Judging by Gold Derby’s combined odds, Alex Borstein seems destined to make a triple play this year, thanks to her performance as Susie Myerson, the scathingly uncensored and tomboyish sidekick and manager of Rachel Brosnahan‘s stand-up comic Midge on Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” If the actress — who also has a Emmy for voicing Lois Griffin on the animated series “Family Guy” — goes 3-for-3, she will be the fifth supporting funny lady to do so. The members of this club are sitcom legends Valerie Harper (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show”), Rhea Perlman (“Cheers”), Laurie Metcalf (“Roseanne”) and Doris Roberts (“Everybody Loves Raymond”). Not bad company at all.
Right now, Borstein is way ahead of her closest competition, Annie Murphy of “Schitt’s Creek,” among users of Gold Derby’s prediction site. She boasts 1146 backers and 9/2 odds while Murphy has 423 total votes and 5/1 odds.
On Season 3 of “Mrs. Maisel,” Susie hits the road with Midge as she opens for popular crooner Shy Baldwin (Leroy McClain). The manager picks up a bit of a gambling habit as they land in Las Vegas and ends squandering most of her client’s earnings. But even she would know her chances at winning again is a pretty sure bet. Her submission episode, “Marvelous Radio,” has Susie running around New York City with Midge as the comic does a series of radio voice-over gigs. Matters start to go downhill for Susie as her sports betting habit dangerously escalates and her new client, hick comedian Sophie Lennon (Jane Lynch), trashes her chance to prove she is a serious actress in her Broadway debut in the Strindberg play “Miss Julie” and receives disastrous notices.
Brosnahan, who won an Emmy for the first season of the show followed by two more nominations, recently spoke glowingly to Gold Derby about her buddy Borstein: “Comedy is just in her bones. She can make something that wouldn’t be funny to anyone else on paper so funny that the whole crew is trying to stifle laughter while she’s shooting it. She’s a monstrosity of a talent.”
The two actresses didn’t know each before being cast in the show but soon formed a real-life bond on and off-screen.
“We had a chemistry read early on in the process. I think I already had been cast and Alex and I read once together. We had this immediate and very strange chemistry that I think works so well for Susie and Midge. We are so different but love each other very, very much. I think I have so much respect for Alex as a person, as an actor, as a mother. I am so in awe of how she moves through the world. We just, uh, it absolutely makes no sense but it works completely on and off camera.”
If Borstein somehow fails to collect statuette No. 3, she can be proud to be in the company of Ann B. Davis (“The Bob Cummings Show”) Betty White (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show”), Bebe Neuwirth (“Cheers”), Julie Bowen (“Modern Family”), Kate McKinnon (“Saturday Night Live”), and Allison Janney (“Mom”) as fellow two-fers that missed out on a third win in a row.
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