Marin Hinkle‘s TV career first began in 1995 when she appeared on the NBC soap opera “Another World.” She has done guest spots on everything from “Law & Order” to “Army Wives.” She had recurring roles as Sela Ward‘s free-spirited bookstore owner sister Judy Brooks on “Now and Again” for three seasons and as Jon Cryer‘s spiteful ex-wife Judith Harper-Melnick for 12 seasons on the sitcom “Two and a Half Men.”
But Hinkle hit the streaming jackpot by being cast on the first season of Amazon’s highly binge-able “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” as 50s-era Upper West Side matron Rose Weissman. She is aghast to learn that her only daughter, Miriam aka Midge aka Mrs. Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan), and her husband of four years, Joel (Michael Zegen), have decided to part ways after he takes up with a secretary at work. Soon Midge and her toddler son and infant daughter have moved in with her parents while she secretly moonlights as a raunchy stand-up comic at night.
Meanwhile, Rose was rarely seen outside the confines of her sprawling Manhattan abode. Her house-bound character failed to snag a spot in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series category. Instead, Alex Borstein as Midge’s irascible manager Susie claimed the trophy, one of eight won for the show’s freshman season. At least the actress shared in the show’s Screen Actors Guild win for best ensemble.
But on Season 2 last year, Rose, who is severely undervalued by her family, decided to run away from her domestic routine and enter a world of fabulous hats, exotic food, adorable lapdogs and unfettered romance — namely Paris. It was appalling that her self-absorbed University of Columbia math professor husband Abe (Tony Shalhoub) and Midge barely noticed her absence for what seemed like days. But Hinkle may have benefited even more than Rose from her sudden jaunt to Gay Paree.
She might finally snag her first-ever Emmy nomination now that her character has scored a worthy arc as Rose and Abe recharge their marriage after father and daughter hunt her down in Paris. She also spends several colorful episodes escaping from the Manhattan summertime heat in the Catskills while hoping her daughter meets another suitable match.
It turns out that Hinkle enjoyed her trip to France almost as much as Rose. In our exclusive interview (watch the video above), she says, “I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t been. Those who have, everybody should go back. It truly is one of those extraordinary things where they say it’s the city of love. And you go there and you sort of fall in love with everyone. And, honestly watching Tony Shalhoub sort of parade around the city, it looks like every single older woman, younger woman, maybe older man, younger man — everyone just swooned. I just laughed because he was carrying around a bag of baguettes and had a beret. It was kind of in a sense the epitome of the American in France.”
As for the effect that the city has on Rose, “My character has a kind of rebirth there. … I had been there as an adolescent. I hadn’t been back in over 30 years.” She also had to brush up on her French in a month. “I took a little in high school. I had to pretend that I really knew it all again.”
Hinkle goes on to talk about which episode she might submit for Emmy consideration since Rose’s Parisian holiday has a two-episode arc. Although there is also an episode after she comes home and starts to audit art classes at Columbia that is plenty full of, um, revealing surprises for Rose as she mingles with the younger female students taking the course.
We also discuss how the after-shocks of Midge’s split from her husband rattles Rose and Abe’s status-quo lifestyle and the addition of Sterling K. Brown to the cast for the just-now-filming third season which will find Midge doing her act in Miami Beach as well as a few other slightly spoiler-ish details.
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