari’el lights one candle and Kiki lights the next. As she does so, she raises her left hand, emphasizing, what else, a tear-drop diamond ring on her finger!!
“Kiki, I love you. Let’s build an empire,” Ari’el wrote in the caption. Later, he added in the comments, “My love. Thank you for sharing this life with me. For seeing me, accepting me — and stepping into the crazy little universe I’ve built, to announce our love in a way only we could. Here’s to forever.”
The video is a beautiful testament to their relationship, and one that feels completely in line with the openness with which Ari’el Stachel has shared himself publicly. Since winning a Tony in 2018 for playing Haled in the extremely Jewish and Arab Broadway musical “The Band’s Visit,” Stachel has channeled his own Yemenite-Ashkenazi-Arab-Israeli identity into a podcast and Instagram series called “Other” and a one-man show called “Out of Character.” He frequently shares on social media about his experience being pigeon-holed into roles based on one facet of his identity and being erased as a Jew of Color. But he also shares about the pride he feels in his Jewishness and the excitement with which he and Kiki blend their cultures together.
Mazel tov, Ari’el and Kiki! We absolutely cannot wait for your greatest collaboration yet: Your wedding.
