‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’: Revisiting Brian Tarantina’s Death Was ‘Really Hard,’ Caroline Aaron Recalls (Exclusive)
Art imitated life on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4 Episode 3 when Susie Myerson (Alex Borstein) realizes she never knew about the incredible life her friend Jackie (Brian Tarantina) lived until he had died.
Tarantina died in 2019 before season 4 was filmed. And Caroline Aaron, who plays Shirley Maisel, said producers Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino honored Tarantina in the episode, revealing she never knew how special he was to the couple.
In an exclusive interview with Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Aaron said the Palladinos truly wanted to pay tribute to Tarantina in a momentous way.
Brian Tarantina’s death ‘was really hard’
In the episode, Susie receives the horrible news that Gaslight Cafe owner Jackie (and part-time roommate) died. But she’s further devastated when she uncovers fascinating details of his life leading up to his funeral. Tarantina’s role in Mrs. Maisel was small, but he added grit and comedic flavor. Aaron said Tarantina’s sudden death was shocking and especially hard to revisit in the series months after he had died.
“It was really hard,” she said about the loss. “And what was really unbelievable, I didn’t know he had a relationship for many, many years with [Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino]. When he died, they rented out a cocktail lounge in New York, and they had the entire crew and the cast, and everybody could voluntarily come by, have a toast, have a drink.”
“They both talked about him, and they’d known him their whole careers,” she added. “He had been a part of their careers every step of the way. I think he was in Gilmore Girls and this and that.”
The Palladinos had a close relationship with him
Aaron recalled that Brian Tarantina’s son Sean was invited to join the cast for the Screen Actors Guild Awards. “When we were nominated and ultimately won the SAG Award that year, Brian’s son sat at our table,” she recalled. “Amy asked if he would go on stage with them because she so loved him. And it was the most emotional I’ve ever seen either of them.”
She remembered Tarantina as being a hilarious and a great actor. “You know, there’s a lot to do when we’re working,” she said. “There’s not a lot of cozy kind of hanging out because they’ve got a lot to get accomplished. Their ambitions are so huge for this show.”
Like Susie, Aaron didn’t realize Tarantina’s full impact until after his death. “So I didn’t even know they had a personal relationship with him,” she reflected. “He was just so hilarious and such a great actor.”
Aaron was truly impressed with how the Palladinos dedicated so much of episode 3 to say farewell to Jackie and Tarantina. “I just so admired what they did because based on what that character’s place was in the story, you could have easily written a line that says, ‘Where is he? He took a job in another club, the end.’ Nobody had to know more than that,” she said. “And you would have accepted it. And yet they really wanted to pay tribute.”
‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ table read left everyone ‘gobsmacked’
Susie delivers the eulogy at Jackie’s funeral in one of the most heartbreaking and beautiful moments on the show.
“When we did the table reading of that before they even shot it, we were all gobsmacked,” Aaron recalled. “And I think Rachel [Brosnahan] said to Alex, ‘Just write your acceptance speech now and get it over with.’ That was before she even put it on film. It was so instinctual. I mean, [Borstein] is such an instinctual actress, and it was so full and so funny. At the same time, the other thing they managed to take the dark and light and put it in the same frame. I don’t know how they do it.”
Aaron said the Palladinos weave comedy with tragedy into one continuous line, similar to what she experienced while working with director Woody Allen. “But, you know, that’s kind of like when I did Crimes and Misdemeanors,” she recalled.
“Woody Allen said at the time that only entertainment divides life into comedy or tragedy. Like when you’re living life, it’s all marbled together. So the goal for Crimes and Misdemeanors was to make that was to marble those two things together. The crime was the crime, and the misdemeanor was the misdemeanor. And Amy and Dan do that all the time on this show. There’s always the light and the dark and the dark and the light.”
Episodes of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4 are currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
