From umber waves and vintage gems in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel to auburn locks and high jewelry on the red carpet promoting The Amateur (in theaters April 11) and Superman (on screens July 11), natural blonde Rachel Brosnahan displays a kaleidoscope of human emotions playing any role. 

Only Natural Diamonds: You have two very different movies, The Amateur and Superman, coming out in quick succession. How are you feeling?

Rachel Brosnahan: I’m excited for the world to get to share in the experience we had making them. It’s not always that you have such an incredible team on a project, and I had a blast shooting these two very, very different films. Because of the strikes and the process of making a superhero movie, both are coming out later than originally anticipated, so we are excited to finally be able to share them.

OND: And two such different, very strong, cool women. In The Amateur, I don’t want to give anything away, but you’re always present and not present at the same time.

Brosnahan: It’s a different take on a familiar genre.  

OND: What was your process like creating the character of Sarah, who is the inspiration for someone else’s transformation?

Brosnahan: Rami and I did it together. There is some source material for the story, which is based on a book by Robert Littell. We spent a lot of time chatting about what their relationship and marriage were like and why the loss of Sarah made such a huge impact that it brought out a side of him he never thought possible or saw coming. And she is so interesting. She’s a climate scientist- brilliant, thoughtful, and smart. They are opposites in so many ways, but they complete each other. And then she brings out a different side of him.

James Hawes, the wonderful director, gave us the space to experiment. The script is beautiful, but we had the space to play, so many things were discovered together [while shooting].

OND: Switching gears to Lois Lane and Superman – an iconic character! How did you prepare to put your stamp on her?

Brosnahan: I read a lot of comic books! Lois is such an interesting character because she has transformed the most over time. She retains that core of being hungry, ambitious, determined, strong-willed, and relentless in her pursuit of the truth. But how she looks has changed so much, as well as how she interacts with Clark and Superman. Even though it’s always a love story at the center, this has evolved so much over time.

I was talking a lot with the director, James Gunn, about who this version of Lois was, how to pay homage to the ones that came before, and what might be different about her in this world. We talked a lot about the current state of journalism and what it means to be somebody in the world today who is a print journalist, who is fighting for the integrity of print journalism, who believes inherently in its value, and what that might look like.

OND: For example, fact-checking?

Brosnahan: Yes, exactly. What does it mean to be in pursuit of the truth, and what might be in your way today? There are some unique obstacles in Metropolis that we don’t experience in the real world.

OND: Not yet.

Brosnahan: James talked a lot about valuing Lois as a journalist and wanting to honor that part of her origin story in a way that I appreciated – wanting her to be somebody that young women can look up to. Journalism is perhaps now more important than ever; the free and fair press are potentially more important than they have ever been in our country’s history.  It’s powerful to see somebody like Lois, and like Clark, in pursuit of the truth, and using their platform and their power and their privilege to relentlessly pursue it.

I spoke with a handful of journalists of different backgrounds to understand what it might look like to walk in their shoes. There was so much I didn’t understand about what their day looks like and what kinds of people grow up to become journalists.

One woman shared with me that what made her want to become a journalist was that she was bored of being a child and felt like there must be something bigger out there. That felt very true for Lois to me, and I borrowed that from her.

Another was a print journalist who worked for many years in a newsroom. I picked her brain a lot about what the day looked like. What was the relationship like between different journalists who were covering the same beat, and what dynamics were at play?  Lois and Clark are so competitive with each other. I made sure to ask what their biggest pet peeves are about the way that people have portrayed journalists in the past.

OND: What did they say?

Brosnahan: They spoke about this idea that people get into journalism because they want to make an impact, either in their community or the world at large. It’s also, for many people, equal parts searing ambition and hunger for something that fuels your adrenaline. It’s not a purely altruistic endeavor, and you would never be able to make it through as an investigative journalist if that was the only thing you held onto because so often you would be disappointed that your story doesn’t have the kind of impact or in the way you expect. 

OND: On the subject of altruism, I was wondering what giving back means for you.

Brosnahan: It feels like a vitally important part of being a human. I’m incredibly privileged to have a platform where I can not only do something to give back but also help spread information about how other people can do the same and hopefully make it less intimidating. I fundamentally believe that everybody is trying to figure out how they can put good into the world, but there are so many challenges that we’re facing.  It can be intimidating to figure out how to do anything that moves the needle.   

OND: I know you’re very active with Covenant House. How did you get involved?

Brosnahan: Talk about doing the work on the ground 24/7, 365 days a year. About 10 years ago, I had just graduated from college, and I was making my Broadway debut in The Big Knife when the show’s publicist mentioned that several Broadway community members were organizing what’s called a “sleep out” for Covenant House. Covenant House is on 41st and 10^th Avenue in New York, so the residents of Covenant House are our neighbors on Broadway. We, as a community, could organize to raise vital funds and awareness to support them.

I joined this sleep out, and it was a night that profoundly changed my life. I was 22 or 23 and sitting across the table from a young man who was the same age, and I was just really struck by how, with a few small shifts in circumstance, we could be sitting on opposite sides of the table. The next morning, then-President Kevin Ryan looked at us all and just said, “Look around and make a commitment to come back.” And we did. I’ve been coming back for 10-plus years, and now I sit on the board.

Covenant House is an incredible organization that serves young people who are overcoming homelessness in 35 cities across the U.S., Canada, and Latin America. They do so much more than just provide housing for emergency services. They also have transitional housing programs, GED programs, job training, legal services, substance use services, and so much more – all provided with absolute respect and unconditional love to break the cycle of homelessness before it becomes adult homelessness. 

I’m also an ambassador for an amazing organization called Global Citizen, which aims to end extreme global poverty by 2030. They work very closely with the U.N. and several partner organizations, working on the ground in many different areas that must be tackled to reach that goal.

I have been working with one of their partner organizations, Education Cannot Wait, which is specifically focused on ensuring that kids have education in areas of conflict and crisis. I had the privilege to go with them to Peru during the height of the Venezuelan migrant crisis and to see the work they were doing firsthand.

It’s equal parts awareness-raising and humanizing these issues that we hear about on the radio, on TV, or read about in the news. There are people behind all these statistics. People are not politics. And that was the great power of that experience.

I had the privilege of going with them to the White House in 2018 and speaking with USAID about how they might be able to get involved, and they did. The U.S., as well as the U.K. and Ireland, made commitments to help support because the viewpoint is that when we support these places in need, it uplifts us all.

Jewelry feels like such a part of the way you imagine and can help bring people to life in your mind.

OND: Empathy has been a throughline in everything you’re saying. There’s another way we hold space for emotions, and that’s in jewelry, such as heirlooms. Do you remember any family heirlooms?

Brosnahan: My dad and his siblings all have signet rings with their monogrammed initials on them. When I think about my dad, I think about that ring. It was so heavy. Those things hold so many memories. Jewelry feels like such a part of the way you imagine and can help bring people to life in your mind. I inherited a small ring that my grandmother had, and I wore it every single day for years.

OND: What was the ring like?

Brosnahan: It was a tiny gold ring in a diamond shape with a small sapphire in the middle and little diamonds around the center. She had the tiniest fingers, so I can only wear it on my pinkie finger.

OND: Speaking of rings, your engagement ring was also antique.

Brosnahan: We found it together. My husband and I had started wandering into jewelry shops and looking at rings but were not particularly drawn to the newer styles. I lived for many years right around the corner from an antique jewelry store, Pippin. I would wander in there all the time because they changed their selection so often. One day, we walked in and found my engagement ring and my wedding band in one sitting. The ring was a beautiful, ornate setting, but it didn’t feel old. It had an aquamarine in it. We picked it together, and then I wasn’t allowed to see it anymore. My husband went and learned about diamonds and sustainability and found a beautiful diamond for it. I never saw the final ring until he proposed.

OND: Was it an antique diamond?

Brosnahan: Yes, it was. He went to the Diamond District and met this guy who loved the history of diamonds and taught him a lot about clarity and grading. It was an oval shape. Jason was very excited to have learned so much about the stone and to have had a hand in making it. And that it had a history, but then we were kind of nervous about that, so we saged the shit out of it before I put it on. [laughter]

OND: Speaking of period pieces, you played Mrs. Maisel but coming from a modern perspective. Did it impact you in any way, or did you leave set glad to change into sweatpants?

Brosnahan: It mostly made me grateful for modern comfort. [laughter] And that we are no longer corseted every day. It’s so much easier to go to the bathroom now. Our costume designer, Donna Zakowska, is an encyclopedia of vintage fashion. Nobody understands color and texture and pattern and fabric more than she does. 

A lot of the jewelry actually came from Pippin. It was fun to watch the period shift. Her attention to detail was unlike anything I have ever worked with before. When we started the show, we were in 1955 or 1957, and all earrings were screw-backs then. Later, they moved into clip-ons. Donna was not about to cut one single corner, so I learned to put on screw-backs. Not the most comfortable. You can get used to anything, it turns out. The jewelry completes every look. Once we put the whole outfit on and were in hair and makeup, we would stand together and try on 20 pairs of earrings. 

The jewelry completes every look.

OND: How does jewelry play a role for you, personally, on red carpets?

Brosnahan: The fun thing about fashion is that it can be whatever you want it to be. It can be a reflection of how you’re feeling in a moment or an era of your life. So, in the past, I have typically gone in opposition to whatever kind of role I’ve been playing at the time when dressing for the red carpet.

I think, especially towards the end of Maisel, it felt more fun to wear things completely different from what I was spending so much time in on screen. I think the same was true even back when I was doing House of Cards, which was much less glamorous and a little less feminine. I leaned into a more of a hyper-feminine style.

My stylist and I have been talking a lot about what it’ll look like for the next year. I want to both play homage to Lois Lane and the world, but I think that the method-dressing, as they call it, has kind of been done to death and flawlessly at this point. I don’t know if we want to compete, but we’re figuring out how to put our stamp on it. And I think jewelry plays a big role in that.

Jewelry and accessories complete every look. It can completely change the way that a look feels. You can have a certain style of clothing that can be completely upended; something surprising can happen with the jewelry.

OND: You have a great stylist, Alexandra Mandelkorn.

Brosnahan: Ali pushes me in a way that I’m really grateful for. We have a shorthand that we’ve developed over time, and I’m excited to do this next run with her. She’s so smart and thoughtful about fashion. It’s fun to work with somebody like that.

OND: I’m excited to hear what you think of The Amateur!

Brosnahan: I don’t watch my stuff, so I won’t see it, but I’m glad you have and that other people will.

OND: Really? You never watch your movies or your shows?

Brosnahan: I watched the first season of Maisel, but I stopped watching many, many years ago. People come from different schools [of thought] on this, and I’m not a purist, so maybe this will change.  But I’m such a perfectionist, and it’s an art. Performing is an art that relies on being comfortable with imperfection. 

I prefer to live with the experience that I had making something, and that’s been really interesting because sometimes it’s aligned with how the final product is received, and sometimes it’s not. I have been a part of things that just didn’t quite find an audience but were some of the greatest experiences to make. So, the experience was uncolored by how the final product was received, partially because I had never seen it, so I had no opinion about it. I got to hold on to the process of making it. 

That’s the thing I love about theater. It just is what it is for only that moment in time for just that one audience. And then the next night, it’s something different, and no one will ever experience that thing that’s passed again.

OND: Then each night is another opportunity to learn and develop….

Brosnahan: And to try things a little bit braver, you hope, each time.