Jenny Slate on her first Emmy nomination for ‘Dying for Sex’

Jenny Slate is nominated for her first Emmy for her role in Dying for Sex.

Slate plays Nikki on the FX miniseries, and she told ABC Audio that, because she mostly lives in a small town in Massachusetts, she hasn’t been talking about the accomplishment all that much.

“It has been a lot of me privately trying to figure out what to do with the information. It’s flattering,” Slate said. “When I found out that people were talking about our show in terms of, like, maybe the show will get nominated for Emmys, that felt well-earned to me. It felt appropriate. But I also feel like I know myself enough to know that the prize always feels like getting another job.”

Slate said that while it is nice to feel celebrated by other people, the real prize is booking other jobs that can fulfill her the way Dying for Sex has.

“I, of course, want to be recognized in this way. I would never pretend that I didn’t. But I should also keep in mind that while I hope to be celebrated as much as I can and to celebrate this moment—it feels good to feel good about yourself—I think my eye is always on, OK, I just did this work, I loved it, how can I keep the bar this high, and continue going and be in the sights of the filmmakers, and writers and people making TV that I admire and keep working at this level?” Slate said.

All of the feelings she is experiencing with this Emmy nomination are new, she said.

“I play an adult woman dealing with real things based on a real, true, heartbreaking and joy-exploding story,” Slate said.

And while she’s been recognized for other projects in the past, “This is a really new area for me. And I feel like weirdly young about it [and] proud,” she said. 

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