Rachel Brosnahan reveals quality she's learned from her 'Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' character
Rachel Brosnahan has learned a lot from the characters that she's played over the years.
As the Emmy-winning actress gears up for the premiere of the second season of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" on December 5, she's beginning to reflect on what the career-boosting role of Midge has meant to her.
"I talk a little faster having played Midge, honestly," she said with a laugh while hosting the American Express Cash Magnet dinner in New York City. "I [also] hope I’ve picked up a little bit of her innate sense of self-empowerment. She approaches the world with a sense of curiosity and a sense of joy, and that’s something that I find inspiring and would like to take with me."
Before she became a household name through her time on the hit Amazon series, Brosnahan impressed critics and viewers alike with her turn as Rachel Posner on Netflix's "House of Cards." During her three-season stint on the show, the actress says she learned to be more "grounded" as a person and in her work going forward.
"The nice thing about working in television and also playing characters that are actually so far who I am -- in order to find them and find where they live -- I have picked up a few things along the way. When I first started on 'House of Cards,' I was fresh out of college and playing a lot of uncertain characters, a lot of young ingénues (which made sense at the time) who had not yet come into their own, and playing that role for three years grounded me. To be able to play her, I was forced to find a more grounded part of myself, and that is something that I’ve held with me."
In addition to gaining important life skills and qualities from the characters that she has brought to life on screen, Brosnahan has also been given physical things inspired by the women that she's played. At the seated American Express dinner that celebrated holiday hosting made simple, the actress revealed that her parents once gave her a not-so-subtle present inspired by her time on "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel."
"In the hopes of encouraging me to holiday host a little more like Midge, my parents tracked down and sent me an exact replica of Midge’s pink Pyrex from the pilot," she told AOL with a laugh. "When it arrived in the mail, I was like, 'Does this mean I’m a terrible cook?' I did actually use it -- I hosted my family for the first time on Thanksgiving in New York [this year]."
Though the gift gave her pause and made her question her cooking ability, the star did admit that she could "probably stand to pick up a few more tips from Midge."
"I feel like she’d throw a great party," she mused. "Midge doesn’t know how to do anything less than 150 percent and that’s something we have in common. Maybe we’d do different things with our 150 percent, but when I set out to do things, I do it all the way."
