The Gilded Age star Christine Baranski teases Agnes’ ‘fall from grace’ in ‘high drama’ season three
The actor portrays Agnes van Rhijn in the hit period drama
The cast and crew of The Gilded Age are hard at work on season three. With production commencing in July, Louisa Jacobson and Carrie Coon have been posting behind-the-scenes snaps from the set in New York, and the show has also given fans a first look.
Louise and Carrie, who are set to reprise their roles as Marian Brook and Bertha Russell, have been working on the series alongside Christine Baranski – aka Agnes van Rhijn – and in a new interview, the 72-year-old actress has teased what’s to come for her character.
Delving into Agnes’ arc, Christine teased the matriarch’s ‘fall from grace’ in season three. Speaking to Deadline, she said: “She’s suddenly not the head of the household, which you can tell from the way Season 2 ended, that this proud haughty lady who was used to being number one is suddenly not that. So that fall from grace and that fall from power, that’s always such a delicious thing to play, and the fall of a King is just as exciting as the rise.”
Noting that it’s time for Agnes to “eat humble pie,” Christine added: “It’s as eventful as Season 2, because Season 1 was largely establishing all those characters. It was a lot of exposition, but I think the reason Season 2 was so exciting to people is they were already invested in these characters, they knew the world of The Gilded Age and they were ready to go with the high drama. So that’s pretty much continuing into Season 3.”
While details surrounding the latest instalment remain scarce, Christine isn’t the only one to shed light on the new episodes. In an interview with TV Line, series creator Julian Fellowes suggested that as a result of Marian and Larry’s blossoming romance, her aunt Agnes could have more scenes with fan favourite, Bertha Russell, aka Larry’s mother.
“It might be quite nice to involve them in some situation that didn’t depend on them liking each other but where they both had to turn up,” reflected Julian. “I think that we might look for some dramatic situations that would provide that.”
Julian has also opened up about the historical context for season three. “The Gilded Age was very mixed. There were all these tremendous businesses and banks — all before there were rules governing them,” he said to The Hollywood Reporter. “It was a complete free-for-all. What I like to emphasise is that behind the ballrooms and the clothes and the carriages, these giant men with these enormous egos were doing things.”
