From Budding Romance to Labour Disruption, Julian Fellowes Says Season 2 of THE GILDED AGE Illuminates Human Nature

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede Love may not conquer all, but it is the launching pad for juicy storytelling, according to Julian Fellowes. “Love is a pretty fundamental part of most of our lives – the greatest mistakes we ever make, and the times we make most fools of ourselves, are usually connected in some way to love,” said Fellowes, the creator of HBO’s THE GILDED AGE. He was referring specifically to Season 2 of the series, which debuts Sunday, Oct. 29, only on Crave. “I feel that it’s good to show your characters in love, as it allows you to take them into areas where they wouldn’t normally go if they were feeling sane and sensible,” said Fellowes during a moderated panel session. “We use love in this season – I don’t know if I’m really supposed to say this – but in a way to show particularly who Ada (played by Cynthia Nixon) really is. We have seen one side of her as the dominated sister, as the compliant sort of aide of her sister Agnes (played by Christine Baranski). But there’s more to (Ada) than that. She has an emotional dimension that we’ve glimpsed at times (in Season 1), but never really seen. In this season, we do see it. And I think we were very, very lucky to get the two actors we have to play their story.” THE GILDED AGE, of course, is set in the American Gilded Age in the 1880s, which was a period of immense economic change, and great conflict between the old ways and new ideas. Season 2 begins with the news that Bertha Russell – who is played by Carrie Coon, and represents the kind of ostentatious “new money” that appalls Agnes and her ilk – has been rejected in her bid for a box at the Academy of Music in New York City. An angry but determined Bertha continues to challenge the established order as Season 2 progresses, while her husband George (Morgan Spector) battles an emerging union at his steel plant in Pittsburgh, Peggy (Denée Benton) taps into her activist spirit, and Marian (Louisa Jacobson) dares to be defiant. THE GILDED AGE does not shy away from the serious issues of the era, even as it maintains its lavish look, with all the extravagant costumes, and the luxury on display. “When you look at Agnes and Ada, their clothes are beautiful, but slightly 1870s in their outline, with the bustle a little larger than it would really be worn in the 1880s, and all of this stuff,” observed Fellowes, who previously created DOWNTON ABBEY. “But then you look at Bertha, and she’s completely cutting-edge. This is the absolute top design, top of the year probably – you know, in two weeks her clothes would be out of fashion for her, and she’d move on to the next design. I mean, all of that is in Kasia’s (Kasia Walicka Maimone, costume designer) telling of their story through their clothes. And I really appreciate that. I mean, I won’t moan about how rare it is, but I will say, it’s jolly nice when it comes along.” Regarding the union storyline, Fellowes reaffirmed that his interest in this time period goes far beyond the eye-candy element. “The strike thing is interesting to me because it’s sort of the other side of the robber baron story,” Fellowes said. “On one level, there are these men with their beautiful wives, smothered in diamonds, in their tiaras, walking into dining rooms lined with gold plating, and so on. And so this is the other bit, this is how you make the money. The workers had really no rights at all. I mean, nothing. Safety measures were too expensive. They had no protection, and there was no comeback. They (the robber barons) had no taxes – of course, that in itself is rather paradisiacal, but nevertheless, other aspects of it make you pretty uncomfortable when you realize that people were earning their livings by putting their lives at risk every day. So I rather wanted to expose that in the show, but also examine it.” Ultimately, Fellowes sees THE GILDED AGE as both a look back, and a profile of human nature. “We all know modern equivalents of practically every character, which is quite deliberate,” Fellowes said. “I think human nature doesn’t alter much. Electricity alters things, and tires, and AI. But human nature is pretty constant, with its jealousies, and rivalries, and depression, and threats, and triumphs, and all the rest of it, that we get to witness firsthand.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv