Bertha (Carrie Coon) fights for the right to a night at the opera now…
The Gilded Ageis back and bitchier than ever.
“That might beg the question, do people really care that much about opera?
Carrie Coon on ‘The Gilded Age’.Barbara Nitke/HBO
But Bertha cares about it greatly.
“And then across the season, perhaps she even wants to run it.”
And that promises to bring plenty of drama when season 2 premieres at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Oct. 29.
The upper crust ladies of ‘The Gilded Age’.Barbara Nitke/HBO
DAVID CROCKETT:That’s the thing.
She’s got a foot in the door, but Agnes certainly doesn’t accept her.
And Mrs. Astor puts up with her, if you will.
Christine Baranski on ‘The Gilded Age’.Barbara Nitke/HBO
Mrs. Astor is the gatekeeper.
She will allow you to have a box at the Academy.
There are only a handful of boxes at the Academy of Music, which is the primary opera house.
Audra McDonald and Denee Benton in ‘The Gilded Age’.Barbara Nitke/HBO
You either get in or you don’t.
And there’s a long list.
Bertha is not jumping the line, so she is not accepted into that opera house.
‘The Gilded Age’ season 2.Barbara Nitke/HBO
We base a lot of this on true events.
In 1883 there was the Academy of Music, which was the principal house.
It’s like a country club.
So they decided to fund and to kick off the Metropolitan Opera House.
It was really a throw down and a competition.
Are you going to go with Mrs. Astor?
As usual,George cares more about his businessinterests than their social standing.
What challenges might he face this year?
Much of his story revolves around union troubles, as he calls them.
The labor question was sweeping the country around this time.
They could merely exist or subsist.
Henderson has some pretty strong demands for his men.
George Russell responds as you would expect.
It leads to a grand conflict.
And how hard might that make it for us to root for George this year?
We didn’t really think about our industry in coming up with the story.
But also when you look at our time, there are similarities.
Now it is that way again.
The pendulum has swung back.
But it’s playing out again.
It’s an issue of our time.
Some of the robber barons that George was based on, they were complex.
They could be downright evil as we would look at them today in business terms.
Then when they would come home, they would be great fathers and great family men.
So we will be rooting for him at times, but at other times, decidedly not.
Might she set her cap for someone new this season?
And where might Larry Russell (Harry Richardson) come into play there?
Marian continues her quest to find her way in the world.
She’s still quite young and very new to New York.
Agnes is always there to provide suggestions.
Early in the season, a distant cousin is in town and is a possible match for Marian.
She pursues that tepidly because she does have other interests.
Having just come off of Raikes, she is a little wary.
But there could be some tension there.
We ended with Peggy learning that her son that was given up for adoption is actually alive.
What might that journey and rediscovering that part of herself look like this season?
With the help of Dorothy, her mother, she does locate her son in Philadelphia.
As we bring up the season, it’s Easter morning for everyone.
The Russells and the New York elites are going to their church in New York.
The downstairs folks are going to their smaller, more modest churches.
Peggy is in Philadelphia attending church with the people who raised her son since birth.
That doesn’t go the way she had hoped.
She spends much of the rest of the season throwing herself into her work.
And she does some traveling.
She establishes herself as a strong voice in her community.
She also gets a little closer to her boss, and that has some unexpected consequences.
We have all these downstairs characters with rich lives.
We learned a lot about the backstory of George a.k.a.
What can we expect for all of them this year?
They were somebody to bring in your tea.
They’re the main character in their own story.
Watson continues his journey to reconnect with his daughter.
He is thrown together with her in an unexpected circumstance, which forces the issue.
Mrs. Bruce (Celia Keenan-Bolger) and Borden particularly.
He endeavors to give a shot to solve that problem.
It could lead to some interesting possibilities for Jack outside of the house.
You could start out as a servant and in one generation become part of a different class.
Could you tease this season as a whole?
It’s everybody trying to secure their positions more.
Certainly everybody doesn’t do that, but people are understanding life is complicated.
Whereas last year we met everybody, we got to know them.
This season is about understanding them a little bit better and empathizing with them.
Can you sum up the season in three words?
I don’t know if I can.
There’s so much pageantry, there’s so much extravagance, there’s so much beauty.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
The Gilded Ageseason 2 premieres Oct. at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO.
