Trivia / The Gilded Age

• California Doubling: A more mild example than average. While much of the series is shot in authentic New York and Newport Gilded Age-era locales, some of them are not technically in New York City, but rather in other parts of the state such as Long Island, with effects added to make them look more like they are in the city. Justified, since much of New York City has changed too much in 140 years to film on location.
• Channel Hop: The series was originally to air on NBC but by January 2018 it moved to HBO and premiered there four years later in January 2022.
• Creator-Driven Successor: To Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes' previous TV series about the Idle Rich and their petty squabbles and the commoners that are content to serve them. (Though significantly, one would be hard-pressed to call George Russell "idle," or that all the servants are "content" to serve) When this series was in development it was actually supposed to be a Downton Abbey prequel in which young Robert Crawley came to America and met Cora Levinson. Could also be considered a Spiritual Prequel — while Downton Abbey began with the 1912 sinking of the Titanic, Season 1 of Gilded Age sets up the family (and a potential future appearance) of John Jacob Astor IV, the richest and most famous victim of the Titanic, 30 years prior to that disaster.
• The Danza: Thomas Cocquerel as Tom Raikes, Marian Brook's family lawyer.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Taissa Farmiga was in her mid-20s in the first season but playing a 17-year-old Gladys Russell.
  • Blake Ritson's Oscar van Rhijn is supposedly older than Gladys but still younger than her father George Russell, who calls Oscar a young jackanape, despite Morgan Spector being three years younger than Ritson.
  • Either this or Hollywood Old must be in play in the romance between Larry Russell and Susan Blane, as Larry's mother Bertha claims that Susan is old enough to be his mother and that Larry is half Susan's age. In reality, Harry Richardson was 30 and Laura Benanti 44 when Season 2 aired. Likewise, the actors playing Larry's mother and father are only 12 and 13 years older than Richardson, respectively.
• Divorced Installment: Like how Downton Abbey was originally conceived as a spin-off of Gosford Park, Fellowes had intended The Gilded Age to be a direct prequel to Downton Abbey retelling the life of Cora Levinson up until her marriage to Robert Crawley; eventually that turned into a historical series about the Vanderbilts before finally becoming the concept that made it to screens.
• Fake American: Americans Oscar van Rhijn, Larry Russell and Tom Raikes are played by Blake Ritson, who is English, and two Australians, Harry Richardson and Thomas Cocquerel, respectively. While Carrie Astor is portrayed by a Canadian, Amy Forsyth.
• Fake Nationality: The French Baudin and German Bauer are played by the Americans Douglas Sills and Kristine Nielsen respectively. Except Baudin isn't actually French, but Josh Borden from Wichita, Kansas.
• Hide Your Pregnancy: Carrie Coon was pregnant with her second child during the production of season one, leading to many scenes of Bertha being filmed from the chest up, or sitting behind a table or desk and even her costumes, especially the gown for Gladys's debutante ball, being tailored differently depending on when a scene was shot to disguise the bump. This was especially notable since because of the pandemic, scenes from the same episode could be filmed months apart from each other at different stages of Coon's pregnancy.
• The Other Marty: Amanda Peet was originally cast as Bertha Russell back in 2019, but was replaced by Carrie Coon in April 2020 because of production delays related to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
• Real-Place Background: While the show's 61st and Fifth Avenue is a back-lot set, the production team was able to utilize the wealth of period locations. For example, the Russells' ballroom is the music room of the Breakers, while their kitchen is that of the Elms, another Newport mansion (which would also later play the part of the Russells' Newport "cottage" in season 2). Shots for Downtown Manhattan are filmed in Troy, NY which has numerous examples of period architecture.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Early casting announcements from 2019, besides having Amanda Peet cast in the role of Bertha, had completely different backstories for Peggy and the Brooks. The Brooks would have come from the Southern planter aristocracy of Charleston, SC rather than being Bucks County, PA landowners with ties to the New York Livingstons, and Marian's father would have been a Confederate general rather than a Union one. Peggy would have entered the van Rhijn house posing as Marian's maid rather than being hired as Agnes's secretary and her family would all have been emancipated former slaves from West Virginia rather than Peggy being the freeborn daughter of a Southern freedman and Northern freeborn woman. Peggy's story was changed with input from Black writers to be less stereotypical.
  • Taissa Farmiga originally auditioned for the role of Marian Brook, only for her and the producers to feel she was ill-suited to the role, but thankfully they asked her to read for the role of Gladys Russell instead.
  • Early synopses released for the series described Larry as rakish and Marian as being on a mission to infiltrate the Russell family, neither of which is the case in the series as aired.

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