‘The Gilded Age’ Star Louisa Jacobson Defends Marian After Shocking Larry Twist

Louisa Jacobson is defending Marian after the latest development in her character’s relationship with Larry (Harry Richardson) in The Gilded Age.

The HBO drama’s Season 4 premiere sees the sort-of couple take one step forward and two steps back. After ending her engagement to Larry in Season 3, Marian hasn’t quite defined their relationship at the start of the new season. Newly returned from a business trip, Larry reunites with Marian at Oscar’s (Blake Ritson) wedding. After visiting a dance hall together, Larry and Marian take shelter from a storm in a hotel.

They book two rooms at first, but Larry knocks on Marian’s door as she’s getting ready for bed. It leads to the two of them having sex for the first time. Marian shows no hesitation then, but the panic sets in the morning after. She wakes and dresses before Larry does, tears running down her face. Before she flees, she tells Larry, “Nothing about this is all right. I am ashamed, and I am probably ruined. Can’t you see what’s at stake here?”

Jacobson defended Marian’s regret in an interview with TV Insider. “Marian is a really interesting character in that she’s emblematic of this tension between movement forward into modernity while still being very steeped in very Victorian ideals of purity and morality,” she said. “We see seeds of her rebellion in her supporting universal suffrage, in her dedication to her work, in her questioning the social network of old money and all this, and yet she is still…a product of her time, so she has really internalized these values.”

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Marian isn’t at war with herself, but rather the “tight constraints that are placed upon her as a woman” in society, Jacobson added. “We don’t see Carrie Astor [Amy Forsyth] or Gladys Russell [Taissa Farmiga] going through these trials and tribulations,” she said. “If they did, if they were in Marian’s position, I think they would be having very similar reactions to this transgression of having pre-marital sex. [It’s] a very big deal for this time period.”

In a since-deleted Instagram Story screenshotted by fans, Jacobson shared a screengrab of a Google search about the consequences of premarital sex in the 1880s. It highlighted that women were heavily penalized for the act, while men were largely excused. “IYKYK,” Jacobson captioned the post.

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The actress is still rooting for Marian and Larry to be together. “They should be together,” Jacobson said in a video from the show’s official Instagram account. “They’re friends, they respect each other, they’re both artists… They’re great. They’re lovely, two lovely young people.”

Richardson also told TV Insider that Larry is full of instant regret, too, for causing Marian suffering. He’s facing the realization that “he might have just ruined his future of being married to her.” The ensuing fear Larry feels after having sex with Marian is something he will “grapple with through the season,” Richardson promised.

Are you hoping Larry and Marian find a way to overcome this new roadblock? Let us know in the comments below!

The Gilded Age, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO

— Reporting by Kelli Boyle