Despite winning an Emmy, a SAG Award, and two Golden Globes for her performance in the streaming blockbuster series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” it’s taken Rachel Brosnahan three years to finally topline a feature film. This was partially due to “Maisel’s” lengthy production schedule, but considering her busy film career before the Amazon series hit, it’s still slightly eyebrow-raising. No matter though, Brosnahan won’t have to play second fiddle for the foreseeable future after her impressive turn in Julia Hart’s directorial effort, “I’m Your Woman.”
Set some time and somewhere in the 1970s, the original screenplay from Hart and “La La Land” producer Jordan Horowitz (the one who correctly displayed “Moonlight’s” Best Picture win) centers on Jean (Brosnahan), a housewife to an organized criminal, Eddie (Bill Heck) who sends her into hiding after one of his deals goes wrong. Jean is still adjusting to the surprise baby her husband has thrown into her lap (the first scene of the movie) when she meets Cal (Arinzé Kene), an associate of Eddie’s tasked with protecting her from thugs desperate to find her husband. Eventually, they meet up with Eddie’s wife Teri (Marsha Stephanie Blake), who it turns out is no stranger to Eddie’s shenanigans. The circumstances force Jean to take her life and the future of her new baby into her own hands.
Brosnahan jumped on the phone last week to discuss a role that also became her first PGA producing credit and to give an update on when “Maisel” will jump into COVID production for its fourth season.
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The Playlist: What did you think when the script first came your way?
Rachel Brosnahan: I was so moved by the writing in general and by Jean’s journey and had more questions than I had answered by the end of the script and loved that feeling. Got an opportunity to sit down with Julia and we chatted about everything, this movie, what inspired it and life and love and dogs and hair color, and really connected right away. I knew I wanted to be a part of this film from the very first reading, getting an opportunity to meet Julia only further solidified that desire. And then I’m so grateful to both of them for giving me the opportunity to come on as their producer as well.
As a producer, how involved did you get? Were you just experiencing from afar or were knee-deep into the nuts and bolts with casting and locations and all that entails?
Yeah, nuts and bolts. I am grateful to Jordan for giving me the space to learn and to grow, and also the space to find my own voice as a producer, alongside his, and to really get my hands dirty. It wasn’t a vanity project and it was really important to me that if I was going to come on in this role, that I was earning my seat at the table. I feel so lucky to have been a part of this film in general, and especially for this to be the film that I cut my producing teeth on.
You’ve shot other independent films in the past, but not as a producer, you were an actor just doing your job showing up on set. What was the toughest part of making this movie that you experienced behind the camera?
The toughest part was shooting the movie and doing the double duty. It was such an exciting new experience that I really loved the behind the scenes pieces of developing the film and being in conversation with Amazon and, and already knowing, but ensuring that the film was cared for in the way that we felt deserved. And, as you said, that involves casting and finding the locations and figuring out our budget, and bringing this incredible team on to help bring this film to life. So many of whom Julia and Jordan had already worked with and developed relationships with. The hardest part was doing both at the same time, wanting to be behind the monitor, watching the film comes to life, but mostly being in it and needed to contend with sleep and time to prepare for the next day’s work in front of the camera. And also just loving these behind the camera part of producing and both of those things simultaneously it’s challenging. But it was a real gift and such a thrill to begin to discover that balance. And I will definitely take every piece of this experience with me onto future projects. Yeah. There’s no staying up drinking with the producers till four in the morning when you have to be up and do your hair and makeup at five, just put it that way. [Laughs.]
We never discover much of Jean’s backstory in the movie, which seems very intentional. What did Julia and Jordan tell you in that regard or did they let you sort of paint the canvas of who she was before this whole series of events happen to her?
A little bit of both. Julia and I had many hours of conversations asking questions about exactly that and figuring some pieces of that together, figuring out who Jean was, then who the relationships were in her life before Eddie when this change in her began to occur. Julia and I talked a lot about the idea, which I wasn’t incredibly familiar with, that many women, not all women, but many women who find out that they’re unable to have children, [experience] a really deep trauma that people don’t talk about very often. And for some women, it’s such a deep trauma that it evolves into a form of PTSD. And that for Jean, that trauma runs really deep and has forced her to retreat inside of herself and try to continue to shut off that piece of herself. Julia gave a metaphor that ultimately was really important in finding Jean’s spine and what makes her tick. It was about the idea that when a traumatic event happens, it’s the filing cabinets in your brain, dumped out all over the place. And you’re scrambling to put the files back where they belong and to re-understand your world of view. And that for Jean, the filing cabinet was dumped out when she found out that she couldn’t have children and then was dumped out all over again when Eddie comes home with this baby. And that the beginning part of this film is Jean desperately trying to reorganize her understanding of the world. And that’s why when she speaks, she mostly is asking questions and not receiving very many answers. You’ll hear her ask a lot, “What’s happening? Where are we going? What’s going to happen from here? Why are we doing this? Where is Eddie?” And those conversations helped us figure out where to begin and where to build from.
After Eddie disappears, that trauma leads up to that pivotal scene in a laundromat where she just lets it all out. Can you talk about how you got to that moment? Were you able to do more than one take?
Julia is such a supportive and warm and generous director, and she also knows exactly how far to push her actors to bring out the best performance. That was one of the most challenging scenes that we shot. And one of the scenes that we talked about very little. Julia gave me permission to just see what happened and to let it be as big and ugly and crazy and uncomfortable as it might be to try to refrain from judging it. And all we really knew was that this is the moment where Jean finally lets go and everything comes to the surface. It was freezing outside and being soaking wet, definitely added a unique challenge to Julia’s credit, she pushed it and pushed it we shot 13 takes of that scene.
Oh, wow.
I felt I’d been turned inside out and I believe that the take that’s in there is actually one of the later ones when it felt like I didn’t have anything left and there was nothing left to draw from. [Julia’s] brilliant instinct as a director is that would be the place to start from.
I have to say it’s so impressive. I don’t mean to harp on that one moment, but I’m curious in the context of the script, was the woman who you sit next to in the laundrymat supposed to come over and comfort you? It ties into this great theme in that film of women helping women. Was that on the page or something that worked out on set?
It is what was on the page and all of us, but Julia in particular, put a lot of thought into casting that woman who was so beautiful and so brilliant in that small piece. There’s very little acting involved at that moment, looking at her saying, “It’s going to be O.K.,” it’s incredibly moving and something that I haven’t seen very much of. And it’s one of my favorite scenes in the film for that reason. Especially at this moment, I view that scene in a whole new light, that those tiny moments of kindness from strangers can change your life and set you on a new path which it quite literally does for Jean at that moment.
I know you’ve done a ton of physical work on screen, whether it something comedic or musical numbers on “Maisel.” But I was watching this film again and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you do so much physical stuff as you do in this movie. You’re dragging people around, running through crazy shootouts in the middle of a packed theater. Did you think that at the time?
Definitely. I have a whole new respect for mothers. Babies are f**king heavy. And mom’s arm is a real thing that I did not know about before this film. I carried the baby primarily on the right side. And after the first two days of shooting could hardly lift my arm above my head.
[Laughs.]
I got guns on one [arm now]. Moms are literal superheroes. And that was a really unexpected physical test for myself, that if we were shooting for 12 hours a day with the baby, it was physically exhausting in a way that I did not expect. And yeah, dragging 200-pound men out of a car and running in seventies platform shoes down flights of stairs, it was physically demanding in a way that I wasn’t expecting having read and even been a part of developing the script. But again, one of the great gifts that Julia has as the director is knowing exactly how far to push people, to bring out the best in them and not in front of, and behind the camera. I’m an actor who loves being pushed like that. And so I’ll never forget dragging those bodies out of the car at three in the morning and feeling that I might not physically be able to do another take and Julia gently encouraging me to dig deep and to find it. It was a very parallel moment on Jean’s journey and in mine. Jean has no idea that she’s capable of that. And I didn’t either. And that’s a very tangible moment of realizing my own strength. And that is because of Julia’s patience and encouragement.
I spoke to a number of your “Maisel” co-stars in August for Emmy season and they had no idea when season four might begin shooting because of the pandemic. We’re now almost at the end of November. Do you have a better timeframe or are you one of those shows where you’re like, “Listen, it’s going to be a while”?
We now have a little bit of a better idea than we did then for sure. We felt very in limbo back in August, we were supposed to begin shooting in June, but obviously, it wasn’t safe to go back and save priorities. For us, we’re a family. We’ve been doing this for three years and we need to make sure we’re taking care of each other. We were hoping to go back in January, as long as it’s safe to do so that’s the plan. And we miss each other, we’re really looking forward to it.
I hope it’s safe for you guys to come back. I know that fans are salivating to see another season and to see what, cause there was an actual cliffhanger at the end of that season, you shot so long ago.
I know! We haven’t seen the script either. We’ve been completely in the dark for all this time.
“I’m Your Woman” launches on Amazon Prime on Dec. 11