The Gilded Age is back, baby!! Not only in the economic climate of our country, but on our TV screens. After two long years, we finally get to head back to New York with Bertha, George and the whole crew. While last season’s main drama was the battle for top opera house, this season seems to be squarely focused on Gladys’s marriage, with the premiere episode giving us a little bait-and-switch. We are reintroduced to Gladys’s love interest Billy only to be reminded that Bertha still has bigger plans for her daughter, namely the Duke of Buckingham.
Will Bertha pull it off and get the match she wants? Will forcing Gladys into marriage ruin Bertha’s relationship with George? Does Billy Carlton stand a chance? Cosmopolitan hopped on Zoom with Carrie Coon, who plays Bertha, and Morgan Spector, who plays George, to talk through the season premiere.
Where do you think Bertha and George’s marriage stands going into the season? In some ways, they seem further apart than they have been before.
CC: And what’s interesting is I don’t think they realize how far apart they actually are. Bertha certainly doesn’t realize how far apart they are.
MS: I think that’s right. The minute that George understands why the Duke came to the ball, he starts to feel like Bertha has nefarious intentions with regard to Gladys. When they first start to have these discussions, they assume they’re going to be able to resolve it, and it quickly turns out that that’s not going to be the case.
Their marriage exists in a way where they each have their own sides of the deal, but it feels like this might be the one time where they’re not able to reconcile the sides.
CC: Our values are not really aligned in this moment, even though Bertha is very confident things will work out.
Why do you think Bertha is so quick to put aside her daughter’s happiness for this match?
CC: She believes that she is actually supplying her daughter with happiness in the long term. She doesn’t believe that this puppy love is going to last, and the young man doesn’t really rise to the occasion. He caves, and she doesn’t feel he has the character that will sustain Gladys in a fulfilling life, in a life that gives her a sense of purpose. And what she wants is for her daughter to have power and influence in the in all facets of the world. And unfortunately, the way she does that is through marriage. It will also elevate the family status, which in her mind, is something she’s doing for George to help his business interests. So Bertha’s feeling very selfless in her pursuits. She’s feeling like everything she’s doing is for the good of her family, and she feels profoundly misunderstood.
It’s very convenient that her being selfless could end with a Duke in their family.
MS: Isn’t it just?
CC: He’s lovely. Bertha really likes him. They had a charming first dinner. We remember this. It was delightful to see them together.
MS: They did. It was very charming.
That is the thing about Billy, though, is that I don’t think Gladys would be very happy with him either. You can’t marry someone who can’t stand up to your dad.
MS: Absolutely not. And George doesn’t think so either. And I think that’s also part of why George’s advocacy for Gladys kind of falls flat, because the only real ace that he has in up his sleeve is Billy, and Billy utterly fails.
Well, why doesn’t George put up a bigger fight?
MS: George is outmatched in Bertha’s sphere of influence. I don’t think he truly understands the stakes for a woman at this time, what Bertha is trying to accomplish with Gladys’s marriage. He’s coming from the privileged position of, well, I had a love match, and that worked out for me. I want that for my daughter. And that’s as far as he’s thought about it. He has believed, erroneously it turns out, that he’s going to be able to just put his foot down and Bertha will retreat. And when she doesn’t, when she marshals all of these arguments about how much this marriage could mean for Gladys, George really doesn’t have a sufficient reply. George has misjudged his adversary in this.
CC: And to be fair, you’re very distracted. The railroad across the country is is very high stakes gamble you’re taking and gambling our entire livelihood, which he’s not being entirely honest about.
MS: No, it’s true. George is also caught up in his own massive commercial drama.
It seems like Bertha really does have no idea what George is up to and what he’s risking.
CC: She figures he’ll figure it out. She says that she’s comfortable going back to scrubbing her own floors, but that’s not true. There’s much more Parker Posey in White Lotus in her than she lets on.
MS: There is an interesting contrast, because in the first season, George risks it all on another occasion, and Bertha says, bring it on. I’ll gamble with you anytime. And I think it’s clear in this third season, that’s not the case. She has too much now. She’s too high up the ladder in New York society to let it go.
How do you think Bertha pushing Gladys into this marriage will not only impact her relationship with Gladys, but with the two men in her family?
CC: That’s the crux of the biscuit for her this year. She’s not really taking them into consideration. The fact that her son starts slipping away from her is pretty startling. She’s had a fairly easy time dealing with Larry, and the fact that he starts to take a stand against her in a very real way is surprising. It shouldn’t be, but because she’s so myopic about her goal, it is.
One of the things I love about Bertha and George as a couple is that they still have the hots for each other. How do you think they keep their spark alive?
MS: They’re both turned on by power, and they’re both engaged in this never-ending quest for more and that. And they also have quite separate lives. They have a lot of autonomy in terms of how they express their ambition. That charge is something that they can rely on. They’re both pursuing power, they’re both turned on by power, and they’re getting more and more of it all the time.
CC: Yes. There’s a lot of vitality required for that kind of pursuit.
That’s something I’ve always loved about them as a couple. They’re such a team. They’re not only married, but they have these common goals. And most of the time they work together so gracefully.
CC: Yeah, that’s it. It’s respect.
MS: It’s camaraderie.
CC: If you don’t respect your partner the relationship will not last. It will fall apart, I promise you. Morgan and I both have very egalitarian and respectful marriages. And it’s fun to play a healthy marriage. There’s a lot of material. Oftentimes marriages are in trouble in drama land, in TV show land. And actually the healthy marriage is just as interesting and just as complicated.
MS: Marriage is often presented in drama as a trap that constrains your individuality. It’s a thing that stops you from expressing yourself, and it’s a thing that keeps you from being free. In my life, I certainly find the opposite. I find that there’s tremendous freedom in being in that kind of relationship. That’s part of what’s in these characters, as well as being each other’s biggest supporter, they’re both each other’s biggest advocate. They’re both trying to make sure that the other person is fulfilled. And in that kind of relationship, there can be tremendous freedom. So although George does have that great line about marriage not being the place to look for freedom, that’s not necessarily reflective of their relationship.
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