Season five of Prime Video’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel delivers on the promise of its characters’ potentials. We always new that Miriam was going to be a huge star, but we just had to see it for ourselves. We should never forget, though, that Susie Myerson demands respect in her own right. What would’ve happened if Miriam drunkenly got on stage at the Gaslight, and Susie wasn’t around? Alex Borstein’s performance over the course of these five seasons is a true comedy tour-de-force.
In the season premiere, Miriam “Midge” Maisel is bedridden from trudging through the snow when she had her career-oriented epiphany. Abe and Rose call Susie to help since she “speaks Miriam’s showbiz language,” but Susie is surprised when Miriam tells her, “I will never stop trusting the most important person in my life. Ever again.” Susie has never had someone’s implicit trust before.
“A lot about the scripts and what was coming was new to me–it really was a surprise,” Borstein says. “Rachel [Brosnahan] had more sit downs with Amy [Sherman-Palladino] and Dan [Palladino] to talk about the trajectory, and they would give her drips and drabs. I never knew anything, but I did know that Susie was in over her head a bit with the mob. Susie isn’t even sure if she can trust herself, and there is a slight bit of terror that Susie is feeling in that moment. She probably hasn’t ever had anyone’s complete trust before, and she doesn’t know if she deserves it. This is the greatest love of Susie’s life, and to have someone say that to you is a big deal. Especially Susie.”
Episode six–titled “Testi-Roastial–is a massive project on its own. Directed by Dan Palladino, we are clued in to Susie’s icon status in the manager world. She is being honored by the men she has encountered in the business, but she remains top dog. These guys swap stories, rumors, and history, but they will never be able to touch what Susie Myerson built. It’s a gift of an episode.
“I was stunned,” Borstein says of reading the script for the first time. “Sometimes we don’t get them until a few hours before the table read, and you have some time to peruse it before diving right in. It was a lot, and it was confusing. I was like, ‘Wait…what? She gets to that level?” It was surprising to me. I knew she would have success as a manager, but I never expected that. I also didn’t know how stylized the episode would look and feel. I am so happy that I didn’t know that throughout the course of the five season, because I think I would’ve messed with it. I’m so glad that I didn’t know. What a leap of faith to write an episode unlike anything we’ve ever done. Having to keep track of where you are emotionally and how you carry yourself if you are walking with different ages. I think with a certain amount of success, Susie can slow down. When she enters the building, she’s on her own town, and she has a slow confidence that’s so different than when she’s running around like a rabbit. Susie really walks and moves out of fear in the earliest episodes. You had to let go, and Dan was directing that one.”
At the end of “Testi-Roastial,” we see one of the series’ most shocking moments. In a flash forward, we see Joel Maisel (Michael Zegen) get arrested and take the fall for Susie’s financial mistakes. In an empty synagogue, they hurl insults at one another in the only way that two people who truly love each other can. We have the capability of hurting the one’s we love the most, because we know what their weaknesses are. Borstein plays the scene like her feet are nailed to the floor as Midge tells her, ‘This is how I am going to remember you, Susie. Small.’
“That was shocking too,” she says, taking a moment. “We shot out of order, so to shoot that and then go back to tone it down and pretend years have passed was difficult. I didn’t know the extent of the damage that I had caused until I read that. Joel is taken away and arrested, and even thought I knew Susie’s business with the mob was going to come to roost, I didn’t expect that. Somebody said that I looked like a cornered rat, and that’s such a great description. Susie was the dog that got into the trash and it’s spilled everywhere. You have two choices: you can either cower and start shaking or you can start barking. Susie does a combination of both. You see her shake and her tail go between her legs, but then she snaps. One of my favorite lines is from the pilot is, ‘I don’t mind being alone. I just don’t want to be insignificant,’ and that’s what Miriam hits her with. She calls her small, and Miriam knows how to hurt her the most.”
When Nina Arianda’s Hedy finally tracks Susie down, they have an awkward conversation on the sidewalk. Hedy is casual, and Susie is a ball of nervous, anxious energy. Hedy is the one person that Susie opened up her truest heart to, but Hedy will probably never understand what she did to Susie. As Susie walks away, she says, ‘You look good as a blonde,’ and Borstein’s voice cracks the tiniest bit.
“If you recall, there is a moment in season four where I turn the corner, and I think I’ve seen her,” Borstein says. “I think my eyes are playing tricks on me. The first time, I am running towards her to know if it’s actually her, but then she running away from Hedy. I think Susie is so scared that she thinks she’s just going to cry, and she doesn’t want Hedy to see her in tears. Hedy really broke her. It’s not fight or flight–it’s flight, flight, flight. We wished we had more, because I adore Nina. I have some behind-the-scenes footage of the two of us having a slow dance on The Gordon Ford Show–I should post that. We would’ve loved to have continued this love-hate. It felt so effortless that Hedy was able to crush Susie so easily. There was almost this male/jock/cool guy attitude to how oblivious she can hurt someone. She doesn’t know the size that she takes up with someone.”
How do you end our journey with this friendship? The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel ends with Midge and Susie, in their older ages, speaking on the phone while they watch a game show together. It’s routine for them, but the chemistry is as sharp as ever. Borstein says that she was originally concerned about them not being in the same room with each other, but Sherman-Palladino’s script was just right.
“That’s actually my real hair–that’s what Maisel did to me,” Borstein says with a hearty chuckle. “I love so many things about how it ended. I love that we are apart, but we are still together. We are all we have, but we are in our separate, palatial spaces. I love that Miriam is in a vest and pants, and Susie is wearing a dress. Granted, it’s a caftan or a muumuu. We have kind of swapped. They are the greatest loves of each other’s lives, and their children are these laughs. That is what they will share and that is what they will leave behind. That laughter is their legacy together. Honestly, when Rachel and I read it, we were concerned. How can Smidge be Smidge without being together? You have to just trust Amy, because this was the absolute, right choice. They are in the beds that they have made for themselves, but those separate beds are together.”
If you are already missing Borstein’s presence, you need to check out her special, Corsets and Clown Suits. Directed by Scott Ellis, Borstein goes into deep detail about her divorce and how people perceive one another. How do we let go of that perception? It’s a freeing and hilarious, musical (!!!) special that defies categorization.
“I always say the show is deeply personal but wildly fictitious,” she says. “There are pieces in there that are one hundred percent but then there are bits that stretch and pull. I love that combination and I love riding that fence. The show is about letting go of how you are perceived, and Corsets did that for me. I was up there, and I didn’t give a shit what anyone thought. Of course, everyone wants to be liked, but this was the story that I wanted to tell and these were the songs that I wanted to sing. I was so lucky that Amazon found that interesting. Is it stand-up? I don’t know. Is it cabaret? I don’t know. We started calling it a one-woman circus, and it’s really unusual. There is nothing typical about it.”
We will never remember Susie Myerson as small. Her life, voice, and presence will always be larger than life.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Corsets and Clown Suits are streaming now on Prime Video.