Rachel Brosnahan

Netflix's Miscalculation

Rachel Brosnahan was not going to last more than two episodes on House of Cards. Her character was an expendable narrative device for the plot of Corey Stoll. But the actress's on-screen presence forced the writers to change the original plan so she could stay on screen for three seasons.

That role earned her first Emmy nomination in 2015. She landed the part after an audition over Skype while she was sick in bed. There were no major casting rounds or chemistry tests with the series' leads.

Before that, she lived in shared apartments in New York and piled up rejections for pilots that never made it to air. But the industry began to take notice of her ability to hold close-ups without blinking.

Luck had nothing to do with it.

The Frantic Pace of the Palladinos

In 2017, the project that permanently transformed her public profile arrived. Amy Sherman-Palladino was looking for someone who could recite ten pages of dialogue in three minutes for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Many well-known actresses failed the speed test.

Brosnahan showed up to the casting with a fever and a sinus infection. She accepted the role of Midge Maisel without knowing she would spend the next five years filming 14-hour days in the cold of Manhattan.

She won the Golden Globe two years in a row.

Filming the series demanded almost military-level technical precision. No one was allowed to improvise a single comma of the original script. The series' long single-take shots forced the cast to repeat eight-minute takes if an extra moved at the wrong time.

Her training at the Tisch School of the Arts in New York laid the groundwork for handling that level of demand. There, she learned that comedy is more a matter of math and breath timing than of funny jokes.

No one expected that level of stamina.

From the Stage to the Cape of Metropolis

In 2023, she returned to Broadway to star in The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window alongside Oscar Isaac. New York critics praised her ability to hold her own opposite a global movie star on such a bare stage.

Shortly after, she founded her own production company, Scrap Paper Pictures. Her goal with this company is to develop projects centered on complex female narratives that move away from the usual archetypes of commercial film.

James Gunn chose her in 2024 to be the new Lois Lane in Superman. The film is set for release on 2025 and marks her move into big-budget movies after years focused on prestige television.

The production of this film has a budget of $200 million.