The Grey's Anatomy Role You Forgot Superman Star Rachel Brosnahan Played

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It's not particularly weird that actor Rachel Brosnahan appeared on "Grey's Anatomy," largely because the show has been running for so long that quite a lot of people have dropped by for a visit at the fictional Seattle hospital, Grey Sloan Memorial, that serves as the setting for Shonda Rhimes' popular series. Still, Brosnahan's appearance on the popular ABC medical drama was a little while ago, so if you're a little hazy, I'll refresh your memory about her role during the show's ninth season in 2013.

First things first. Right now, Brosnahan is a newly minted movie star thanks to her leading turn as journalist Lois Lane, girlfriend of Clark Kent (David Corenswet), in James Gunn's massively successful take on "Superman." Gunn, if I may say so, cast this movie exceptionally well. Corenswet is a charming, affable Clark and Superman, his chemistry with Brosnahan — who fleshes out the sometimes flimsy role of Lois — is particularly great, and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor might be one of my favorite casting decisions in recent memory. For both Corenswet and Brosnahan, who have either appeared in smaller projects like "Pearl" (in Corenswet's case) or are mostly known for their television projects (Brosnahan), this was a test, and it's safe to say they passed with flying colors based on the movie's seriously impressive box office haul. (Hoult, meanwhile, has literally been on the big screen since he was a kid, which likely merited him a higher salary for the film before it was even released.)

Okay. Now that I've established that Brosnahan is perfectly capable of leading a blockbuster, let's rewind to her role on "Grey's Anatomy" as Brian Weston, a transgender teenager who struggles against his father while pursuing gender-affirming surgery. Here's everything you need to know about "The Face of Change," the season 9 episode of "Grey's Anatomy" that prominently features Brosnahan.

In "The Face of Change," which earns its title as Dr. Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) and Dr. Jackson Avery (Jesse Williams) compete to "represent" the nearly bankrupt hospital to make it more attractive to potential buyers, introduces Rachel Brosnahan's Brian Weston, who's been seeking gender-affirming surgery for four years. At 14 years old, Brian asked Alex, a pediatric surgeon, about getting the surgery but was told to wait until his 18th birthday; in a support group that Alex suggests for transgender teens, Brian meets Jess (Matt Pascua), another trans teen, and the two of them fall in love.

Unfortunately, as Brian, now 18, asks Jackson and Alex to perform top surgery on him to remove his breasts, his estranged father Daniel Weston (Brett Rickaby) comes to the hospital and is strongly against Brian getting gender-affirming surgery as he's unwilling to let go of Brian's past self. The surgery is a success, and Jess ultimately admits that she emailed Daniel in the hopes that he would come and support his son. Though Daniel leaves the pair with rent money, he also leaves before Brian wakes up, establishing that the two likely won't have a relationship going forward.

"Grey's Anatomy" is definitely not a perfect show by any means, and there's no getting around the fact that "The Face of Change" features a cisgender actor playing a transgender character. (For a much more in-depth and nuanced discussion of this issue than we could have here, you should check out the Netflix documentary "Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen.") All the same, the show has long striven to do right by marginalized groups, and that includes the trans community, even when it falls short. Trans actor Alexandra Billings, for example, stars in the show's third season as a trans woman ... but also one who ends up developing cancer as a result of the hormones she's taking to aid her transition. (The characters around her, perhaps unsurprisingly, similarly talk about her in a way that wouldn't fly at all in 2025.) By contrast, the show did much better when introducing trans and non-binary characters like Dr. Casey Parker (trans actor Alex Blue Davis) and Dr. Kai Bartley (non-binary actor E.R. Fightmaster) long after Brosnahan's Brian got most of an episode devoted to his journey.

The point being, if you can make your peace with Brosnahan playing a trans character, her episode of "Grey's Anatomy" makes for a vital and important piece of representation, particularly because she's so good in the role as a young trans man who fights for his surgery and for the chance to be his best self. Despite Daniel, Brian receives the surgery he's wanted for years and gets to be himself with Jess, and at the end of the day, it's just an important story to tell, especially on a massively popular network TV show.

Before scoring the lead role of Lois Lane in "Superman," Rachel Brosnahan was, without question, best known for the title role in the Amazon Prime original series "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel." Created by "Gilmore Girls" luminary Amy Sherman-Palladino, the show opens on Brosnahan's Miriam "Midge" Maisel, a happy stay-at-home mother and wife to Joel Maisel (Michael Zegen) who quietly helps Joel write jokes for his struggling stand-up set. (Most, if not all, of his jokes are flat-out stolen from Bob Newhart, so to call his attempts "struggling" is actually pretty kind.) When Joel comes home one day and tells Midge that he's leaving her and running away with his secretary, Midge goes absolutely wild in the best way and storms into the downtown club where Joel usually performs his sets. 

Half-dressed and in a chaotic state, Midge delivers a searing, stunningly good, and extremely raw set about her husband carrying on with his secretary, and even though she does get arrested for public nudity and hauled away by the police as a grand finale, she catches the attention of her future manager, Susie Myerson (Alex Borstein in the role she was frankly born to play), as well as a fictional version of the real life comedian Lenny Bruce (Luke Kirby). Ultimately, Midge becomes a world-famous comedian with Susie by her side.

"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" might have gone on a little too long — although it did end up sticking the landing when it wrapped up in 2023 after five seasons — but nobody can argue that Brosnahan isn't absolutely brilliant as Midge. (She won two Golden Globes and an Emmy for the role, so clearly, this is a popular opinion.) If you haven't gotten the chance to check out "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," it's absolutely worth watching for Brosnahan's performance — and the pilot is one of the most flawless first outings I've ever seen from a television series, to be honest — and it's streaming on Amazon Prime. Meanwhile, "Superman" is available to rent or buy on digital streaming platforms (including Amazon) and is still in theaters now.