Actress Rachel Brosnahan credits Marvelous Mrs Maisel co-stars for empowering her in breakout role

LOS ANGELES – Television’s favourite mid-century American housewife is back for the fifth and final season of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel (2017 to 2023), which premieres on Prime Video on Friday.

The Emmy-winning comedy-drama continues the story of Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan), whose picture-perfect life in 1950s New York City is upended when she decides to pursue an improbable dream: becoming a stand-up comic.

The acclaimed series has been a career high for Brosnahan, winning her the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in 2018. That year, the show also took home trophies for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series.

But the 32-year-old American actress remembers how terrified she was initially about taking on the role, her first in a comedy.

This was especially while shooting Season 1, when Midge discovers her hidden comedic talents – something Brosnahan was not sure she could convincingly portray.

“I was massively intimidated by this role, by this set, by this brilliant writing and all the brilliant comedic talent I was surrounded by, having never done comedy at all before this show,” says Brosnahan, whose breakout TV role was a three-season stint in political thriller series House Of Cards (2013 to 2018).

“When we first started shooting the stand-up, I just remember getting up there and feeling so anxious, like I just wanted to sink into a hole in the floor,” she adds during a virtual panel.

But co-star Alex Borstein, the 52-year-old American actress and stand-up comedian who plays Midge’s manager Susie Myerson, came to her rescue.

Borstein – whose performance won her two Emmys for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series – “has saved my a** and pushed me and lifted me up more times than I can count over five seasons of shooting”, says Brosnahan.

She looked to Borstein during one of the first sets where Midge is supposed to be winning over a crowd with her jokes, and said: “Just please tell me if this is terrible. If you have any advice (on doing stand-up), please pull me aside and just help.”

But Borstein’s advice was unexpected.

Brosnahan recalls that Borstein said: “I can’t help you. A stand-up never could have played this part – this is nothing like stand-up. And you know this character, so you have a handle on this. Take up the space that you need, ask for what you need, do what you want to and try things.”

Looking back, Brosnahan believes Borstein “empowered me into this role in a way that I will never forget”.

“She taught me to listen to the audience in front of me and not try to become the stand-up that I’m not, but to try and embody this character fully,” says Brosnahan.

“At a really early point in the show, it gave me a little jolt of confidence that I really needed.”

Since then, Brosnahan has fully stepped into the character and assumed a leadership role on set.

“I spent a long time as someone who’s never felt comfortable taking up a lot of space and, especially on other sets, I was nervous stepping into that role and seeing how you have the ability to impact the vibe on a set,” says the actress, who is married to American actor Jason Ralph, 37.

But she learnt from role models such as American actor Tony Shalhoub, who won an Outstanding Supporting Actor Emmy for playing Midge’s father, as well as British Oscar winner Emma Thompson, whom Brosnahan worked with on the fantasy romance film Beautiful Creatures (2013).

And, as Brosnahan shot the final season of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, she found herself reflecting on “how lucky I’ve been to have had mentors who took the time to either lead by example or talk to me about what it meant to step into that position”.

She says: “I feel an enormous responsibility to pay forward the kind of generosity that has been given to me over the years in big and small ways.”