‘The Gilded Age’ Stars Reveal the Social Battlefronts of Season 2 (PHOTOS)
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[These interviews were conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike authorization.]
Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) finally has her foot in the door of 1883 Manhattan society in HBO‘s The Gilded Age Season 2, but the door to the coveted Academy of Music remains closed. No matter. She’ll make the fledgling Metropolitan Opera the place to be instead! And that’s just one intrigue for The Gilded Age’s second season.
TV Insider was on set of Julian Fellowes‘ glamorous period drama in September 2022. There, we spoke with Coon, Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Louisa Jacobson, Fellowes, and the team behind the camera as they filmed a pivotal garden party scene on the lush grounds of Long Island’s Old Westbury estate. The former home to an heir of the Phipps family fortune, this was a perfect locale to host the series’ fictional steel magnates and their families.
George (Morgan Spector) and Bertha Russell are as hellbent to get to the top as ever in the new episodes, premiering October 29 on HBO and streaming on Max, and last season’s setbacks and victories will make them even more cutthroat. While George handles the money (and union troubles at his railroad), Bertha handles their social rise.
“George wants to be the richest and most powerful man in the country. That is his motivation,” Fellowes told journalists on set. “I personally don’t think he cares much about society, but he cares about his wife. And because she wants to be the dominating factor in New York society, he will support her in that and anything he can do to support her, he will do. That’s why I don’t think he cares if he knows a duchess or he’s having dinner with a princess. He could give a monkey’s toss about that. He just wants people to shake in the knee when he comes in the room, because he can break them just like that.”
“What I hope I’ve created in Bertha and George are one of those marriages where they both have quite separate fields of endeavor and each one of them is 100 percent supportive of the other one’s ambitions,” Fellowes continues, “so any way they can help, they will.”
The Russells aren’t the only well-off family with their eyes on the social prize. Below, the stars of The Gilded Age reveal the social battlefronts of Season 2.
The Gilded Age, Season 2 Premiere, Sunday, October 29, 9/8c, HBO
This is an expanded excerpt from TV Guide Magazine’s 2023 Returning Favorites issue. For more first looks at fall’s returning shows, pick up the issue, on newsstands now.
Instead of Vying for a Seat, Bertha Makes Her Own Table
Bertha (Coon, above, with Nathan Lane) “thrives” on the bitterness her friendship with Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy) stirs up in town, Coon says, adding, “It’s not just the other ladies who get ruffled. Mrs. Astor herself is in for a few surprises if she thinks she’s pacified Bertha by allowing her to enter society.”
When it comes to her and George’s children, Larry (Harry Richardson) and Gladys (Taissa Farmiga), Bertha has her sights set on a noteworthy marriage for her newly out daughter.
“Gladys is developing a mind of her own, much to Bertha’s chagrin. [Gladys] doesn’t always go along with what Bertha wants for her, and so we’ll see a lot of butting heads between the two of them,” Coon explains. “Larry, she doesn’t worry about. The world’s set up for Larry, but he makes some bad decisions, and it wouldn’t be like Bertha to keep her nose out of that business. She’s going to insert herself wherever she can to make sure her kids are on the right track.”
George's Past May Come Back to Haunt Him
Bertha and railroad baron husband George “are very much working in concert,” Coon says, to secure their rise, but the firing of gold-digging lady’s maid Turner (Kelley Curran) is the “monkey wrench” in their best-laid plans.
“Turner’s been dismissed, but we’ll see,” Coon warns. “That may not be the last of that lie. Bertha and George are going to have to deal with some personal issues in their marriage while they’re trying to complete this rise in society.”
Marian Searches for a Husband on Her Own Terms
Despite her money problems, Marian Brook (Jacobson) was the bright-eyed lovebird of Season 1. But being jilted by would-be husband Tom Raikes (Thomas Cocquerel) may have cast a love match out of her mind in Season 2. Nevertheless, Jacobson told us on set that Marian’s “shining this season.”
“I think she’s really stepping into herself. Having a bit of heartbreak has made her not necessarily cynical, but have a little bit of spice and edge. She’s not so timid,” she says. Timid, she’s not, but blind she may be.
Dashing neighbor Larry (Richardson) showed romantic interest in the Season 1 ender, and Jacobson says they will “continue to deepen their friendship” in Season 2 as Marian “feels relief when she’s around him.” But this former romantic may be shirking love for pragmatism like her Aunt Agnes (Baranski), much to Aunt Ada’s (Nixon) displeasure.
Agnes van Rhijn Wants Marian Married
Agnes van Rhijn experiences a tectonic shift in her relationship with sister Ada Brook.
“You’ll see a level of depth and feeling there that’s going to be quite rich,” Baranski tells TV Insider. Adds Nixon: “The power skirmishes that have been subtextual come out.”
As Marian searches for her life partner, Agnes will continue to urge her to be pragmatic, as her pragmatism saved their family from destitution after Marian’s late father squandered their family fortune.
Ada Brook Asserts Her Independence
While Nixon says that “Ada is not a rule-breaker,” the spinster will be outspoken about niece Marian not following in Agnes’ strategic footsteps when choosing a husband. Still, Ada fears Marian becoming the next Mrs. Chamberlain should she only follow her heart.
“I think [Ada’s] a person who likes to push it and try to push the envelope and sort of see what she can get,” Nixon says, “but for herself and also for her niece, she doesn’t want her to speak to Mrs. Chamberlain because there’s such a price to pay.”
As for her personal life, Ada won’t be as meek and meager this season. Her newfound independence and insistence that she can live a life separate from her sister may be what brings on that tectonic shift.
