‘I'm Your Woman’: Meet Rachel Brosnahan, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Arinzé Kene and rest of the cast of the Amazon Studios movie
A decidedly female take on the classic crime dramas of the 1970s, filled with impeccable period detail, ‘I'm Your Woman’ tells the story of one woman’s struggle to survive in a dangerous new world.
Wondering what happens in the film? When her husband Eddie goes on the run, suburban housewife Jean (Rachel Brosnahan) is left behind with an infant, a bag of cash and instructions to go wherever Eddie’s associate Cal (Arinzé Kene) takes her. Whisked away to a nondescript safe house, Jean waits for her husband to return for her with only the baby and a sympathetic neighbor (Marceline Hugot) for company. But when Eddie’s assailants track her down and a deadly gunfight ensues, she finds herself on the run again.
Cal takes Jean and the baby to a remote cabin where they are joined by Cal’s wife Teri (Marsha Stephanie Blake), his father (Frankie Faison) and Cal and Teri’s young son Paul (Da’Mauri Parks). Confused, terrified and cut off from anything familiar, Jean learns shocking secrets about her missing husband. When Cal also mysteriously disappears, Jean and Teri set out on a perilous journey into the heart of Eddie’s criminal underworld on a desperate quest to protect their loved ones.
Led by Rachel Brosnahan, meet the star-studded cast of the film here:
Rachel Brosnahan as Jean
With one Emmy, two Golden Globes, two Critics’ Choice Awards and three SAG Awards in her kitty, Rachel Brosnahan is immensely adored for her character Miriam “Midge” Maisel in ‘The Marvelous Mrs Maisel’. Born July 12, 1990, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the 30-year-old made her debut in the horror film ‘The Unborn’ (2009) and was then seen in movies like ‘Beautiful Creatures’ (2013), ‘Louder Than Bombs’ (2015), ‘The Finest Hours’ (2016), and ‘Patriots Day’ (2016). She had a breakout turn as Rachel Posner in Netflix’s groundbreaking series ‘House of Cards’.
Brosnahan and her company Scrap Paper Pictures recently signed a first-look deal with Amazon Studios to develop television series exclusive to Amazon Prime Video. She is all set to star in the historical drama ‘The Courier’, alongside Benedict Cumberbatch.
Marsha Stephanie Blake as Teri
An Emmy nominee for her performance in Ava DuVernay’s 2019 miniseries ‘When They See Us’, Marsha Stephanie Blake has captivated viewers with her work in both film and television. Born in Jamaica, the actress immigrated to US in the late 1980s with her family. She attended Dartmouth College and graduated in 1996. Get set to see her in Netflix’s ‘Social Distance’ — a quarantine anthology series from ‘Orange Is the New Black’ creator Jenji Kohan.
Blake’s TV credits include Netflix’s ‘Orange Is the New Black’, NBC’s ‘This Is Us’, ABC’s ‘How to Get Away With Murder’ and HBO’s ‘Getting On’. A staple in the New York theater community, Blake has been seen on-and-off Broadway in productions such as ‘The Merchant of Venice’, ‘The Crucible’ and ‘Othello’. She currently resides in New York City with her husband and two children.
Arinzé Kene as Cal
A writer and performer whose most recent one-man show, ‘Misty’, ran at the Bush Theatre to widespread critical acclaim, Kene has been nominated for two Olivier Awards (Best Actor and Best New Play). Born in 1987 in Lagos, Nigeria, Kene played a vital role in the BBC’s thriller ‘Informer’, opposite Paddy Considine.
His other credits include Pop TV/UKTV series ‘Flack’, opposite Anna Paquin; Dominic Savage’s unique ‘I Am’, opposite Gemma Chan for Channel 4; the E4/Netflix Original series ‘Crazyhead’ and the BBC One adaptation of Andrea Levy’s novel ‘The Long Song’. He earned the lead role of Bob Marley in the hugely anticipated West End musical production of ‘Get Up, Stand Up!’ based on the music and story of Bob Marley’s life.
Bill Heck as Eddie
Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Bill Heck has a string of television shows such as ‘The Leftovers’, ‘The Good Wife’, and ‘The Alienist’, and also portrayed Billy Knapp in the Coen Brothers' western ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’. The actor stepped into the world of cinema with his first Broadway leading role in the Cabaret revival in 2014.
Frankie Faison as Art
Set to portray the character of Art in ‘I'm Your Woman’, the 71-year-old actor is known for his role as Deputy Commissioner Ervin Burrell in the HBO series ‘The Wire’, Barney Matthews in the ‘Hannibal Lecter’ franchise, and as Sugar Bates in the Cinemax series ‘Banshee’.
The film also stars Marceline Hugot as Evelyn and James McMenamin as White Mike. Directed by Julia Hart, ‘I’m Your Woman’ is set during the 1970s and follows a woman who is forced to go on the run after her husband betrays his business partners, sending her and her baby on a dangerous journey. She also penned down the film ‘I’m Your Woman’ along with Jordan Horowitz. Horowitz and Brosnahan produced the film and it was distributed by Amazon Studios.
The director of photography is ‘Stargirl’ fame Bryce Fortner. The production designer is Gae S, editors are Shayar Bhansali and Tracey WadmoreSmith and the costumes were designed by Natalie O’Brien. Victor L Jones-Moore was the hair department head, Darylin Nagy the make-up department head. While the original music was by Aska Matsumiya, the music supervisor was Dan Wilcox.
Catch the trailer here:
Talking about the film, Julia said, “Women are mostly in those movies to show what’s at stake for the male protagonist, what he has to lose, rarely do we get to see the interior life of that woman or understand what’s at stake for her,” adding, “I wanted to explore every element of that character and give her her own movie, her own story.”
Hart and Horowitz started writing together around the same time they started a family. “It was great, you don’t really go out much once you have a baby, so we would put our son to sleep and then stay up late writing together,” Hart recalled. Of the many scripts they co-wrote, I’m Your Woman was the one they held on to and kept coming back to, revising it and continuing to deepen the story and the characters.
“Jordan and I worked on the script for about five years while we were working on other films. We’d make a movie and do a new draft of it. Make another movie, write another draft. We wanted to be patient with it, to make sure we got it right, and we wanted to be sure we could secure the right budget and the right partners to make it given that it’s a period piece with larger set pieces. I also wanted to make sure we found the perfect Jean.”
The two-hour film had its world premiere at the AFI Fest on October 15, 2020. It was released in a limited release on December 4, 2020, followed by Prime Video on December 11, 2020, by Amazon Studios.