'It was still so soon after my mom’s death and so raw to me.'
Melissa Rivers doesn't plan to watch The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The 52-year-old daughter of the late Joan Rivers stopped by the Hollywood Raw podcast and revealed why she won't watch the scripted Amazon series.
"I have to be 100% honest, I’ve never watched the show, and there’s a particular reason... I know it’s based on my mom and Phyllis Diller, a lot of these different women," Melissa speculated of the series, which follows Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan), a standup comedian on the rise in the late 1950s, much like Joan's real-life experience.
"It was still so soon after my mom’s death and so raw to me," Melissa added of the show, which premiered in 2017, three years after her mom's death.
Melissa also stated that she "would have loved more than anything an email just saying, 'Hey, your mom was one of the inspirations for this, we hope you love watching the show as much as we enjoy making it.'"
"I have never heard a single word from anyone, EVER, involved in the show," she said. "... I guess hurtful is the word, that they never even just said [anything]."
Though Melissa said that she hasn't heard from the people involved in the show, she did mention supporting Jane Lynch, who stars in the series. The actress dedicated her 2019 Emmy win for it to Joan and other female comedians of the time.
"I sent flowers to Jane Lynch after she won her Emmy win for it last year," Melissa said. "… Because she actually acknowledged my mom. I sent her flowers saying, 'Thank you.'"
On the podcast, Melissa also spoke about the challenges of trying to pave her own path while living with her mother's legacy.
"It’s an uphill battle still. I’m basically thought of still as not being capable or not having achieved all the things I did create or did do," she said. "My mom used to say all the time it’s very frustrating for her to watch me never get credit, and I’m still digging out from it."
"I’m in the process of selling another book, and it’s a straight-up humor book, and basically everyone is like, 'We want The Book of Joan 2.' Well, that’s not what I want to write," Melissa continued. " The legacy has the good and the bad. It’s hard, it’s frustrating. Like my mother always said, 'Don’t expect praise without envy until you’re dead.'"
Watch the video below for more on Melissa.
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