Rachel Brosnahan uncomfortable handling gun in film

7 January 2021

Rachel Brosnahan's character in 'I'm Your Woman' "made [her] nervous".

Rachel Brosnahan

The 30-year-old actress portrays Mob wife Jean in the new film and she admitted she didn't feel "comfortable" having to hold a gun in the movie and the weapon made everything around her feel "different".

She told the New York Post newspaper's Page Six column: “Sometimes in movies it feels like someone shoves a gun in the actor’s hand, whereupon power surges through his veins, and the person suddenly miraculously knows how to use it. I’m not comfortable handling guns.

“My character in this new film made me nervous. I’m bad at handling guns and — for the first time — it scared me. I hadn’t realised that suddenly I, and everything else around, would feel really different.

"For a film once before, I had to learn to shoot. I wasn’t happy."

And it isn't just on set that guns make the 'Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' star uncomfortable.

She added: "Another only time was my single inexplicable date with a guy who for some reason took me to a shooting range. Trust me, this was a one date only.”

Rachel isn't the only actress to share her unease at using a gun on camera.

Julianne Moore underwent FBI training for 2001's 'Hannibal' and insisted she "hated" everything about handling a firearm.

She said: "I hate guns. Trainers tell you, ‘Oh, you’ll love shooting after a while.’ No. I hate loading. I always get my skin caught. I hate pulling the trigger.”

Gwyneth Paltrow swore never to wield one on screen again after just one experience.

She has said: “In ‘A Perfect Murder,’ I broke one of my cardinal rules of never touching a gun, and I actually was made to hold one. I won’t do that again.”

And Meryl Streep has insisted that stars shooting guns in their films just give firearms positive publicity.

She said in 1999: "“Every movie star who points a gun is not only selling their movie — they’re selling the gun. The NRA couldn’t pay these people enough money to hold a rifle for their ad — yet they’re making that ad — and for gratis. Our profession doesn’t take responsibility for the images we put out in the world.”

Drew Barrymore was so opposed to the idea of guns, she refused to have them used in 'Charlie's Angels' - which she starred in and co-produced - so instead she, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Liu underwent intensive martial arts training.