'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' Cast and Creators Recall 'Teary' Last Day on Set — and What They Took! (Exclusive)
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Marin Hinkle, who plays Midge's mom Rose Weissman, told PEOPLE she has "a lot of bears in my house" after "secretly" stealing them from set
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel cast and crew made the most out of their final days on set.
The Prime Video series returned for its fifth and final season on April 14, and its series finale arrived on May 26. Ahead of its final bow, the cast and creators spoke exclusively to PEOPLE about the last day they all spent together on the show's set.
"It was emotional, close. We felt so lucky to all be there together," star Rachel Brosnahan, who plays Miriam "Midge" Maisel, said at the show's season 5 premiere event in New York City. "We had the entire family and almost every character who had been on the show for any significant amount of time over the five years there. So we got to close the chapter together and it was pretty good."
Alfie Fuller, a.k.a Dinah Rutledge, said it "was always a joy showing up to set, but that final day was a little teary knowing that we're closing this chapter.
"It was such a wonderful chapter. So it was a little teary," she admitted. "I misted up a little bit, though I tried to keep it cool."
Related: Rachel Brosnahan Reveals the 'Hardest Thing' About Moving on from <em>Mrs. Maisel</em>
As for Kevin Pollak, the Moishe Maisel actor said he's "not great with goodbyes," which made the farewell extra hard for him.
"I love all of these people and working with them, it's been an amazing ride," he said. "Knowing that it was our final season before we even started working helped a lot of shots from January to November. So that's 11 months celebrating and being grateful."
Lenny Bruce actor Luke Kirby "began unraveling" upon learning the news that season 5 would be the show's last. But he still looked back on the whole experience fondly. "It's been such a beautiful experience. There's nothing but gratitude," he said.
"It felt cataclysmic. I can't believe that this over, and we're saying goodbye to this," said Caroline Aaron, who plays Shirley Maisel. "I just felt it was very bittersweet on the last day. I'd like to have stayed in this fantasy land for a longer on time.
Marin Hinkle, who plays Midge's mom Rose Weissman, said the cast "had a number of days to shoot and to actually be there presently with a kind of gentle, graceful support."
"To be able to just be the mom and be the absolute champion I feel for Rachel Brosnahan also is married by the sense of playing her mom, and to just sit there and celebrate and have so much deep pride for all she did, I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful way to end it," she shared. "That part was incredible."
It was also very hard for co-creator Amy Sherman-Palladino to bid farewell to the show she helped create six years ago. She said the final day were "incredibly emotional" and filled with "so many tears."
"We arranged the schedule so that the full cast was working that whole last week. So we were all together every single day because if I'm going to be miserable, everyone is going to be miserable with me. Just drag them all down," she joked. "It was Rachel having her last moment and we were all there for it together. And, you know, the camera was turned around on her so that everybody who was sitting could just move down by just sitting on the ground and staring at her weirdly — creepily."
Sherman-Palladino added, "It was very emotional. I may have gone a few extra times because I didn't want to say 'cut.' But it was great because it was 3 o'clock in the morning and we were all together and we sort of finished the journey together and we drank bad champagne and cried and went home."
In saying goodbye, many of the show's cast and crew took mementos from the set to keep the series forever close to their hearts. For starters, Hinkle has been swiping something quite unusual over a period of time.
"There is a moment in, I think it's [the] Vegas [episode], where Alex [Borstein]'s character Susie asks for a weird ask, which is on the contract for what Midge is gonna get. And there's all these stuffed animals in the room," she explained, referencing Midge's request to have a room full of yellow teddy bears. "So backstage, so to speak, we have hundreds of really bizarre-looking stuffed animals and they're little bears. And I'm kind of a bear lover. And so secretly, I was like, you know, the person that didn't like want anyone to notice, but I have a lot of bears in my house. So I took a little few bears. Maybe more than a few."
The Two and a Half Men alum continued, "They're not that attractive and I get made fun of. They're the kind you win at the carnivals. So they're like $2 and mostly plastic, but they're soothing and I bring them on airplanes when I'm flying. So I feel like those beers will hopefully give me a sense of connection to the show and the connection to my past for ever and ever."
Related: The Cast of <em>The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel</em>: Everything to Know
Pollak has taken several items, from plaques to ashtrays. He also asked the set design team's permission to swipe a dress for his "gal."
"I took a candy dish and it's so hilarious. It's so Shirley. It's a big apple[-shaped] glass candy dish and it's in the shape of a duck. And you open its bill. And that's where you put the candy," said Aaron while Fuller shared, "I took a couple of clothing items. And I took a little nameplate from Dinah's desk".
Even guest star Hank Azaria, who plays Danny Stevens, was able to take something before he left. "My character has written a book that he's promoting," he explained. "They gave me a copy of it, so I didn't steal it. And they were kind enough to sign it."
Sherman-Palladino joked that she'd try to take the entire set "if it was not nailed down."
"There was like a painting that Midge always had either over her fireplace mantel or someplace like that from the pilot. We grabbed that because we have Stars Hollow stuff," Sherman-Palladino's husband and collaborator, fellow co-creator Dan Palladino, said while referencing their former series Gilmore Girls. "We have signage from Gilmore Girls. We have the Stars Hollow sign and we have the Dragonfly Inn sign, and now we have Midge's painting."
Later joining PEOPLE in 10 post-premiere, Michael Zegen (Joel Maisel) revealed that he was "able to get a few suits and ties and some jackets" from the show's set. Meanwhile, the "few things" Reid Scott (Gordon Ford) snatched up were "a TV Guide that has my face on it" and "some Photoshopped photos of me with 1950s celebrities and dignitaries."
Aaron also revealed she actually stopped by costar Tony Shalhoub's apartment to swipe something he took from the set that belonged to her character, Shirley Maisel. "Our chairs are there. I'm like, 'Wait a minute. Those are Shirley and Moishe's chairs,'" she recalled.
"They looked beautiful in his apartment," she continued. "I'm like, 'I'm coming to get them this afternoon.'"
Though filming on the beloved series has concluded, the Maisel crew will get to live out the show's final moments along with fans season 5 is now available to stream in its entirety.
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All five seasons of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel can be streamed on Prime Video.
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