Are we about to get an interfaith Jewish rom-com series starring a very talented, very hot leading man that’s not “Nobody Wants This”? Well, it’s funny you should ask…
Yesterday, Deadline reported that Regé-Jean Page (aka Duke Simon Basset in “Bridgerton”) is slated to executive produce and likely star in an upcoming TV adaption of Elissa Sussman’s novel “Funny You Should Ask.” This would have Page playing the character Gabe Parker, a Hollywood star who has a scintillating interview with journalist and self-proclaimed “loud Jewish girl” Chani Horowitz. Part of the book takes place 10 years after the initial interview, when Chani and Gabe reunite and learn whether or not their decade-old spark might be something more.
There’s no word yet on who is in talks to play Jewish protagonist Chani. However, in an interview with Hey Alma in 2022, author Elissa Sussman shared one casting requirement if her book were ever adapted for the screen. “The only thing that I would insist upon,” she said, “is that Chani be played by a Jewish actress.” Earlier in the interview, Sussman gave representation and visibility as her reasons for making Chani Horowitz a Jewish character, as well as writing a Jewish protagonist in her prior novel “Drawn That Way.”
“A few years ago, it felt like there were only a handful of romances with Jewish characters,” Sussman explained. “So it was a matter of wanting to see myself in genres I love.”
Regé-Jean Page in a rom-com opposite a Jewish actress? We absolutely burn for that. Not than anybody asked, but someone needs to see if Zoë Kravitz, Molly Gordon, Lizzy Caplan or Hannah Einbinder is available.
The adaption of “Funny You Should Ask” comes on the heels of Netflix’s “Nobody Wants This,” another interfaith Jewish rom-com series and one of the hottest shows of the last year. (ICYMI, it also stars Adam Brody, one of the hottest Jewish actors in Hollywood.) At the same time, “Running Point” dropped on Netflix on February and features a “sensitive” interfaith relationship between Isla Gordon (Kate Hudson) and Dr. Lev Levenson (Max Greenfield). With the announcement of the “Funny You Should Ask” adaption, it begs the question: Are interfaith Jewish rom-coms about to become a trend?
It seems like it might be bashert!
