It’s hard to get the mix of somewhat mean, still somehow likable and really funny “just right,” but Jackie Tohn has nailed it in her latest role. Playing Esther, Tohn stars opposite Kristen Bell and Adam Brody in Netflix’s Nobody Wants This—and it’s safe to say her character “doesn’t suffer fools.” The series has been wildly successful (it’s currently in the top spot on the streaming service), and no one is as excited as Tohn. “The worst thing you can do in this business is to count your chickens. It’s not like we were making the show being like, ‘We have it!’ You just never know. But it is incredibly exciting that so many people are watching it.”
How does it feel to be on a show that everyone is talking about and is so well-received?
Without giving too long-winded of an answer, I’ve been acting since I was nine years old. I only say that to emphasize how much harder it hits when you’re in something that people are enjoying. I’ve been doing this for such a long time and I’ve made so many things that I’ve gotten really excited about…and people don’t watch it. You just never know, so it’s really gratifying and exciting and, frankly, overwhelming to get a response like we’re getting now. It’s like, “What is happening?” You can’t predict it. The worst thing you can do in this business is count your chickens.
When you were working on the show, did you know you kind of had some magic?
We were having a great time. The cast is obsessed with each other. We have a text thread that is, dare I say, wildly active. We’re talking to each other all the time, and we absolutely adore each other and support each other, but when you’re making something, you really don’t know. You certainly hope. But you don’t know. It’s not like we were making the show being like, “Ha ha ha, we have it!” You never know until it is out. You don’t know how it’s going to be edited. You don’t know if the performances you are delivering are going to play in the way that you hope that they will. It’s just so satisfying and exciting when it’s like, “Oh, my God, we’ve done it!”
Has there been any word on a second season?
Not yet. I am excited to hear. We are hopeful. The show is doing so well, but I haven’t heard anything. I was in an interview and someone was telling me that Erin was hinting toward it and I was like, “Ooh, exciting, I didn’t even know that,” so I’m learning things in my interviews.
I’ve watched you in a bunch of other things. Are there any moments, beauty-wise, that really stick out to you from your other roles?
I played Gilda Radner a few years back and that was really fun. We don’t look crazy dissimilar, so it wasn’t a bunch of prosthetics and this and that. Getting my hair to be like Gilda’s was fun. They curled it and then brushed it out and made it cute and Jewish and frizzy like Gilda’s. It was so exciting to look in the mirror afterward and be like, “Oh, man, that’s really wild.”
I was also on a show called GLOW, and those looks were off the charts. We had these amazing hair and makeup people getting us into our 1980s period glam. Looking in the mirror at that was absolutely amazing. It was just insane. It was full drag makeup—glitter, gemstones glued to our faces, pounds of crimped pink extensions, crazy bangs. That was wild.
Then, a lot of times on set, they just have you looking pretty. That’s nice because you can look in the mirror and say, “Oh, look at that. I’m a normal girl.” Val, who did my hair on GLOW, used to say that. Every time she would brush my hair or blow it out, she would go, “Hey, you can go. You’re a normal girl.”
Are there any beauty products that you swear by in your “regular life?”
I really love Biossance. I use their face oil ($74) every day. Love their makeup remover oil ($32) as well. They have some really good stuff. There’s an IT Cosmetics light-medium CC cream ($47) that I use. The original was always a little heavy for daytime. Then they made a nude glow one, which I swear by. I use it every day. I love the coverage of the other one, but this one is way more daytime-friendly.
I’m trying to think of what else I love…definitely the Anastasia Brow Freeze ($26) and the soft brown brow pencil ($25). My go-to mascara is Clé de Peau ($55). It stays on so well. It’s definitely not my everyday mascara, because I will wash my face and it will stay on. I use it on all my projects.
I have a blessing of having bonkers eyelashes, so every mascara, when I blink, it gets under my eyes. Even the waterproof ones. People are always like, “You need to try this one. This is the one for people who say that their mascara transfers.” Then I try it, and it transfers. This Clé de Peau one is bonkers. Unless you use oil to take it off, it doesn’t move. It is fire.
I’m definitely brand loyal when it comes to my makeup. There’s an ILIA product that’s not quite a CC cream, but more like a serum—a really dewy serum foundation ($48) that I’m really into right now. Do you know the one?
Yes. The brand is great.
Incredible. I can’t pit them against each other, but it gives the IT Cosmetics CC cream a run for its money.
That’s a great lineup. What are you excited for next? What do you have on tap for October?
Well, it’s spooky season, which my boyfriend and I love. He decorates the house for Halloween, which is one of many absolutely adorable things about this human. I made a movie last summer called Floaters. We are waiting to find out about distribution and stuff, so I don’t have any release information on it, but definitely excited about that. Mostly, I just have raging wanderlust. I went to Japan in July of 2023, and right now I’m like, “I got to go somewhere, and I don’t know where, I don’t know when at the moment, but I got to go.”
