The Gilded Age’s sumptuous premiere episode was a visual feast of set design and costuming; it also put forth several storylines we can’t wait to follow. But how much of that plot is historically accurate and can we expect to see any real-life historical figures—not to mention a Season 2? Get answers to all your questions about HBO’s new series, The Gilded Age. (Warning: spoilers for the first episode ahead!)
Who is in The Gilded Age cast?
Marian Brook, the fictitious young woman at the center of the HBO drama, is played by Louisa Jacobson, the real-life daughter of Meryl Streep. As a New York City newbie, Marian befriends Peggy Scott (Denée Benton, who you may remember from UnREAL), an African-American woman who’s seeking a fresh start in the city with plans of becoming a writer. Marian is taken in by her old-money aunts, Agnes (The Good Fight’s Christine Baranski) and Ada (Cynthia Nixon). Agnes in particular is rankled by the arrival of industry-driven “new money” in New York, represented by railroad tycoon George Russell (MorganSpencer) and his socially ambitious wife Bertha (CarrieCoon), who move in across the street from Agnes and Ada.
Is The Gilded Age based on a true story?
The Gilded Age is not based on a true story, though it takes place in a real historical time period and weaves in real-life individuals central to its themes, such as the Astors, who made their fortune in the fur trade and were considered one of the pillars (if not the pillar) of New York’s upper-crust society. The great-grandson of U.S. President John Quincy Adams is put forward by Aunt Agnes as a possible suitor for Marian, though we find out by the first episode’s end that his affections are already claimed by Marian’s cousin Oscar. Stanford White, the architect behind the Russells’ palatial home, was a real architect who designed Rosecliff Mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, which in the show is featured as the exterior of the mysteriously scandalous Mrs. Chamberlain’s (Jeanne Tripplehorn) home. Season 1 will also introduce Clara Barton (Linda Emond), founder of the American Red Cross, and T. Thomas Fortune (Sullivan Jones), an African-American journalist who ran the New York Age newspaper and in 1887 founded the National Afro-American League, one of the precursors to the NAACP. Also look for Nathan Lane in a recurring role as Ward McAllister, self-proclaimed arbiter of social taste, who published “The Four Hundred,” a list of the only fashionably acceptable people in New York. Mr. McAllister’s patron? Mrs. Caroline Astor.
Was The Gilded Age’s George Russell a real person?
One of fans’ biggest Season 1 questions is whether new money “robber baron” George Russell (played on the series by MorganSpector) ever existed in real life. As Fellowes has revealed on the official Gilded Age podcast, Russell is a fictional version of a real historical figure—and Spector has suggested that his character’s real-life counterpart is railroad magnate of the late 1800s, Jay Gould. “He is a 19th century industrialist, a robber baron,” Spector said in a promo video about the similarities between his character and the actual Gould. “Gould was really vilified in the papers at the time. He was someone who became a kind of living embodiment of all of the inequalities of the era. He has such insane levels of power and sometimes he uses them on really vulnerable people and just crushes them like ants… There’s an aspect of George where he gives his own fury free rein sometimes [that is] almost inhuman.” View this post on Instagram
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When is the Gilded Age time period?
The series opens in 1882, smack dab in the middle of the Gilded Age, which historians mark as running from the 1870s through the 1890s, between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the 20th century. It is a period marked by a flurry of technological and industrial advancements starting off by the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 (viewers of the first episode of The Gilded Age will note how thoroughly integrated the train schedules are in the lives of these characters). The next 20 years saw the invention of the telephone, the phonograph, the Kodak camera, streetcars and electric power stations capable of delivering electricity to individual homes. The Gilded Age gets its name from Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, published in 1873. It’s a satirical look at greed and political corruption involving land speculation. Twain and Warner derived the term “gilded age” to mark its distinction from the Golden Age, and took their inspiration from Shakespeare’s King John: “To gild refined gold, to paint the lily… Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.” The theme of lavish and excessive displays of wealth is certainly carried through this series.
Where was The Gilded Age filmed?
Filming on The Gilded Age took place largely in New York and Rhode Island, with the Rhode Island resort town of Newport standing in for both itself and New York at various times. Various historic homes built during the actual Gilded Age era and now operated by the Preservation Society of Newport County were used for exterior and interior shots. The first episode of The Gilded Age features a party in Newport hosted by Mrs. Fish. The estate used for her mansion is known as The Ledges, a summer home built in 1867 by tea-and-china merchant Robert Cushing and now owned by his descendants. The Russells’ grand house features rooms from a few different Newport mansions. Their ballroom was partly a set designed on Long Island but some scenes were filmed in the music room of The Breakers, a summer home commissioned by CorneliusVanderbilt and built in the 1890s. The kitchens are taken from The Elms, summer residence of coal tycoon Julius Berwind and his wife. The Château-sur-Mer, built by merchant William Shepard Wetmore in the 1850s and considered the grandest of the Newport estates until the Vanderbilts arrived, stands in for several different homes and rooms. Its exterior is used for Mrs. Caroline Astor’s Beechwood House, the boarding house is used for a scene with Oscar van Rhijn, and another room serves as Agnes van Rhijn’s bedroom. Filming also took place in Tarrytown and Long Island, NY. For the streets of 1882 New York, Fifth Avenue in particular, filming took place in Troy, NY. Says location manager Lauri Pitkus, “Troy is the most exciting thing to see in The Gilded Age…We selected four to five blocks that we dressed. We had the cooperation of every store owner and we refaced all the buildings with our signage and it was pretty spectacular. The architecture is there so we could have long-lens shots from the areas where we dressed and in the background, you can see the continuation of 1850s row houses.” Troy’s Monument Square features in the show’s fourth episode, where Marian and Peggy make a shopping excursion together. Finally, one location needed no touch-ups or redressing: Central Park’s Bethesda Terrace and Fountain, built in the 1860s and featured in the second episode. COVID restrictions made shooting this popular location easier, and there was space to set up tents nearby for background actors to get into costume and simply walk to the set.
Who designed The Gilded Age costumes?
Can you have a discussion about a period drama without discussing the clothes? Obviously no, but especially not when one of the central characters goes through seven costume changes in a single episode. Costume designer Kasia Walicka-Maimone notes that New York fashions were heavily influenced by Parisian and European designers. Bertha Russell’s outfits are ornamented, and feature elaborate headpieces. Her lavish and brightly colored clothes stand in sharp relief to the Old Guard’s muted jewel tones. The show used a team of 65 clothing designers to create about 5,000 different costumes.
Is The Gilded Age a prequel to Downton Abbey?
Like Downton, The Gilded Age was created and written by Fellowes, but that is the only connection between the two series. It was reported back in 2012 that Fellowes had an idea for a prequel to Downton Abbey that would center on the courtship between Lord Grantham and Cora, but when The Gilded Age came to take shape, it was clearly a separate entity focusing on Marian Brook and Peggy Scott. Work on the show was put on the back burner while Downton Abbey wrapped up. After years of research, writing, and revisions, the series was set to air on NBC in 2019, but moved that year to HBO with a 10-episode order. The Gilded Age was set to start filming in March 2020, but quickly ran into delays due to COVID-19.
Will The Guilded Age have a second season?
There’s no word yet on whether The Gilded Age has been renewed at HBO for a second season, though Radio Times reports that Fellowes is already working out ideas. Says executive producer Gareth Neame, “The truth is, we’re always getting the second season ready long before we know whether it goes ahead or not…Because, you know, the moment we know we’re going ahead, we have to start.” Next, How to Throw a Downton Abbey Tea Party
