HBO’s The Gilded Age started filming its premiere season in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. While pandemic filming provided its own challenges, it did have a brilliant side effect. Given its New York-centered filming locations, the series could tap into a newly unemployed talent pool: Broadway-honed actors.
Enter Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Carrie Coon, Morgan Spector, Audra McDonald, and dozens more brilliant actors thanks to the keen eyes of Gilded Age casting directors Bernard Telsey and Adam Caldwell. Their connections and networking capabilities brought this top talent to Sir Julian Fellowes’ study of New York shortly before the advent of the 20th century. The show explores the innovations, social change, and continued class inequality within New York society during this time of massive upheaval.
Set to wrap its critically acclaimed second season on Sunday, The Gilded Age continues to provide Telsey and Caldwell the opportunity to pull from the deep pockets of Broadway talent. In fact, it’s a little bit like collecting Broadway actors like Pokémon.
Here, Telsey and Caldwell talk about the opportunities that season two afforded them in terms of bringing new talent to the series. They revel in the excellent choices they made for season one and remark upon the growth of their original selections as the series matures. They also talk about what unique characteristics an actor must have to be able to accurately replicate a late 19th century persona. Finally, they reveal how Sir Julian Fellows stepped in to help cast a key role within season two: that of The Duke of Buckingham.
Awards Daily: You’ve worked across both seasons of The Gilded Age, and you’ve been able to tap into a wealth of Broadway-based talent. First, what was it like looking at your casting choices as they played out through season one and evolved in season two?
Bernard Telsey: It’s like Christmas. It’s like all these presents, right? Broadway actors have been working in television forever, but there are so many of them on one show. They’re getting to act off each other. Whether it’s the house across the street or upstairs / downstairs, it’s just like Christmas morning, you know what I mean? Every day, there’s a new present. Usually, we get to cast one or two theater actors, and here we get to cast all 20-something of them. So, it’s just so exciting.
Adam Caldwell: It also bleeds into their joy as well, just from getting to hear their experience in season one and going into season two, that a lot of people have personal connections or overlapping relationships with other people who are involved. It’s led by Michael Engler who leads with a strong sense of kindness and artistry that everyone just seemed to have a really a good time. To know the process has been rewarding for them and then also seeing how it all comes together on screen, it’s really lovely.
Awards Daily: When you’re looking at newer roles that come up in season two, for example opportunities for Laura Benanti and Robert Sean Leonard, do you have a laundry list of ‘Wish List’ actors that you want for the show? Or is it really strictly looking at the role first and then seeing who’s available?
Adam Caldwell: It’s the role, right? The way we work is never about trying to manipulate a role for a certain person. It has to come from who feels right for this role? Who can we be talking about that brings the right qualities?
Bernard Telsey: What’s nice with this is we might hear about the roll from Julian and Michael [Engler] and then we could use our theater lists. We know Michael goes to see as many plays as Adam as I do, and he’s going to respond to that. That’s what’s a little different than say some other shows. We’re not having to come up with a list of people that were on ten other television shows. We’re coming up with people who are in ten other plays because we know this team really responds to that. So that’s what makes it different and exciting.
Awards Daily: Looking at those two new major additions – Laura Benanti and Robert Sean Leonard – both characters are specifically tied emotionally to series regulars. Walk me through the process of ensuring someone new is a good fit for the kind of roles that have such impact on series regulars.
Adam Caldwell: It’s a case by case basis. We were lucky enough to have Cynthia Nixon wanting to be involved in the process. We did get a chance to have them in a room together to meet with Michael and look at some of the material just to see how it all felt.
Bernard Telsey: It wasn’t a proper audition by any means. It was because Julian doesn’t know all of these theater actors and what people are like, presently. So that was great. They were able to build on their history together, and we can show that to all the other people.
Awards Daily: Given the overall restraint characterized in the period, how does that come out in a casting session? There are probably a lot of actors who would come across as stiff.
Adam Caldwell: I mean, again, a lot of times it’s tied to past work or just seeing how they approach it. If we’re doing an audition process with someone, occasionally, we’ll have Howard Samuelsohn, the dialect coach, weigh in on various auditions. But I think the shorthand is better now for season two, right? There was a lot more conversations about that and figuring it out in the room with people during season one. Now that the world’s established, actors are smart enough to have seen some or all of the show and have a little bit better grasp of the style. But it was a big thing during the first part of it because what was the standard back then is not something you can point to easily now. Howard does a great job of working with them and listening and trying to keep things consistent for the world of the show.
Awards Daily: What was the most challenging part to cast in season two?
Adam Caldwell: I don’t really feel like there was a moment where we were totally stuck. The Duke’s casting was really interesting because we were approaching that through Julian’s ear for the appropriate language, which was really important to him since he knows that world. So we did have that process looking at actual Brits, and his ear’s so attuned to the class of dialect that he would have a lot of input about the specific dialect that he’s looking for, where they would have learned their actual accent, or have been raised with it. That was a specific instance. We were getting more feedback specifically from Julian and on a case by case basis about what he was seeing.
Bernard Telsey: What was so wonderful with this is they had all the scripts written up front or they had the outlines of these characters. So we got to start early as opposed to some television shows, you have a week to cast something. We knew who was coming in which episode so we could start casting much earlier with Michael and the team.
Adam Caldwell: I would add that one of the logistical challenges that we’re up against is beating costume deadlines. This show has to be cast so far out and so much further out than a normal television show so they can actually build the costumes correctly, which takes time because they’re so intricate. Sometimes that deadline feels like the most stressful thing.
Awards Daily: Speaking of the Duke, what else would you have looked for to help him achieve the presence that I think he needs for the show?
Adam Caldwell: Kind of a charisma, I would say, that is really appealing for Bertha. Someone who feels like there would be kind of appropriate friendship there with her or attraction chemically between the two of them. A slight playfulness, I would say. I don’t know if we can say too much because there are plans moving into the future for the role that were shared with us. He certainly needs to feel important and attractive. We do a lot of casting that’s in comparison and contrasting who we already have on the show, what they look like, and how they may be made to look different. Energetically and physically, how do they fit into our world and how we define them with what they bring to it.
The Gilded Age airs its season two finale Sunday night on HBO. Stream all episodes on MAX.
