The American period comedy-drama, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, set in the 1950s, is based on the childhood memories of Amy Sherman-Palladino’s father. He was a stand-up comic in New York City. The series stands as an inspiration to female comics and recently won an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series. Meryl Prendergast who is a second-year student at Northeastern University’s Department of Theatre, explains how being on the sets of the show felt like.
Prendergast was cast as an extra for the show’s second season finale. She says how she saw big-name actors sporting 1950s-style hairdos and clothes and being regular people. In spite of being more keen towards working in the theatres, she wanted to get a taste of what it would feel like working in a film.
It all started when she got a casting call from the Amazon-produced show asking her to be in New York City the very next morning. She got nervous and panicked but made it to NYC from Boston. That shoot took place at night where Prendergast and several other actors had to walk outside the ballroom at a party.
She hesitated to say much about the show since it had not aired then. She was delighted and star-struck to see Rachel Brosnahan (who plays Mirium “Midge” Maisel) and Michael Zegen (who plays Joel Maisel). The shoot continued for the entire night and was wrapped up at 6:30 am the next morning. Even though it was an exhausting experience, it made her consider the idea of being in a film in the future.
Her 20th birthday fell on the night of the Emmy Awards and she invited her friends over to watch it together. It was indeed a night of joy as the show swept up eight awards that night which was a cherryon top for Prendergast. She says, “It was incredible just to know that I had a small part in this amazing show.”
Subarna Basu