If Amazon Prime has a flagship series, it's got to be The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The hit show is one of the most delightfully unique shows out there, with its period setting, rapid fire patter dialogue, and star-studded cast of talented actors. It's the type of show that would likely not exist without the current climate of streaming networks taking chances with bold creative choices. While ostensibly a show that skews towards older audiences (heaven forbid) with its setting and subject matter, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has accrued an audience that spans across all demographics.
One of the biggest stars on the show, Tony Shalhoub, sat down with Screen Rant to discuss the series, which gives traditionally comedic actors the opportunity to exhibit their dramatic skills as fully realized three-dimensional characters... While still, of course, delivering hilarious one-liners at nearly every turn. He discusses his character, Abe, and how he drew on real-life sources from his youth to depict the character's mid-life crisis, as well as relishing the chance to share a scene with Luke Kirby, who plays the legendary real-life comedian, Lenny Bruce, on the show.
The new season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is currently streaming on Amazon Prime, along with the rest of the series.
I want to go back in time to 1959, 1960. There's six-year-old Tony, playing around. Is there anything from those days, from the adults who were in your life back then, that influences your role on the show?
Oh, absolutely. I have vivid memories of my dad, and all those guys. My father's friends and my friends' parents, my uncles, and so forth. Yeah, there's a real... I carry that into this work. And it's interesting, too, because my character, Abe, is going through such a midlife crisis. And that was a real period, when I was young, of watching some of these men struggling with coming to a certain crossroads in their lives, and they were just kind of lost. Sometimes momentarily, but sometimes for a lot longer. It's interesting, because that's kind of where we find Abe in season 3.
And he's lost because his daughter is doing things he never imagined for her?
Right. As we see at the end of season 2, he's left his job at Columbia, he's become disenchanted with his job at Bell Labs, he wants to rediscover what his center used to be. He feels like he's kind of lost his way. And his daughter isn't who he thought she was, and his so isn't who he thought he was. A lot of things are in flux for him, and he doesn't really know how it's going to end up. He doesn't really have a plan, but he knows he's got to make a change.
I feel like, regardless of their generation, everyone has a plan for how they want their lives to turn out, but there's no plan for what happens after that. Abe is successful, but he's at the end of the road he laid out for himself, but he's still got half of his life ahead of him!
That's right.
So much of last season was at the resort in the Catskills, and that setting was so great. The leisure sportswear clothing, the whole rec room decor, it's so jolly. I know it's all a set with cameras and lights and everything, but do you feel like you get transported to another time?
I do. I think we all do. The set designs are so beautiful. The costumes, on every level, are so brilliant. It doesn't take much to put you in this other world. It makes our job a lot easier. We're just, we feel like we're in the skin of these characters. The attention to detail, with the background people, for example, we're just always amazed. I'll pick up something from the table, like a coaster or a matchbook, anything, and it will be exactly... Things the audience, the viewing public will never be able to see! The inside of a matchbook cover is printed with a period advertisement. It's really for us. It's to keep us in that zone. It's like they just can't do enough to make it feel authentic.
It feels so cinematic. I, personally, will die before I watch a TV show or a movie on my cell phone, but I feel like so many people in my peer group, age-wise, would disagree. But I feel, this show, even though it's not full of explosions or shootouts or whatever, I feel compelled to watch it on the biggest screen I can.
That's what's interesting about it, we have these screeners, like tomorrow's premiere is going to be on a movie screen, and seeing it on a massive scale like that, it's just how it really wants to be seen. I know it's a streaming show that people watch in their living room, but when you see it on the big screen... But all the lines are blurred now, anyway. I just saw The Irishman. We tried to see it in the theater, but it was sold out. Then, two weeks later, it's in our living room! It's like they're going back and forth. Why can't we see every episode of Maisel on a big screen? I think you could fill the theater ten times over! I think people want to see it because of the scale of it. And every season gets bigger and more astounding, I think! It gets massive, and without losing all of the beautiful intimacy and connections and all these relationships.
And there's so much depth to the frame. I mean, again, thinking back to everything in the Catskills, there's so much background action, and at the bars, there's so much smoke wafting around in the air, it's really majestic. Is that a fog machine? I imagine there's rules these days against having thirty actors in a room smoking together.
People are smoking on camera when they have to, but yeah, they have smoke machines, then that smoke dissipates so they turn that on between takes, and then they have a person who comes through and fans it around, to spread it around, or disperse it wen it's too light.
Oh, I've seen that, that person who has the big cardboard sheet, yeah.
Yeah! At least I don't actually have to smoke cigarettes, which I always find challenging.
You've got this insane ensemble cast. Like, everybody gets a Golden Globe! There aren't enough Golden Globes for this cast.
I'm telling you, it is a rare... It makes it really fun to go to work every day. It's joyous, and it's warm. Everyone appreciates everybody's work. We crack each other up. It's really productive. And we rely heavily on each other, too. Because the dialogue is so fast, and we do these large pieces where there's one take, and it goes on for three or four minutes, and you really want to have that level of trust in your fellow performers, that they're not just out for themselves, but that we all have each other's backs.
It kind of reminds me of my favorite sitcom, All in the Family, where there's no line, really, between the comedy and the drama. They're both coming at you, full force, all the time.
I love that.
And there's no line on Maisel between "dramatic actor" or "comic actor." I mean, you've been both over your career. I imagine there's a gratefulness on set, of getting to play a three-dimensional character, and not a joke machine, but also, you get to be that, too!
Yes, exactly. Yeah, we do! We get great lines, but it's not just for the comedy. We're not just a mouthpiece. And we all get to play the dramatic stuff and the comedic stuff. There's not one character who doesn't get to be drilled down and reveal their vulnerabilities or their idiosyncrasies. And yet, we all get super great jokes!
I know you can't tell me too much about season 3. But so much of the comedy and drama on the show comes from just putting any pair of characters together and seeing what happens. Is there are a particular dynamic that we haven't seen before that you can tease for season 3?
I can't say much about that, but in the first episode, I can say, I get to cross paths with Luke Kirby, who plays Lenny Bruce. It seems like an unlikely pairing, and I was wondering, in the first two seasons, how they were ever going to... Would it be possible for them to fudge something so these two storylines could intersect? And sure enough, in episode 1 of season 3, they do. It was really satisfying.
Since I've got some time left, I would love to ask you about Galaxy Quest. I just interviewed Rainn Wilson for the 20th anniversary, and that was a big blowout. You're in the movie, and you play super stoned. Except it's rated PG so they couldn't say that, or at least that's the impression I got from Rainn.
I think Sam Rockwell actually slipped an ad-lib in there, at one point, he says, "Are you high?" It's kind of under his breath, but if you listen, you can hear it.
The legend goes that it was supposed to be rated R.
Really?
There's a bit where Sigourney Weaver's mouth clearly says, "Oh, f*** that!" but she's dubbed in saying "screw that."
I don't know that story! But I guess.
Interesting. Is there anything from the set of that movie that you carry with you today, in, like, the scrapbook of your life?
That whole shoot was some of the most fun I've ever had on a movie. Just a great group of people. Alan Rickman, genius, someone I looked up to for years. And Sigourney, of course. And Enrico Colantoni, who played the head of the Thermians, and Tim, of course... And Sam Rockwell. I just knew, working on that, that this guy was gonna blow up. I told him, I said, "You're gonna blow up!" And of course, he did. I was right. (Laughs) But we just had a terrific time. We had a great director, Dean Parisot. We were just all... That whole thing was thrilling.
I had to kick myself. It took me so long to watch that movie, because I was such a huge Star Trek kid that I thought it was going to be a mean-spirited parody!
It's really an homage.
I know, now!
I heard from someone, who is also a Trekkie, that it was rated as, like, the 7th best Star Trek movie. That's nuts. I just love that.