The Gilded Age—the opulent HBO Max historical drama featuring extravagant period costumes, enchanting romance, and an all-star cast of spectacular actors bringing great joy and compelling entertainment for viewers—finally returns for its third season on June 22 and the long wait was worth it.
To celebrate the new season, the majority of the show’s sprawling cast (more than 30 members!) joined series creator Julian Fellowes at the Tribeca Festival in New York City on Thursday evening for the show’s world premiere. They debuted season three’s first episode and participated in a Q&A session that attracted hundreds of fans to the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center. Fellowes, who brilliantly wrote every episode with executive producer Sonja Warfield, and his company of actors, yet again deliver a sublime show in its third installment that’s filled with funny and poignant moments and continues to teach lessons in American history, mainly social issues in New York’s late-1800s.
Denée Benton, Carrie Coon, Morgan Spector, Julian Fellowes, Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Louisa Jacobson
Photo: Dave Allocca / Starpix
The season two finale aired about a year-and-a-half ago, but season three’s new storyline picks up only a few months later. Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) and her new beau, Larry Russell (Harry Richardson), are secretly courting due to her recent failed engagement to another suitor from season two. Marian’s aunt Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) is busy adjusting to her new life without money, and submitting to her widowed sister, Ada Forte (Cynthia Nixon), not always practical actions, who is now in charge of the household and finances.
“I admire Ada’s heart and how she loves her sister, her niece,” Nixon told The Knockturnal on the red carpet about her character. “Now she’s come to have a lot of money and a lot of power, but even when that wasn’t the case, her devotion was unwavering. From her non-elevated position in the household and society, she really fought hard to protect her niece and her sister, who can be a little brusque and bossy in treating people, but Ada was so grateful to her. She also made sure to be loyal and loving, even though Agnes seems like she doesn’t need it, but everybody needs it.”
As for the downstairs servants of the Van Rhijn-Forte household, footman Jack Trotter (Ben Ahlers) waits anxiously as Larry Russell begins pitching presentations with potential buyers for his newly patented alarm clock design. As Trotter waits for this possible life-changing opportunity that may improve his social standing and economic prospects, he’s met with some challenges from other servants, who tell him that he is overstepping his position as a servant.
“The 1880s and the 2020s are very similar in that they are both profoundly dynamic times, and that change happened very quickly, and what Jack does so well is that he stays very present and is very connected with his community,” Ahlers said about his amiable character before the screening. “And he has this radical optimism that he puts into action, trying to find one way to propel himself forward amid the chaos. So, to be hanging out with him for the last five years in this turbulent time has been a really great mirror anytime I get too far off track. He keeps it so light and backs it up with hard work so that nothing goes down. He always tries to find the joke and has a wink him. I try to keep that sense of play in the day-to-day of my own life.”
Over at the Russell mansion, Larry’s younger sister, Gladys (Taissa Farmiga), is sneaking around with her meek suitor, Billy Carlton (Matt Walker), even though her mother, Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) forbids it and wants to marry her off to the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb). Bertha is a very savvy, cunning, and an ambitious woman who is determined to get whatever she deems appropriate. Fans admire her unwavering pursuit of social acceptance and how she uses her immense wealth and position to achieve her goals. What does Coon admire the most about Bertha? “She’s very uncompromising, and sometimes that’s really helpful,” she said before the screening. “And useful and important.”
Meanwhile, Bertha’s husband, mega-wealthy railroad tycoon George Russell (Morgan Spector), is focused on his work and using any means to acquire the land and money needed to build a cross-country railroad line. George continues to be a complex character in season three due to his ruthless business tactics and his determination to win every challenge. For Spector, portraying this duality is great for him as an actor. “In some ways, his faults and his virtues are perceived from the same strength. He has a kind of confidence and belief in his capacity to understand the world that allows him to be utterly ruthless, but extremely loving to his wife and daughter,” Spector said. “That strength is something that I admire about him, but it’s also something that can lead to danger, as it does this season.”
In season three, Peggy Scott (played by the remarkable Denée Benton), the Brooklyn-based reporter and writer who also works as Agnes’ secretary, gets more of a juicier storyline. Through Peggy, viewers get an inside look at Black high society. Peggy meets William Kirkland (Jordan Donica), a young doctor, and their courtship blossoms in Newport, R.I., where his affluent parents, Elizabeth (Phylicia Rashad) and Frederick (Brian Stokes Mitchell), live.
Julian Fellowes, Carrie Coon, Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon
Photo: Dave Allocca / Starpix
Immediately following the screening of the first new episode, Fellowes and cast members Baranski, Coon, Spector, Nixon, Jacobson, and Benton gathered on the stage for a panel discussion discussing the show. Nixon revealed that it takes her longer to get dressed for her role as Miranda in And Just Like That compared to getting ready as Ada and wearing a period costume. “They plop a wig on your head, there’s really not that much makeup, and [the costume designer] can get us in those dresses in like seven minutes,” she said.
The evening’s celebration continued at Cipriani 25 Broadway for a lavish afterparty. Guests were treated to a buffet style dinner featuring pasta, endless shrimp and oysters as well as steak. The cast mingled with friends and family and even Baranski, Coon and Jacobson were spotted hitting the dance floor together. As the bash raged on, Fellowes’s message about the series was even more palpable.
Christine Baranski, Louisa Jacobson, Carrie Coon
Photo: Dave Allocca / Starpix
“I hope people will learn and take away from everything that I do is the sense that the men and women living then were very much like the men and women living now,” he said. “Seeing them in different ways—as sometimes people do—is a mistake. They may have different prejudices and interests, but the basics of being a human being goes on through every generation, and that’s what I hope the audience will see. We are the same, and we need to support each other.”
