How Jenny Slate overcomes ‘stage fright’ with optimism in ‘Seasoned Professional’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
“My central challenge is often my stage fright,” admits comedian and actress Jenny Slate. For our recent webchat, she continues, “I take a lot of risks. I speak freely and about things that are personal. That feels like there is a sense of rightness that comes with that. But stage fright, much like a panic attack, makes you feel like something is essentially wrong.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
In Slate’s latest comedy special, “Seasoned Professional,” she describes herself as a “relentless optimist.” She reveals, “If I were a pessimist, I would not be doing comedy at all. Optimism informs the content because most of the stuff I’m talking about are the things I feel are my biggest successes. My biggest success has always been tied to my greatest fears, misunderstandings or failures. Isn’t it strange that this small moment of riding a bike in Amsterdam is so incredibly important to me? It’s an example of participating in extreme bravery within a task that most people think is normal, but I thought was terrifying.”
SEE Watch our lively chats with hundreds of 2024 Emmy contenders
Slate also speaks about giving birth in the Amazon Prime special. She explains, “A risk I took was that I told my birth story the way that I think about it, filled with all these weird mental tangents and memories. You wouldn’t think a memory of getting an audition or a memory of having diarrhea on a seventh grade orchestra trip would have anything to do with a birth story. But when you think about the way we are as people, although we are in the present, our memories make a lot of things simultaneous. You really get to know the real person if you allow for the most random s*** to be in there. But it can also be scary to do that because you risk being misunderstood or rejected and perceived as someone who is sloppy.”
On her process Slate says, “generally I don’t like to overwork anything. I don’t tend to say the same things the same way. There are a couple of moments in the special where I said something in a cadence I had said in in before for connector moments. But when I watch it, I think those are the least alive moments.”
In the special, Slate also recounts how she ever so casually stalked her therapist. The comedian can report that her therapist “liked it [the special]. At least that’s what she said. She told me she liked it.”
PREDICT the 2024 Emmy Award nominations through July 17
Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?
SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions