‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ costume designer Donna Zakowska explains how ‘Susan’ was like doing a Broadway musical [Exclusive Video Interview]
Costume designer Donna Zakowska worked on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” for all five seasons of the Amazon Prime Video comedy and received Emmy nominations for each – with a win for Period Costumes for the second season of “Mrs. Maisel.” (Zakowska has another Emmy Award for “John Adams.”)
But the final season of “Mrs. Maisel” presented a host of new challenges for the acclaimed costume designer and 2023 Emmy nominee, namely a narrative that hopped between time periods and eras as viewers were given a chance to see the fates of Midge (Emmy nominee and past winner Rachel Brosnahan), Susie (Emmy nominee and past winner Alex Borstein), and many of the other beloved characters.
More from GoldDerby
“The challenge was really condensing a lot into this last season and not losing the character,” Zakowska tells Gold Derby in an exclusive video interview as part of our Meet the Experts: Costume Designer panel. “It doesn’t matter if somebody is 40 years old, or 50 years older, the important thing is that you have to live their development in how you create the costumes. It was really important that they remain credible and constant with where they had been throughout the entire series.”
SEEM. David Mullen interview: ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ cinematographer
Created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” concluded its Emmy Award-winning run with its title character finally breaking big to become one of the top comedy stars in the world. But the road to fame wasn’t easy for Midge, a struggle that provided the show with numerous comedic moments throughout the final season – including the Building New York Expo in the fourth episode, “Susan.” The setting allowed for Zakowska to, in essence, do “a Broadway musical on film,” practice for her job as costume designer on the Tony Award-nominated musical “New York, New York,” which also scored Zakowska her first Tony nomination.
“Having a theater background and a dance background, it was really something that I could play upon in terms of doing that,” she says. “That was fun for me. And the odd thing about it, too, was that while I was sort of finishing this up, you know, I began working on what was really my first Broadway musical in ‘New York, New York.’ So it suddenly seemed like my entire year was literally about a musical. It wasn’t something I was counting on…. I kept saying to Amy, ‘I think you want to do a musical.’ It was a bit of a surprise. But it was really a great way to end it in a way. And then the way it sort of pulled me into ‘New York, New York’ was an especially nice connection.”
The final season of “Mrs. Maisel” didn’t just include a wild musical number, but expanded roles for newer characters as well, such as Reid Scott’s Gordon Ford, a late-night host in the vein of Johnny Carson or Jack Parr.
“He is really incredibly elegant,” Zakowska says of Scott, a former star on “Veep.” “I must say he’s someone who just makes it work and you put the clothes on him and he was really a natural for that character.”
All episodes of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” are streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
PREDICT the 2023 Emmy winners through January 15
Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?
SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions
Best of GoldDerby
Sign up for Gold Derby's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
