Jenny Slate Finds Romance in Everything — Onscreen and Off

At the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, Jenny Slate made one thing clear: romance isn’t just something she performs in movies — it’s how she lives her life.

While promoting her new film Carousel, Slate, 43, told People that she considers herself a “big romantic” in every sense of the word. And she doesn’t mean just in love or relationships.

“I’m a romantic in what I choose for dinner, what pajamas I wear,” she said. “There’s romance in everything.”

Slate explained that she believes intensity, emotion, and even sensuality exist in everyday moments — an idea she credits to writer Adrienne Maree Brown. For Slate, that mindset shapes how she approaches both her personal life and her work.

That philosophy plays a major role in Carousel, a romantic drama directed by Rachel Lambert. In the film, Slate stars as Rebecca, the high school girlfriend of Noah, played by Chris Pine. Noah returns to his hometown years later, and the unresolved feelings between the two quickly complicate his life.

Slate says stepping into emotional intensity came naturally. “It’s not that hard for me to fall into what feels like a moment of intensity,” she shared. What felt harder, she admitted, would be playing something “too perfect or unreal.” She was especially drawn to the idea that her and Pine’s characters are “each other’s one that got away.”

Pine, 45, agrees that romance is at the heart of the project. He described himself as romantic too, especially when it comes to classic cinema. “I’m a lover of old Hollywood glamour,” he said. Working opposite Slate made the love story feel effortless. “She’s smart, funny, well-read — it’s not difficult to fall in love on screen.”

Outside of acting, Slate’s life has been full in other ways. She has spent the last few years raising her 4-year-old daughter, Ida Lupine, with her husband, Ben Shattuck, and releasing her latest essay collection, Lifeform.

Reflecting on this phase of her life, Slate said, “It feels like I’ve set sail and finally understand how to work all the riggings of my own ship.”

Her real-life love story also has a Sundance connection. Slate and Shattuck were first linked in 2019 after attending the festival together. Later that year, during a trip to France, he proposed with a picnic — and Slate didn’t hesitate.

“I screamed YES,” she wrote on Instagram at the time.

Whether on screen, at home, or in the smallest daily choices, Jenny Slate continues to approach life with the same guiding idea: romance is everywhere — if you’re open to seeing it.