Plus, how they perfected Midge’s career-making set.
Warning: This story contains spoilers about the series finale ofThe Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,“Four Minutes.”
It’s time to say thank you, and good night toThe Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Alex Borstein and Rachel Brosnahan on ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’.Philippe Antonello/Prime Video
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Susie comes clean to Midge about Hedy and the nature of their relationship.
Is this the first time she’s told anyone?
And what does it cost her to admit this?
Rachel Brosnahan on ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’.Philippe Antonello/Prime Video
DAN PALLADINO (Writer, Executive Producer):We’ve said that Susie kind of spirals afterwards.
Was she more outgoing?
She was always odd.
Alex Borstein on ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’.Philippe Antonello/Prime Video
After Hedy, it burst a bubble on the world being anything that is promising or enjoyable.
SHERMAN-PALLADINO:The crux of this whole season was really about their relationship Midge and Susie.
If Susie had not met Midge, Susie probably would still be humping at the Gaslight.
She would still not have found her way out.
She had shut herself down to possibilities in life.
A lot of it because of the Hedy situation.
Midge opened that door back up.
They never would’ve achieved what they achieved without the other person there.
When did you decide it would be via late night television andThe Gordon Ford Show?
[Johnny Carson] was the kingmaker.
So, we always had that in mind.
SHERMAN-PALLADINO:Gordon is a different spirit of Johnny Carson.
Johnny Carson was a different kind of man.
He wasn’t going to let his own personal feelings get in the way.
He was going to verify that person moved on.
We had high hopes for Gordon.
Why was it important to her and to you to have them all there in this moment?
They all got to a point where even Rose could grudgingly accept that this was happening.
She was mostly excited about the fact that she was just invited.
Because they have been so estranged.
We never had that real moment of Rose and Midge together.
And her mother was her best friend at the very beginning of the show.
That was the person she wanted to be.
That’s the life she wanted.
The idea of “I want everybody there” is because her family was important to her.
He did nothing but support her and try and make up for everything he’s done wrong.
There’s this wrinkle where Gordon downgrades her to appearing as a writer and not a comic.
To your mind, is that something he came up with in the course of the day?
Was he waiting to spring it on her?
He does not want to be cornered.
His show is his domain and having his hand forced like this so blatantly was beyond the pale.
He was not gonna be able to get over that.
It’s something he came up with afterwards.
He’s just like, “Fine, she’s gonna be on the show.”
But then it’s, “She’s gonna be on the show my way.
I made you no promises.”
But then it turned out that she was delightful and he had to make her very famous.
SHERMAN-PALLADINO:She was not in the script originally.
You don’t really want someone hawking a book.
You didn’t want a cooking segment.
We’d already done animals.
SHERMAN-PALLADINO:We could have done that.
It fell into place.
Midge takes Susie aside to warn her she’s thinking of trying something that could ruin them both.
Does any part of Susie consider telling her to hold her fire?
We gotta go for it."
Anything that comes with great rewards, there’s a real downside on the other side.
These two women are brave.
They would rather go for it the right way than go for it half-assed.
In that moment, what stops Gordon from ignoring the advice of his producer and shutting Midge down?
He wants to be the kingmaker.
But there’s balls involved and there’s respect paid.
He had already had an awkward transition to a commercial.
He just felt stuck.
How do you take a woman off without looking like a brute?
So, he just let it happen.
In writing Midge’s career-making set, how long and how many drafts did it take to perfect?
SHERMAN-PALLADINO:Of course it was hard.
But frankly, all of Midge’s stand-up is hard because all of Midge’s stand-up comes from story.
It’s how Rachel always keyed into the stand-up.
Or, “I missed that joke because it helped me get to this.”
There’s more massaging going on.
SHERMAN-PALLADINO:The whole thing had to be her declaration.
The whole monologue had to be a coming out party.
It had to be her stating this is what it is.
This isn’t what she’s supposed to be doing.
She’s taking a giant risk.
She’s sticking her neck out.
This could end badly for everybody, but this is the bottom line.
This is how it works.
Her finally just stating what drives her, which is her ambition.
She wants something very, very big.
She can’t suddenly veer off into something else for the sake of a joke.
Everything’s got to make a point.
It’s her manifesto.
It’s her stating her being, especially this one, which was a do or die set.
My favorite line is, “I want a big life.
I want to break every single rule.”
Do you think that that has been Midge’s series long discovery?
Or that she has always known that about herself?
SHERMAN-PALLADINO:She redefined what a big life is.
PALLADINO:She thought she was living a big life.
SHERMAN-PALLADINO:In beginning, she thought, “I’ve got the big life.
I’m the most popular girl in my neighborhood and everybody loves me and listens to me.
That’s what her version of a big life was.
It’s fair to say Gordon is genuinely impressed with her inthat moment, yes?
He’s not just saving face?
PALLADINO:I hope it doesn’t seem that way.
How essential do you ultimately feel Lenny is to Midge’s success?
SHERMAN-PALLADINO:He was very essential.
He’s the first man who took her seriously as a comic, off of nothing.
He didn’t know her, didn’t have any skin in the game other than what he saw.
And the chutzpah and the smarts.
That’s going to go a long way, man.
At least the smart ones.
And no one really wants a dumb man listening to you.
I mean, really, honestly, who’s got the time?
Does she keep this fortune the rest of her life?
I thought I maybe saw it on her desk in the final scene in 2005.
SHERMAN-PALLADINO:You did.
It’s her touchstone.
PALLADINO:As two people who’ve kept everything we’ve ever had.
SHERMAN-PALLADINO:My god, our whole lives.
And I’m throwing it out.”
And I said, “That’s the Golden Globe cheese.”
Yesterday, he threw it out.
PALLADINO:It was a science experiment sitting in our fridge.
Midge tells us in the set that she wants to be so famous that everyone loves her.
By 2005, that does seem to be the case.
She’s busy, she’s successful, but she’s also alone.
In your opinion and in her own eyes, was all of this worth it?
Or is this in some part a cautionary tale?
PALLADINO:That’s up to the viewer.
It doesn’t look fun for her at the end.
She still has Susie, but Susie’s 3000 miles away.
SHERMAN-PALLADINO:Our only point is with every decision comes consequences.
That’s the bottom line.
But then you wouldn’t have had this, this, and this.
That’s what life is.
Life is a game.
It’s up to other people to decide whether or not that was worth it or not.
If you shot Midge up with sodium pentathol and said, “Was it worth it?”
I think she would say yes.
She would’ve sat there and thought, “Why the f–k didn’t I go?
The kids were already gonna be f–ed up.
Why didn’t I just go forward?”
We said, “Oh, no, no, never.”
She goes, “Oh good.
I wanna love that and I want to move forward.”
But I think she still equates them at the happiness level.
She can say she married the love of her life.
She just didn’t live it till the end of her life.
Her life shifted and she had all these other things.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
