As we have seen Marin Hinkle’s Rose Weissman learn more about herself, she defies her own delicacy. There is a part of Rose that will always be aghast at her daughter’s choice of profession, but maybe Midge’s pluck and gumption is subconsciously floating into Rose’s mind–whether Rose likes it or not. As Rose hurtles towards her own business venture, she begins to lean just how capable she truly is, and she follows those instincts to a toughness she doesn’t expect. Marin Hinkle’s performance is another gem, and she is afforded the opportunity to quite literally step into the shoes of her daughter in one of the highlights of season four.
When Susie spends time with Rose while she holds matchmaking meetings, Susie’s grief gives way to some impatience, and Rose firmly tells her, “There is someone for everyone.” While that could be look upon as a mantra for Rose to conduct her venture, it is something Hinkle thinks is vital to Rose’s character.
“There is a contradiction with Rose where you think she’s not a romantic about love. She can seem quite judgmental, but I’ve always thought of her being very innocent. Her belief is childlike. Rose delights and has pride and confidence in this strange expertise. After she got back from Paris, I think Rose has dabbled a bit in terms of what she wants to land on. She has to much pride in that it’s going to well and it’s an expertise that’s working, and I think she thinks Susie is so fascinating. There is something about Susie that she really gets and really merges with. Even though she thinks Susie needs to grow up, there is part of Rose that thinks she could help her.”
There is a mothering aspect that we haven’t quite seen in the dynamic of Rose and Susie. It is brief, but watch the scenes where Alex Borstein’s character is comically lost in how to deal with her emotions. Rose looks at her different like a wayward child, someone she could, perhaps, assist with her motherly intuition.
“I was hoping that would come across. Very quickly, Rose sees that Susie is someone who, she thinks, hasn’t been mothered properly. Rose views Susie a little as an orphan, and she thinks if she had some time with Susie, she could do something for her. We have only shot a few episode of the new season, but I hope that they allow Susie to be with Rose a little more. It could be Rose’s biggest coup if she found someone for Susie.”
Hearing Hinkle speak about her character is a joy. I could hear her light up when she talked about how much she could learn from Rose.
“I could learn so much from her. It’s one of the biggest reasons why it’s going to be so hard to let go of her. Amy and Dan’s writing make me feel way wiser than I really am. With Rose, she is so much stronger than I am. Even though she can fall apart at times, she has the courage to be who she believes who she is. She offers me so much.”
The only time Rose has seen Midge perform is when Rose drank Miami’s supply of sherry. She was too drunk to even remember that her daughter took the stage. When Rose’s business is threatened by her daughter’s nightclub emcee job, Rose sneaks to the Wolford to see what all the fuss is about. Imagine Rose paying the cover at the door and asking the hostess for a seat in the back. She clutches her purse so tightly because she doesn’t trust that it won’t be covered in grime from the table or the booth. Hinkle is comical in how tightly she winds Rose when she’s so clearly uncomfortable.
“The only reason she went was because of the request from Solomon Melamid. There can’t be any flaw or any crack in this plan, and Rose is also curious as to how she can work at this strip club. For Rose’s own work, she needs to get to the bottom of this. It could get in the way of the level of success that Rose sees before her. I do think Rose did find a lot of courage to get into the taxi in the first place–to a part of town where she wouldn’t ever go. It’s funny, because it was on a soundstage. I waited until the day that we shot that scene, and I was blown away by the detail. I had to remind myself that Rose wouldn’t be amazed by the space in that way. Rose’s jaw drops because she has no idea how her daughter ended up in this world. She has a million questions. Rose thinks it’s mind-boggling and horrific and not a place that she ever imagined that her child would be performing. She has been slowly less judgmental in Midge’s choices, but I do think the idea of her daughter mocking the family in such an unrespectable place isn’t right with her.”
The highlight of Hinkle’s performance in season four is when she is put under hypnosis and, word for word, recalls Midge’s set from the Wolford stage. Hinkle was terrified of the challenge, because of all the layers of circumstances required to make that five minutes of performance believable. Think about how difficult it is to portray a person with genius comedic timing. Then throw all of that away and put the layer of proper, sophisticated Rose on top of it. It’s all the most remarkable when you discover that Hinkle didn’t use a video of Rachel Brosnahan performing it to prepare.
“I didn’t watch it for the longest time, because I felt so vulnerable in that moment filming it. I just saw it for the first time the other night around four in the morning. I still couldn’t kind of watch it, because I saw things that I would’ve done differently. It was probably one of the biggest challenges for anything on television. I have done a lot of physical things in theater before, but this had a distance from the character I developed. I didn’t see the edited version of what she did, so I didn’t have that to go off of. ”
An accomplished stage performer, Hinkle informed me how her on-screen daughter was able to calm her down. In a way, Midge became Rose’s motherly figure.
“We shot it at this theater, and I had almost a panic attack of doing the performance in front of people. I love being on stage, but I usually have the fourth wall of the lights to shield me from the audience. When I am aware of people watching me, I freeze up, and I had to look directly out at around 150 people. I had this gorgeous moment with Rachel, because she saw me fear. She sort of held me and gave me some ideas of where Midge breathes and she told me that I had nothing to worry about. Rachel offered me such love, and that generosity allowed me to do the scene. She also said that the audience was there to support me and laugh. That helped propel me to get over Marin being Rose hypnotized to be Rachel as Midge. In my dancer life, I used to love watching people dance and move. It was difficult for me to figure out how to speak like someone. I loved figuring out how Rachel stands and Midge and not hold myself as Marin. I loved the rhythm of finding the power of the words. That gave me so much courage. Rachel has this toughness that goes against her soft, delicate skin and beautiful clothes. She’s got these balls like a truck driver. Rose floats. She could rise up and fly away like a fairy, so I told myself to really ground those feet on the stage. Like I could punch someone.”
When Moishe has his heart attack, it shakes up the comedic core of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. It’s a true test for these characters unlike we have ever seen as they are seriously dealing with a potential loss. Soon after, Abe gives Rose a literal letter of encouragement in the form of stationary that she can use for her matchmaking business. She sends letters to the other matchmakers with a simple phrase: “I will not stop!” The exclamation mark proves the act of defiance, and Rose truly declares herself. That exclamation mark is not a simple declaration–it’s a roar.
“It was heart wrenching to deal Moishe’s heart attack, and it was funny because all texted each other when we read the script. We shot the scene in the hospital, and it felt real. We all felt that support. I found myself weeping a lot. Amy and Dan don’t like to land on sentimentality and have cameras go up to people’s eyes with a single tear. As an actor, I was feeling more vulnerable and emotive than, I think, the script called for. I was so transformed by what was happening with Kevin Pollack’s character. When Rose leaves the room, you can see me putting my hand on Tony [Shalhoub]’s shoulder, and they have that incredible moment. I wanted to almost stay there and hug Tony in that moment.”
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is streaming on Amazon.
