Marvelous Mrs. Maisel's Rachel Brosnahan Had Fun Showing Midge's Rage
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star Rachel Brosnahan opened up about how she enjoyed playing Midge in the series' latest season as the character goes through a range of volatile emotions. Set in the late 1950s to early 60s, the period comedy-drama by Amy Sherman-Palladino (Gilmore Girls, Bunhead) follows the story of Midge Maisel, a wealthy New York housewife who gives up a life of comfort to pursue her passion for stand-up comedy. The series premiered on Amazon Prime Video in 2017 and earned praise for its brilliant story-telling and acting. It also stars Alex Borstein, Tony Shalhoub, Michael Zegen, and Luke Kirby.
In the recently concluded Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4, Midge gets pushed to the brink by her life choices and situation. After being dropped from Shy Baldwin's (LeRoy McClain) tour, the feisty woman finds herself out of a job. The season finale showed the titular character lose control and succumb to helplessness and anger. Audiences haven't seen this vulnerability from the character since perhaps the first season when her marriage crumbled and she decided to follow her dreams.
Speaking with THR, Brosnahan revealed that she had fun showing her character's rage and pent-up emotions. The 31-year-old actress said that it's like revisiting Midge Maisel from season 1, who showed up "drunk and half-naked" at a club after turning away from her old, affluent lifestyle. While the rest of the seasons followed Midge's journey as she picks herself up and rebuilds her new independent life, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4 showed how one can easily lose everything in an instant. For Brosnahan, Midge's flare-up was bound to happen. Read her comments below:
Loses her calm is putting it pretty mildly [laughs]. It’s certainly not the first time we’ve seen Midge pushed to the brink. We met her on the edge. We met her when she’d hit rock bottom, drunk and half-naked in the comedy club in the middle of the night. In some ways, it was fun to return to a version of Midge that is furious and is wearing every emotion she has on her sleeve all at once. We watched Midge go through her own version of the seven stages of grief as she’s laying to rest a career she thought she was about to embark on and rebuild for better and for worse...In some ways, it’s a regression, and in other ways it’s a progression. So, when Midge does anything, she does it at 150 percent, and her outright fury was no different.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 5 has been renewed and it will be the show's last, concluding Midge's character arc. According to Brosnahan, it will be bittersweet to say goodbye to the character that she's portrayed in the last five years. While the actress added that she doesn't know how Midge's story will conclude, she's hoping that she'll remain as strong, independent, and unconventional. After seeing what happened at the end of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4, Midge's journey is sure to be an interesting one in the upcoming final season.
While The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is set in an era when women pushed boundaries to change how society viewed them, Midge's story still resonates with many women today. Her journey to self-discovery highlights her ambition and tenacity as she faces obstacles both in her personal and professional life. But it's her charmingly flawed nature—paired with the series' hilarious and evocative drama—that makes the character relatable and incredibly memorable. It will be exciting to see how Brosnahan's Midge will find her closure when The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 5 drops next year.
Source: THR