Alex Borstein

Dimitri: Congratulations on the show. I had pleasure to interview Rachel for Season 4 and you for the final Season 5. We’re all going to dearly miss Susie and everyone on Mrs. Maisel. Are you ever going to be able to depart from Susie as your favorite character?

Alex: It’s very hard. You become intertwined with the character and she’s been so much fun to play. Also stressful and difficult, but I will miss her. It’s like you have to grieve a death of someone, really. It’s saying goodbye to a person and it’s hard.

Dimitri: Did you think that Amy would run the show for another season?

Alex: Amy’s brain it’s an endless vortex of story and character development. I think she could have gone on for years, really. Her worlds expand, it’s like our actual universe. It’s constantly expanding and there’s always a new corner to explore.

Dimitri: Do you think Susie from Season 1 at the Gaslight would ever thought about whom she would become in Season 5, a powerhouse that she is, a deal maker and representative to the biggest names in Hollywood? Do you ever think that Susie would ever dream about that or she knew it from the beginning?

Alex: I think one of the similarities between Midge and Susie, is that they dreamt big, they were huge dreamers and had to be narcissistic and cocky enough to push and to go for this, especially in that time when there were not a lot of other women that had picked the road yet. In some ways, yes, I think Susie did see this. She felt, “Go big or go home. Do it huge, or don’t do it at all.” Did she imagine the rest of the world was going to accept her? Did she imagine that it was going to become her business, that she was going to be a mainstay and set standards for years to come? I don’t know about that, but I think she did have a vision of this in some way.

Dimitri: I absolutely love the episode in Season 5, that completely dedicated to your character and how Susie became the powerhouse she is in the ’80s. Do you like the idea, that jumping between the decades and showing the future?

Alex: It was very hard for me to accept. It was very hard to know Amy’s vision of what will be to have it handed to you and not really let it unravel. A life unwinds and unravels before you slowly in increments and it’s very hard to digest in some ways that, “Oh, God, this is what happened. This future implies what happened between points A and B.”

It was dizzying at times. It was hard to keep track of in some ways, and trying to imagine what Susie’s personality would be like in that. What does this jump entail? How different would she be? Just even in how she walks or how she speaks. With this much success, comes comfort, and with that comfort she’s not struggling, and striving, and reaching. How does that change her and how would she hold herself differently?

It was really challenging, really interesting. I think it’s magical in some ways. Don’t we all wish we had a crystal ball and the ability to know how it’s going to turn out? Boy, I sure do. I would love to know what will my kids be like. Will I have succeeded? How will I have failed them? There’s so many things I wish I could have Amy write for me and just tell me the answers.

It’s a really interesting episode. I haven’t seen it yet. I haven’t seen anything from the season, just bits and pieces if we had to do any dialogue or sound fixes, but I’m very eager to see how that is. It was really fun to shoot because it was very different, totally different animal. Dan Palladino directed that episode and you just have to really throw all of your trust.

It’s really like taking a stage dive backwards into Amy and Dan’s hands with these things and trust that they know what this is going to look like and how it’s going to be weaved together. Much of what we shoot on the show normally feels very theatrical and very linear, and this was a departure from that. It was scary, but it was also fun. I like scary. Being right on the edge of terror is, I think a good place for me as a performer to always be.

Dimitri: Your character in this season steals the show. Susie’s progression shows and thrives into the next levels in the final season.

Alex: You’re very sweet.

What’s interesting about doing the show is, this was a span of six years that you’re shooting it. Just like in real life, I look back on a photograph of myself six years ago and I go, “God, that was different, and this is different, and look how I’ve changed this.” It’s so small and the changes that Amy lays in and layers, they’re so small and incremental, it’s really just like life. A lot of the times you don’t even realize it’s happening. You’re on the set, you’re doing what she has written, bringing to that whatever you want to be as honest as you can in the moment.

It’s not until you look back and see, “Wow, look at that progression.” It’s like looking at a kid’s growth chart on the wall. You keep making a hash mark every six months and day to day you don’t see the growth. When you look back at the show, Susie has really changed so much and she didn’t grow upwards. I think she opened, she blossomed. Layers were peeled away and you get closer and closer to the center of her.

Dimitri: I just love the interaction that you guys have between the characters, there’s a lot of moving parts in the show, which usually, it takes a big show to tell the story and give equal amount of story time to different characters. Doesn’t matter at what moment, you can just walk in into the house of Maisel’s House, for example, and your interactions right away with Abe and with Rose and everyone. It’s just so instant and then you don’t see any interactions for number of episodes, in the first episode of Season 5, and you still had a key from the apartment. You just walked in and Abe or Tony, he went absolutely crazy because he’s like, “Why do you still have a key [laughs] for the apartment?” The report that you guys have in the show, it’s just amazing. Tell us about working with your castmates, please.

Alex: What you mentioned was always a joy because I didn’t have that much time with Tony or with Mar, and so when I did, we always like relished it because we didn’t have so many scenes together in other episodes. Our worlds and our characters were kept apart. It was wonderful to fall back into that. I love showing up in that house and having that key and feeling my welcome is overstayed by Abe and yet I think he’s fascinated by this weird creature that has warmed her way into his daughter’s life.

I think he, ultimately, has respect for Susie, that character in particular. That’s why it works. Bottom line between the two of them. Same with Rose, but everyone on the show. I know you hear this, you probably interview a lot of people and you probably hear the same thing over and over again. I don’t know how to let you know that this is really true and not just by bullshit, but this cast is phenomenal.

Everyone is a seasoned pro and so good at what they do, and when I step onto that set, the Weismann’s– It’s like watching a play. Like watching an old 1940s play that’s already set into motion and they have their own rhythms and they have their own back and forth and their banter and it’s still amazing. Getting to just watch them work is really a pleasure and everyone on the show, everyone’s prepared, everyone knows their lines backward and forwards.

Everyone cares deeply about their performance. There’s not one person that shows up and ever has phoned in a performance in our show. I haven’t experienced that before and it was unique and just a pleasure. Sometimes you forget your line because you’re lost watching other people’s performances.

Dimitri: The report between the characters on the show, it’s so solid. You, actually, do want to see every single story when in some shows, you focus on, let’s say, the main characters. In Mrs. Maisel, every story is fun, if you miss some bickering between Rose and Abe, you might miss part of the plot later.

Alex: Amy expands. She expands her universe. It’s constantly growing and expanding. It’s like you discover a new planet and then within that planet, you’re going to discover that it has 42 moons. You’re going to learn about each of those moons and then you’re going to discover another planet, and then another set of moons and outlying stars. It really is phenomenal and I don’t know how she keeps track of it all frankly, but I think there’s something to be said for every single character that she brings onto the screen. It’s for a purpose and always entertaining at the same time.

Dimitri: Can you tell us more how you see Susie’s world?

Alex: She likes to have that world. In my own head, what would it be like, what kind of a woman would you have to be to survive in this business in those years? How big would your balls have to be to imagine you could even get into that side of the business? It turns out very large balls. I just went with what felt right. There was no question either. I got the script and when I went to the audition, it was just like this is Susie. I didn’t try several things or think very long about how I would do anything. It just felt like there’s only one way to do this and here it is.

Dimitri: I love the progression that you had from the earlier seasons into Season 5 when you were making such a big deal when you had your first phone line installed and you typed and got your first business cards to pretty much making up the show on the spot at the golf club and on the golf course, and pretty much selling the show to the studio executives right away. Just making up the show and bringing the characters, bringing the talents without even being attached to the show and then selling to the characters. It’s such a interesting way to see that progression.

Alex: Interestingly enough, it’s really not. All that’s changed is that the stakes are higher, but she’s the same creature. She’s still making it up as she goes along. She’s still completely full of shit until someone says, yes. That’s what I like. It stays true to that same personality. She’s still like a duck on a pond that looks like they’re gliding along and floating without any effort and underneath their feet, their web feet are paddling like crazy, and that’s Susie. I think she just got better and better at looking like a smooth gliding duck on top, but she’s still paddling and full of shit really. Fake it till you make it and she’s still pushing and pushing.

Dimitri: When they were roasting Susie, she, definitely, looked like, “Well, I made it, and you guys.” [laughs] You just have to sit here and wait that I’m half an hour late, showing up completely stoned, out of my mind. [laughs] I think that was absolutely brilliant.

Alex: Yes. Exactly. She got better and better about looking the part of a calm in control force to be reckoned with.

Dimitri: It’s so true. When are you going to watch the show yourself? You said that you haven’t had a chance to sit down and watch this Season. Are you guys having a screening?

Alex: Here’s what I’ll tell you and you’re not going to believe me, but I don’t care if you do, it’s the truth. I have not seen the series. [chuckles]

Dimitri: No way! [laughs]

Alex: I saw the first two episodes of the first season because when we were in Berlin for our international premiere. We were in the room and they wouldn’t let us out, but other than that, I have not watched the series yet. I do that because I don’t want it to change– Anything observed is changed, so I didn’t want to screw with what I was doing and get caught up in what the physical looks like. I haven’t seen it and my plan is, after five premieres and is almost on the last episode or maybe during five, I’m going to start watching it with my daughter. She hasn’t seen it yet either and she’s 10, and I think maybe  she’d start to like it now too. That’s my plan to start watching the season, the series and then catch up with the last season and then, literally my to say goodbye.

I’m kind eager to have fresh eyes and when I no longer have any skin in the game, I don’t have anything at stake, I’ll just be able to watch it as a viewer.

Dimitri: I think it would be, actually, easier this way to say goodbye to the show as well and then you can just complete detach yourself and sit down and just watch it from the beginning. That will be so much fun. To be honest, I didn’t, actually, watch the show like from week to week, but it’s a pretty bingeable show in my opinion. You can, definitely, do 2, 3, 4 episodes at once.

Alex: Oh my God, if you have that time, holy crap.

Dimitri: Well, that’s the only time that I can do anyways. If I have to start watching out, I’ll just watch it until– I’ll start it super late and I’ll watch it and I realize it’s like, “Oh, shit. It’s 5:00 AM…

Alex: Good Lord.

Dimitri: [laughs]

Alex: You need sleep. You need to get better sleep. What are you doing?

Dimitri: I have a terrible sleep. I wake up at lunch and I work like from lunchtime until five, six o’clock in the morning.

Alex: You’re like a rockstar. You’re like a 1970s rockstar.

Dimitri: That’s pretty much what it is. I have no choice, I could be going to the Gaslight and performing and stuff because I’ve got nothing else to do in the middle of the night. I deal so much with the US and time difference is massive.

Alex: Honestly, I am a night owl and if I didn’t have children, I would still be a night owl. What you should print is, use a condom unless you are okay with waking up at 7:00 AM for the rest of your life.

Dimitri: On this note, I, absolutely, love the Corsets & Clown Suits on Amazon Prime. You are so funny. I knew you were funny from the show, but-

Alex: Oh, thanks.

Dimitri: -that standup is brilliant and I love how it has the settings of the Wilford Theater. What made you to write this standup? Also meeting those guys in Spain, that was brilliant to bring those ukulele guys. [laughs] Congratulations.

Alex: It’s so funny when I hear you say standup, I’m always like, “Well, it’s not traditional standup.” I like to say it’s like a filthy TED Talk.

It’s a lesson. It’s a cautionary tale. It’s storytelling, and it happens to be really funny and filthy. I think writing a show like that or a play or a book, it’s almost like the story is just asking to be told and you’ve got to write it. It’s just going to come through you. I started working with those guys in Barcelona and I started monologuing and telling stories, and then we got a song and then I do another story.

Then it started taking shape and we toured with it and then COVID happened and we had to shut down. Before the shutdown, Amazon saw it and agreed that they wanted to buy it and put it on the air. We reshaped it and gave it more of focus and focal point, and beginning, middle end, and now what you see is, of course, it’s in concert.

Dimitri: It’s amazing. I love that you brought your parents. Oh my God. I bet your parents not always saw eye-to-eye about your career being a comedian. We all have parents and when it comes to our career choices, it’s never the easiest. It was great to see your parents being at the show and how difficult is it to say all that jokes in front of your parents?

Alex: [laughs]

Dimitri: I would be mortified, to be honest, to say that stuff in front of my mum, it would be, absolutely, mortifying.

Alex: Keep in mind that they’ve had 40 years of it. I’ve been performing in some capacity and I’ve had a big mouth for quite some time. It’s interesting, they’re split down the middle. They were very supportive, but they also insisted I go to college and I have a “real career” to fall back on. That was my goal. First I thought I was going to be a lawyer and then I was working in advertising and that’s what I thought I was going to do, be an advertising writer.

The fact that I was able to make money doing this was a gift, but they came to– My first time ever doing standup, I was 16-years-old and they came to that because they had to. It was in a bar and they wouldn’t let me in if I was underage. They got used to seeing this character, this person on stage that was, in some ways me, but in some ways not. I come from a very long line of very strong, solid women who speak their mind.

My father’s mother ran that household. She’s an orthodox Jewish woman in the south in Atlanta, Georgia. She ran that household. My mother’s mother’s a Holocaust survivor and because of her, we are here. She spoke her mind. She stuck out of line. It’s really not a huge surprise that I’m this chaotic creature that I am, but they got a big kick out of it. Mostly they were just so excited to see me get to be there on the stage. They’re living in a building now that’s like a senior building and they, definitely, are afraid for people to see it. They’re like, “Maybe we’ll have a screening here,” and then they’ve thought about it, “Maybe not.” They’re still proud, even though it’s a filthy TED Talk. They’re proud.

Dimitri: I didn’t know that you could sing so well. That I was quite a surprise.

Alex: Thanks. I didn’t either.

[laughter]

Alex: I’ve done it my whole life and loved it. Until I started really doing this show with these guys, did I really start to feel like, “You know what? This is, actually, something I think I can do.” Thank you.

Dimitri: It’s, definitely, a fun way to wrap up the Mrs. Maisel with the Corsets & Clown Suits. It’s in my opinion, brilliant way to say goodbye to the Maisel and open the door to the new chapter. Do you have anything planned?

Alex: It’s interesting when you said that, I just had a realization. The title of the show, of course, it’s in clown suits, it’s telling about the relationship on Maisel too. It’s Midge’s life as well as me talking about struggling with it, that she, literally, was in a corset every day on that set and yet the show was about getting laughs and being seen. It’s interesting that it follows that theme in some way. As for the future, I am, number one, spending a lot of time with my kids because Maisel was a massive undertaking and I really wanted to be able to have  tons of time at home, and school, and packing lunches, and all of that. I’m also working on a book and the book will also have a live show component that ties into it. I’ve written an animated show and we’re trying to get off the air. I really love having been able to work with one Family Guy for so long. I love that world. I love getting to play anyone because you’re animated. I have a feature that I’ve written, so we’re trying to get the feature off the ground and get that made.

Dimitri: Oh, wow. Fantastic. Do you care to elaborate on the feature? What genre at least that you planning…

Alex: Oh, what genre? Boy, I would say the grand scheme of things. I think it would be considered a smaller film. There’s no Marvel heroes in it like John Wick.

Dimitri: Oh, please, we have enough Marvel heroes. Don’t need that. Please, give us a good Indie. Give us something meaningful and thoughtful.

Alex: Yes. It’s about a woman whose world falls apart and her trying to put it back together. I can say that. It’s funny, but it’s also kind of got some, I think good bittersweet moments, which is really, does lead me back to Susie in a way. It’s the character I love playing the most. A slightly broken person who’s incredibly vulnerable learning to be able to open that up a tiny bit without getting hurt again. Yes, that’s, in a nutshell, what it’s about.

Dimitri: We are all going to miss one thing. Since Mrs. Meisel is completely wrapped up. The last time when you say, “Tits up”.

Alex: I’ll tell you that was one of the hardest things to get through and one of the last things we’re shooting and saying that to Rachel, I kept crying. I kept tearing up in real life because I knew looking at that beautiful face and looking into those eyes, that was going to be the last time I was going to say, “Tits up,” and God, it was really heartbreaking.

Dimitri: You had five years, that’s a pretty, whew, that’s a long time. In a grander scheme for the show to be so successful. I think going out with such a big bang. Of course, we haven’t seen the finale and it’s going to be quite an emotional goodbye for the season, but you’re going to have a whole bunch of the award show to attend. I guarantee you, you guys going to swoop so many nominations. I know.

Alex: We’ll see. Knock on wood, you never know.

It’s, actually, funny the way that we see the award shows, what we hope, why we want nominations is we know it’ll be another opportunity for all of us to be together. It comes down to we know we’re going to have a cast dinner. Everyone’s going to be in one city. We’re going to all hangout and go out and catch up. That’s really the reason why we all would like their nominations so that we can have a family reunion.

Dimitri: Absolutely. It’s a great way to get everyone back together. It’s not a final goodbye because you’re going to have a whole bunch of award shows, you have my vote.

Alex: From your mouth to God’s ears.

Dimitri: I will do my best.

Alex: Okay. Make it happen.

Dimitri: I’ll make it happen. I’ll do it for Susie. [laughs] Yes, it’s been so much fun talking to you. I just have to ask you one more question, if you could give you younger self an advice, what advice would you give, like in your teen years or at any point of your life, what advice would you give yourself with all the knowledge that you have now?

Alex: I’d say don’t age, don’t get old. How’s that? Is that possible?

Dimitri: Yes. Apparently soon.

Alex: Just don’t do it bitch. Stay young forever. I think my advice would be invest in Apple by Apple stock. That would be one. I think it would be trust yourself. Maybe trust yourself. Your gut is like this strange. We talk about the universe taking us places, the universe guiding us, or the universe creating an opportunity. I think it’s really in your gut. You’ve got this like homing beacon. There’s a device in there, and maybe trust yourself. Go with it a little bit more.

Dimitri: That’s amazing.

Alex: Always eat dessert first.

Dimitri: Really?

Alex: Yes.

Dimitri: Dessert first.

Alex: Dessert first.

Dimitri: Then dinner.

Alex: You never know. Dessert first. Yes. Don’t run out of room. Eat dessert first, and then you can pick at some protein and vegetables.

Dimitri: That is very interesting advice. [laughs] I love it. Alex, thank you so much for all these memorable years watching you on a screen as Susie.