Why does Alex Borstein make Amy Sherman-Palladino’s brilliant dialogue sound like nobody wrote it?
The magic of writer/director/producer Amy Sherman-Palladino’s dialogue is that the minute her characters open their mouths to speak, you completely forget that whatever they’re saying was written for them by someone else. It’s that natural—the humor, the banter, the vintage Fed-Ex commercial speed with which the words are delivered. The cadence is unmistakable, the style is essentially inimitable, and the results are always smart, funny, and a little bit exhausting in the best possible way. Says the prolific television mainstay, “As a writer, all you want to do is write for great actors. That’s all.” And that is exactly what she does, again and again, with highly successful results. Watching two actors perform a Sherman-Palladino scene is the equivalent of attending a verbal bull-fight, in which each of them takes turns being both the matador and the bull, but nobody gets gored to a bloody pulp in the end (well, not literally, at least.)
Clearly, it takes a special kind of theatrical ability (not to mention: lung capacity) to do Sherman-Palladino’s work justice, but apparently, one of her many, many talents is casting people who are equal to the task. And while this is basically true of all of Sherman-Palladino’s recurring writer-actor collabs (of which there are several; that gal is loyal!) one actress stands out for her sheer comic versatility. Long before Midge Maisel embarked on her complicated relationship with tough-talking, cap-sporting manager, Susie Myerson, lovable comedy genius Alex Borstein had already brought a few of Sherman-Palladino’s smaller (but no-less-memorable) characters to life in that bizarrely charming little world of Stars Hollow. Come back with us now to the Independence Inn, where we first did not meet the slightly less-sweet but equally-clumsy brunette iteration of chef Sooki St. James. Borstein played the role beautifully in the unaired Gilmore Girls pilot but was recast due to a clash of prior commitments.
As everyone knows, things always happen for a reason, and the universe had other plans for Borstein with regard to embodying an Amy Sherman-Palladino creation, good plans. Alex ultimately appeared in not one but two recurring roles, both of which were show-stealers. As the irascible harpist, Drella she was delightfully obnoxious, spouting the kind of hilarious zingers, complaints and insults that only Amy could dream up.
For all her musical panache, Drella was one tough cookie, displaying early signs of the two-time Emmy-winning Susie she would one day grow up to be (although in Mrs. Maisel, Sherman-Palladino skillfully writes Myerson with a lot more vulnerability than Drella from Hella ever exhibited).
Later on in the evolution of the Gilmore Girls series, Borstein was almost recognizable and utterly delightful as Richard and Emily Gilmore’s elderly stylist, Miss Celine. Here a glamorous white turban stands in for the future newsboy cap that is Susie’s chapeau of choice, and speaks with the undefinable accent of high society, dropping famous names like it’s her job (okay, as a celebrity stylist it kind of is her job). Borstein brings life to Miss Celine’s lines the way one of Richard’s pocket squares brings color to a dark suit. How Sherman-Palladino ever looked at Drella and saw Celine is beyond understanding for mere mortals like us, but that’s just another example of the preternatural chemistry that makes this duo so dynamic.
“If you know what your scene is and you really really know your characters,” Sherman-Palladino has been quoted as saying, “and you really hear them, it just kind of happens and it’s a mysterious process.” Lucky for audiences, with The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel being the smash hit that it is, for Amy and Alex, that mysterious process is likely to continue for a very long time.
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