Honesty hour! Rachel Brosnahan and Michael Zegen’s Marvelous Mrs. Maisel characters, Midge and Joel Maisel, respectively, have been criticized for their parenting skills.
The Emmy winner, 29, opened up about the “shocking level of fictional mom shame” she’s seen, telling Us Weekly exclusively on Monday, December 2: “Listen, they have children who have two parents who are involved in their lives, particularly in this season. Joel has agreed to take on more of the at-home parenting. They have four grandparents who love them very much. They have neighbors and … they are taken care of, they are certainly loved. That doesn’t mean anyone who parents them is perfect.”
Her onscreen husband, 40, added, “They’re not the best parents, and it’s only because I don’t think they were ever really ready to have kids. I think it’s just what people did at the time, and now they’re paying the price for it a little bit. They’re both kind of on their own path to find what makes them happy, and unfortunately, they have these kids who are … not the main focal point.”
As for Jane Lynch, who plays Sophie Lennon on the Amazon Prime show, she straight up thinks that both parents are “bad” at bringing up their children. “Their grandparents are raising them,” she explained to Us.
Brosnahan’s character was also recently criticized for her beauty routine, which involves waking up before her husband to apply a full face of makeup and sneak back into bed.
“She does it because it makes her feel good and it makes her feel powerful,” the actress said in defense. “There’s a brief moment in the pilot where Midge does the whole beauty routine and sort of lies down in bed and sneaks a peek at Joel and is very self-satisfied. I think there’s an important lesson in there somewhere that everybody’s routine, whatever it is, is their own. Whatever makes you feel good is what you should be doing.”
Season 3 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel airs on Amazon Prime Friday, December 6.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
