Looking back at the five seasons of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” gave Rachel Brosnahan the chance to see that her and her character Midge had a lot more in common than she thought.
“I was so struck by how enveloped in love and support I’ve felt from minute one of stepping onto this set,” said Brosnahan.
“As someone who had never done comedy and spent 10 years of being told I was not funny, to step on set to do Midge’s first prolonged mental breakdown at the Gaslight in 2016 — and then do this final set and recreate that moment — it was really cathartic,” said Brosnahan.
From the start of the show to this very final moment, Midge went from a woman who wanted a simple life like her mother to realizing she wanted it all. She became emboldened and determined to follow her own path, not the one of the women before her. And Brosnahan truly came to embody this. Like Midge, she was able to finally find herself through comedy despite what anyone else told her.
Cast members Luke Kirby (Lenny Bruce), Caroline Aaron (Shirley Maisel), Kevin Pollak (Moishe Maisel), Marin Hinkle (Rose Weissman), Alex Borstein (Susie Myerson) and Brosnahan (Midge Maisel) gathered to discuss the final season of “Mrs. Maisel” at the Prime Video FYC panel on May 22.
The very last scene that was shot of “Mrs. Maisel” was of Midge sitting on the couch when Gordon Ford says the famous line, “I present to you the marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”
“It felt like the thesis statement of the whole show,” Brosnahan said of the final scene. “Cowards are only cute in the Wizard of Oz.”
This final scene meant a lot to other pieces of the ensemble as well, in particular Hinkle, who plays Midge’s mother Rose Weissman.
“I’ve been proud of [Brosnahan] from the get go, so it’s always been a little complicated playing someone who had any tension about seeing her daughter perform,” Hinkle said. “So when I read that I would actually see and celebrate her and not just be drunk and dancing…I really was thrilled.”
Borstein, who plays Midge’s manager Susie, felt like she was saying goodbye to her own daughter. “I said to Tony that I was imagining what it felt like when he gave one of his daughters away at their wedding,” Borstein said. “That’s what I felt like. Like I was just watching her leave my nest and walk away, you know not forever, but just, like, holy shit my work here is done.”
For most of the crew, watching Midge do her final set was the very last scene they shot for the show.
“We had to watch it over and over again and I never tired of it,” said Aaron. “I never had to force myself to cheer or applaud because it felt like the five years we’d been together conflated into that final moment of applauding for our leading lady and her character.”
The cast agreed that Brosnahan was perfect every time, yet director Amy Sherman-Palladino had them run through that final scene over and over.
“The truth is, and I think she would admit this, I think Amy was having trouble letting go and saying, ‘This is the last moment, these are the last words, this is the last time anyone is ever going to say marvelous Mrs. Maisel.’” said Borstein.
Hearing those words for the last time at the table read was an evocative moment for the cast. Brosnahan says she sobbed when she heard it said out loud. After their final read, they stepped outside to a surprise: fireworks over the East River.
As they exit the show, the cast also reflected on its legacy and how it will hold up for future audiences. “I’m so glad this show exists for my daughter,” said Aaron. “Because I think with everything Midge is struggling for and against, we still have some work to do.”
“It’s felt really special to be a part of this new wave of television that’s embracing complex and flawed and funny women like Midge and Susie,” said Brosnahan. “We’ve never lost sight of the fact that when this show began, that this was such a novel idea. And I’m so glad that it’s so much less one now.”
Midge stands to represent the complexities of women. While she followed her own dreams and learned to live for herself, she still remembered her marriage to Joel as some of the best days of her life.
“I asked Amy during the first season if Amy and Joel would ever get back together over the course of the five seasons,” said Brosnahan. “And she said that they’ll have flings, but they’ll never be on the same page again at the same time. And that Midge, when she lives in penthouse apartment with her 20 poodles, which were mysteriously absent from this iteration, will always look back on the day before Joel left her as the happiest day of her life.”
“And I found that profoundly sad, but also, I love that both of those things live inside Midge. That feels really human to me,” she said.
The cast remembered some other important scenes in that final episode. For Aaron and Pollak, they were happy to see that Moishe and Shirley had rekindled their love for one another.
“I thought it was so wonderful how they landed the plane for Moishe and Shirley,” said Aaron. “They ended on the rocks—”
“And on their backs,” Pollak interjected.
“Yes, and they just finally had to know and acknowledge that they are each other’s person no matter what,” Aaron said.
For Kirby, having that meal with Midge in the Chinese restaurant was the right kind of closure for her and Lenny. “It was such a gift for Amy to have Lenny find a way into the rest of Midges’ life without having to do something silly,” said Kirby.
The scene is a flashback of Midge and Lenny sitting across from one another. They’re surrounded by hundreds of green dollar bills that line the walls behind the red restaurant booths, as Midge practices her signature and Lenny tells her why he’s sure she’ll become famous.
“We got write out names on a dollar bill and stick it on the ceiling at the Chinese restaurant,” said Brosnahan.
