BANG Showbiz English
Rachel Brosnahan was told she was “not funny” before landing the starring role on ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.'
The 31-year-old actress stars in title role of aspiring stand-up comedienne Midge Maisel in the hit Amazon Prime series but was initially told to consider a different kind of acting career before landing the part.
She said: “I spent the first couple years of my career being told I was not funny. It wasn't like an insulting thing. It was really just a lot of people who were professionals kind of saying, ‘You might want to head in a different direction. Maybe consider something over here.'”
The former ‘Manhattan' actress – who eventually won a Primetime Emmy Award for her role in ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' – went on to reveal that just hours before being offered the part, she had been rejected at another audition because casting directors wanted “someone funnier.”
Speaking at Prime Video show's FYC event, she said: “I think it's been a really challenging and really incredible exercise over the last couple of years. But I'm eternally indebted to [executive producers] Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino for saying yes and taking that kind of chance on someone like me.
“The day I found out I was going to be their Midge, [I] lost a role that morning because I wasn't funny enough. They wanted someone funnier.”
During the event, panel moderator Danny Strong recalled a conversation he had with producers about their challenge in finding the right person to take on the role and claimed that had they not found Rachel in the end, the show may “never” have happened.
He said: “I was having dinner with them in the early part of the casting process. And Amy, she said, ‘Yeah, I can't … I haven't found my lead. And if I don't find her, I'm just gonna not do the show because I need someone great or it's just gonna be a waste of my time. Then we had dinner, I don't know, a month later, three weeks later. And she was like, ‘I found her. We're all good.' So literally, if she hadn't found [Rachel], there may never have been the show.”
