Rachel Brosnahan Was Done Playing Mothers—But Then She Read the Script for ‘I’m Your Woman’


Rachel: I didn’t understand why she was so quiet. And how she could know enough about what her husband was doing and never ask questions. I was immediately drawn into her story, but it was more about not feeling like I knew a way into her story. I generally know when a role is right for me because I have more questions than answers when I finish reading a script.

Julia: I had never had an actress say, “I love this character, but I don’t totally understand her.” I thought that that was so spectacular, because that’s the whole point of playing a character—to learn them, explore them, and then come to understand them. 

Brosnahan with director-writer Julia Hart

Wilson Webb/Amazon Studios

Rachel, knowing you were hesitant to play another mother, it’s so interesting because most of the time you are with this adorable baby in this movie. He’s not hidden. Julia, why was that essential?

Julia: One of the most exciting things about making movies is taking crazy risks, like having a baby as the second lead of the movie, which is an insane thing to do! It could have been a disaster. But it wasn’t. We found the most perfect babies (twins Justin and Jameson Charles), and their amazing mom was on set with us every day. It was really important to me as a mother, because I get so frustrated by the portrayal of babies on film. It’s either a fake baby, who’s obviously a fake baby, or four different babies. 

Babies are people, and I think a lot of our society forgets that. We wanted to make the baby a character that you empathized with and loved and worried about and got to know over the course of the film. We shot the film in order, in part to capture the baby’s growth. It was a crazy thing to do, but it paid off. I’ve never seen that in a movie before. The fact that Rachel has to do all these challenging things in the movie—physically and emotionally—while having a real baby in her arms is a testament to her talent and ability.

We need to also talk about costumes, the hair, the makeup, the whole stylistic tone of the film. I couldn’t take my eyes off Jean’s look.

Julia: Getting to have all these beautiful objects and clothing and hair and makeup definitely was the fun part of the process. But it was important that we didn’t make a movie that screamed ’70s even though it’s set in the ’70s. There are things from different periods all mixed together, just like you would see in any decade you’re in.



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