‘The Gilded Age’ Stars Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon on Their On- and Off-Screen Relationship

Tyler Coates
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The Gilded Age stars Christine Baranski and Cynthia Nixon go way back — they first shared the Broadway stage in 1984, when the Tony-winning Baranski played mother to Nixon in Tom Stoppard’s acclaimed play The Real Thing. “Who’s this young, gifted, charming woman?” Baranski recalls of first working with Nixon, who — nearly 40 years after their first collaboration — now plays Ada Brook, the sister to Baranski’s Agnes van Rhijn on Julian Fellowes’ historical HBO drama.

“I was already in awe of her,” says Nixon of working with her scene partner decades ago. “I was basically a kid, but we’re only 14 years apart. She was way too young to be my mother, but that didn’t occur to me at the time.”

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Adds Baranski with a laugh: “I loved playing her mother, and now I’m her older sister. Don’t you love showbiz?”

Among the starry ensemble that makes up the series — which includes fellow theater veterans Donna Murphy, Debra Monk, Audra McDonald and Nathan Lane — it’s Agnes and Ada who represent the “old money” of New York society, which is threatened by robber baron George Russell (Morgan Spector) and his determined wife, Bertha (Carrie Coon), who have moved into a mansion across the street. While much of the first season establishes the fractures the Russells create in polite society, season two expands the storylines and brings tension to Agnes and Ada’s relationship when the latter falls in love with a clergyman played by Robert Sean Leonard — much to Agnes’ fury.

The pair spoke with THR about their relationships with their characters — and with each other — and why The Gilded Age feels like being part of a theater troupe.

How did you two develop the strong yet sometimes tense sisterly bond between Agnes and Ada?

CYNTHIA NIXON In the first season, we were like an old married couple. Agnes is widowed, and she and Ada have lived together for so long.

CHRISTINE BARANSKI A marvelous actor once told me that the hardest thing to create, as actors, is a long marriage because there is a tonality and a language and a rhythm. Our initial scenes really concerned me, to get that right. But with Cynthia, because of our affection and our long history, it was way easier to just say, ‘OK, this is an actor I love,’ so we were off and running.

You two have both starred in comic and dramatic roles, but Agnes and Ada bring a lot of levity to the series. How do you find those moments of humor in your characters?

BARANSKI I think we smell it off the page. Julian has a wonderful, subtle way of revealing humor and irony in his characters. And it’s a wonderfully funny relationship, and identifiable. I have two daughters, and I know what that sister relationship is like. There’s one that dominates and one that has to be subservient. But what I love about the second season is that it goes deep into the household, with Ada falling in love and getting married. You see the depth of Agnes, this love for her sister, and it’s a great opportunity to reveal her vulnerability. When you set up a character who’s that rigid, that fixed and, frankly, quite mean most of the time, it’s wonderful to show that other side.

NIXON When you have a power imbalance in a relationship, the more powerful person can take the less powerful person for granted and assume they’ll always be there and actually not clock how much they depend on that other person for intimacy or affection.

I found Agnes’ reaction to Ada’s marriage quite human despite her anger and rudeness. At the end of the day, Ada’s gain is Agnes’ loss. 

BARANSKI You don’t see that story told often enough. That love began in childhood — Agnes was the older sister looking out for Ada. These things resonate decades later: “I can’t lose my little sister.”

NIXON Didn’t you tell me something the day that you came in [to the wedding scene] about your dress?

BARANSKI (As Agnes) “I’m saving this beautiful dress.” Our costume designer was going to have me in a different dress, but I so loved this dress. And I said, “Could I wear that at the wedding?” I said to Cynthia, “I want you to know, Ada, I’ve been saving this dress for a special occasion.” It’s one of those secrets actors tell each other, just so that makes that moment maybe even more special and specific.

NIXON Something shared between them that other people don’t know.

Ada’s courtship shows a different side of her. What was your approach to those scenes?

NIXON I was very lucky to have Robert Sean Leonard as my suitor. He and I go not quite as far back as Christine, but two years shy of it. He and I played brother and sister in his very first professional play, and we have really been good friends ever since. He’s such an amazing actor, and he does period so well. He is also a person who has a lot of access to his emotions, and you don’t always find that with male actors. To play these two very emotional people [who have] found each other and can’t contain their excitement — for both of them, it’s a chance that they thought they had missed.

BARANSKI It happens so fast because the actors connect so beautifully, but the nature of those two personalities you go, “Oh, of course Agnes smells that immediately.” [Agnes sees how Ada] looks at him and how she’s all suddenly so girlish, and Agnes starts making fun of her — like, calm down.

NIXON Agnes is the powerful, smart, strong, successful one who has had everything — who got the money, who got the family out of debt, who was married, who has a son. Ada has nothing; she lives on her sister’s charity. She’s a quiet spinster in the house trying to not upset the applecart. All of a sudden, not only is she on the verge of, in Agnes’ view, abandoning her, but she has grabbed the brass ring in a way that Agnes never could. She actually has found a soulmate.

The cast of the show is a cavalcade of great theater performers — just like your other series, The Good Wife, The Good Fight, Sex and the City and And Just Like That. Does it feel like you’re a part of a bigger New York tribe of actors? 

BARANSKI It is like a theater company. People walk in as guest actors to play just one scene and suddenly you’re like, “Oh, Manhattan Theatre Club! Playwrights Horizons! I’ve seen your work, you’ve seen my work!” There’s an immediate community when you cast New York actors. It’s a revolving door of talent, and also work ethic — people show up on time, they know their lines, they hit their marks.

NIXON I did not know a lot of the young [castmembers]. That has been one of the real joys. Of course I’m thrilled to be in this show with Nathan Lane, Kelli O’Hara, Audra McDonald and John Douglas Thompson. It’s the best of on- and off-Broadway, but that the young people are also extraordinary is such a thrill.

This story first appeared in a December standalone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.

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