How did ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ say goodbye to Lenny Bruce? – The Hollywood Reporter

Luke Kirby (Lenny Bruce)

Philip Antonolo/Prime Video

[The following story includes major spoilers for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel series finale, “Four Minutes.”]

Lenny Bruce (Luke Kirby) returned to him with passion and sincerity The wonderful Mrs. Maisel In the series finale “Four Minutes”.

The final part of season five opened with Lenny in 2008. In 1965, he performed the final show of his career at Basin Street West in San Francisco, which focused on the legal troubles he had before dancing on stage. The show, which actually took place, marked one of the comedian’s last performances, a year before his death in August 1966 at the age of 40.

“Whenever he was on any stage, these were always Lenny Bruce’s words – every utterance. Wonderful Mrs. Maisel co-showrunner Daniel Palladino says The Hollywood Reporter. “We used to trim a little, but we never increased.”

Near the end of Lenny’s set, the audience sees Susie Myerson (Alex Borstein) in the audience, this time looking at the legendary comic who seems so far away. Backstage, as Lenny waits for the driver, Susie approaches him and offers him a way out. She invites him to take coffee or food with her, so that they can talk to get him back on his feet.

“What I saw tonight is so embarrassing,” Susie tells Lee. “Nobody wants to see you talking about bullshit. They want you to be funny.

She tells him she can book him club dates where he can continue to work as a comedian, and points out that he won’t be able to walk in a club east of the Grand Canyon after legal troubles when he struggles to stand up. He sent him west. When Susie tries to cheer him up by explaining that she has connections and people who owe her favors, he stops her in her tracks.

“You use your favor on me? Why?” He asks her. “Because you’re Lenny Bruce,” she replied, exasperated. “You will only be one. Let’s get him back,” she pleaded. “Keep those favors. “Use them for someone who deserves them,” he tells her.

Kirby says that when Susie approached Lenin he felt that he was too deep, and it didn’t seem real to him at that time in his life.

“There’s something a little gentle about Susie sitting down,” says Kirby. THR “You really can’t go back. I mean, I believe in second chances and all that, but she can’t go back to the level that she’s offering – at least not in terms of reality and his person and where he’s coming from – that idea isn’t real to him.

The Emmy winner explains that as cruel as it sounds to Lenny, it’s at least true that he feels like he’s leading, which is what he’s always been chasing.

When Lenny asks Susie before Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) leaves, she tells him she’s alone – even though she’s not. He shrugs and walks out. Later, Susie meets an emotional Midge and tells her that Lenny didn’t take Susie up on her offer to help him. When Middie is asked if she wants to meet him, she says no, and Susie comforts her by sharing that she’ll try to talk to him again next month when she’s in Los Angeles and that they’re going to get drunk.

Palladino said the reason Middie didn’t want to see her longtime friend — and often her biggest fan — was because it would be too “harmful” for her to see him at that point.

“The real Lenny Bruce has been on this road for a long time,” he explained. “At that time, the historical character was very close to the end and was off the rails for a while. I don’t think you know that Midi hasn’t tried before, and I think at the time, it was really hurtful to see him that way.”

Co-star Amy Sherman-Palladino echoed that sentiment and suggested that another reason Middy offered not to see Lenny that day was that she didn’t want to hurt his pride.

“I think Midi sent Susie — someone who doesn’t feel like it — because I think it’s embarrassing to see her,” she says. THR “I think you don’t need her, it could be all kinds of things for him. All she wanted was for someone to pull it out, and I guess if Susie can’t do it, no one can.

Kirby, on the other hand, feels that it would be in his best interest to see Lenny Mijin that day because he is clearly interested in dating her, but he is not sure how much the actress will change him. Characteristic way.

“I think being in the same room with her always lit up his world a little bit, as it always does on this show,” he explained. “So that’s what I’d like to think was coming from him. I don’t have any idea or fantasy that it would have changed the course of the offense, but certainly, considering everything we’ve done together, I think it’s been a good and fitting end to the night.

Instead of ending the run of Lenny Bruce The wonderful Mrs. Maisel In one of the show’s lowest moments, the Paladins decided to bring him back at the end of the last episode.

After taking the risk and having a four-minute break The Gordon Ford Show, Against the host’s wishes, Gordon welcomes Midge to the couch where all their guests are sitting and kicks her out of the show, so she can do a prank.

In this moment, which launched her career, there is a flashback to Midi and Leni seeing Midi and Leni at a Chinese restaurant in New York City after the two went from friends to lovers in the season four finale. Over salt and pepper shrimp dishes, Lenny is teaching Midge how to be famous, explaining in a personal text that fans shouldn’t be able to read his signature because they feel cheated.

When Midi asks Lennie how he knew she was going to be famous, he does what he always does: he believes in her. He steals her fortune cookie and begins to read what she says is the treasure inside.

“The spotlight is waiting for you center stage, all you have to do is go out and ask,” says Lenny. “Once everyone will know who you are. They will know your wisdom, your intelligence, your smile, your great expressive eyes. They will be helpless before your beauty. They will fall at your feet and worship before your altar and your ceiling.”

Their conversation ends with one more encouragement from Lenny to Midi: “You mark my words. Very soon, in the very near future, you will be paying for Chinese food.

Kirby felt that Lenny and Midi’s conversation that night resonated with her. We are all truly lucky to have moments like this in our lives when someone reflects back the light they see in you. “I think whatever’s going on, in that moment, helps her understand that she has a talent inside her and that it’s her responsibility to decide what comes next.

Although the show’s participants considered showing Lennie’s death in Midge’s life – or even mentioning it – they decided against it because his loss in real life was so tragic that everyone knew it was his direction at the beginning of the show. , so why stress?

“For us, seeing him at his best, seeing the final image of his triumphant night, the night they were together, this time they were not just lovers, but he was still a man.” You will be a big star. You’ll do it.’ That’s what we wanted to leave Lenin with,” says Sherman-Palladino. “We wanted to show him at his best.”