Rachel Brosnahan’s “really trashy” guilty pleasure movies: “That felt like comfort food”
With the release of the latest movie in the Superman franchise, the movie world has been ablaze with discussions of the new cast. David Corenswet has gotten great reviews as the latest person to don the blue suit, with some calling him the best Clark Kent since Christopher Reeve.
Nicholas Hoult follows in a long line of famous faces to play Lex Luthor, and even Bradley Cooper got involved in the fun, with a brief cameo as Jor-El. And then there’s the film’s leading lady, Rachel Brosnahan.
Formerly best known for her appearances in The Amateur and Amazon Prime’s The Marvellous Mrs Maisel, Brosnahan plays intrepid reporter and Clark’s love interest, Lois Lane. Following in the footsteps of Margot Kidder and Amy Adams, she becomes the latest face of the Daily Planet, although she seemingly hasn’t won a Pulitzer Prize for slagging off her ex like Kate Bosworth did in Superman Returns.
Since taking on one of comic book cinema’s biggest roles, Brosnahan has been asked about her opinion on anything and everything. Prior to this, she was mainly asked about what TV shows she watched during lockdown. At least, that’s the question Town & Country put to her during an interview in 2022.
“I watched a lot of survivalist reality TV,” Brosnahan revealed. “I watched all the seasons of Alone. People alone, surviving with tools, and skinning squirrels… That was hard to watch, but it was inspiring. I was like, ‘Maybe I’ll go to Vancouver Island and bring ten tools and see how I do’. I watched a lot of Survivor. And then, I had a little pod for most of that period, and we went back and watched all our favourite movies. So, we did a big re-watch of some really amazing stuff and some really trashy stuff. We watched Dogma, Election, [The] Truman Show, and all these different movies. And that felt like comfort food.”
Hopefully, Brosnahan was referring to The Truman Show as one of the ‘amazing’ things she watched. There is nothing trashy about Peter Weir’s meta classic. That mantle is being upheld by the other two. Dogma, from director/professional lunatic Kevin Smith, was released in 1999 and seemingly designed to offend people. It stars Linda Fiorentino as a woman working at an abortion clinic (so far, so good) who is called upon to save the Earth from destruction. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck play two fallen angels who, in an attempt to get back into heaven, place the whole of humanity at risk. The film was heavily protested upon release, including by the director himself.
Then there’s Election, another 1999 release. The movie stars Reese Witherspoon as a high-flying student running for student body president, with Matthew Broderick as the jealous teacher trying to sabotage her. Whether or not the film is ‘trashy’ is up for debate. It isn’t exactly high art, but it is very popular, with rumours of a sequel having been around for a couple of years. It was also nominated for an Oscar for ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’.
Trashy or otherwise, it’s clear that Brosnahan has good taste in movies. Will the glory of playing Lois Lane change this? Only time will tell.
