Margaret paid homage to Dorothy Zbornak from The Golden Girls for W’s 2022 TV portfolio!

For Margaret Qualley, Dorothy Zbornak Is the Epitome of Cool

The Emmy-nominated Maid star talks her next major film role and shares why watching The Golden Girls reminds her of home.

For W’s third annual TV Portfolio, we asked 21 sought-after names in television to pay homage to their favorite small-screen characters by stepping into their shoes.

In Netflix’s acclaimed series Maid, Margaret Qualley stars as Alex, a young single mother who leaves her abusive boyfriend in hopes of building a better life for her 2-year-old daughter, Maddy (Rylea Nevaeh Whittet). With a small child to support, Alex takes on a series of odd jobs (including cleaning up trashed homes filled with blood, human excrement, and the like) while battling homelessness and countless indignities. Meanwhile, her own mother—played by Qualley’s real-life mom, Andie MacDowell—is a flighty presence in her life, causing her even more stress.

Speaking from a taxi in Paris, just weeks after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Qualley sees the parallels between Maid’s subject matter and the very real implications for young low-income mothers. “It’s incredibly upsetting,” she says, “and impossible not to think about.” But the actress, who is in France working on The Substance—the closely guarded film from director Coralie Fargeat, in which Qualley stars alongside Demi Moore—has plenty to be optimistic about. This summer, she received an Emmy nomination for her performance in Maid and got engaged to her boyfriend, Jack Antonoff, the six-time Grammy-winning musician, songwriter, and producer. Here, the 27-year-old discusses getting into character physically and emotionally, and why she aspires to be more like Dorothy Zbornak from The Golden Girls.
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