‘The Gilded Age’ Star Taissa Farmiga Unpacks That Life-Altering Decision

[This story contains spoilers from season three, episode four of The Gilded Age.]

Who Gladys Russell will marry has been one of the most compelling storylines for The Gilded Age’s explosive third season. While Gladys very much wants to marry for love, her mother Bertha has pushed her to marry Hector, the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb), which will in turn make her a Duchess. Because Bertha (Carrie Coon) and her husband George (Morgan Spector), an industrialist, began the series with the disdained tag as “new money” with no social status, Bertha being able to marry her daughter Gladys off to the Duke in a lavish ceremony with all the right people in attendance at the end of episode four’s “Marriage Is a Gamble” is a major coup. Although Bertha has had major societal wins, none of them, however, ensures her position as solidly as this one.

Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy) says this outright to Ward McAllister (Nathan Lane), her long-time confidante, during the ceremony. “What a triumph for Mrs. Russell,” she says. “Strange, really, when you think that three years ago none of us ever heard of her.”

At what price? is the question that has circulated through the Russell household, especially among its matriarch and patriarch. Bertha’s insistence that she is doing what is best for her daughter and not just feeding her ambitions does little to convince her husband that she has their daughter’s best interests at heart. Gladys pleading with her father to allow her to marry for love puts George in an extremely humbling position. His inability to overcome Bertha’s will, especially after he needs her assistance to with his latest audacious business, is crushing. This difference of opinion as well as departure in parenting styles creates major tension between the once loving and united couple. Gladys may have agreed to walk down the aisle, but that does not mean everything is good, as is evident in her actions and her body language.

Prior to the wedding, Gladys refused to leave her room. Moments before the ceremony, her attendance was doubtful. At Bertha’s behest, George spoke to his daughter to convince her to go through with the marriage. And though Gladys agreed to go to the church, the dread written all over face as she cried through her veil and looked speechless at the altar still made her saying “I do” seem doubtful. As little more than a sacrificial lamb or a deer in headlights unable to change her fate, Gladys seemed so small in that big church. The “I will” she uttered to seal her marriage to the Duke felt more like a death sentence. Consummating their marriage on a boat headed to England at the end of the episode did little to erase doubts as to whether Bertha’s big bet would actually pay off.

Taissa Farmiga, who plays Gladys, graciously spoke with The Hollywood Reporter and answered several questions regarding her beloved character’s state of mind throughout this especially harrowing ordeal.

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Why does Gladys decide to show up for the wedding?

I think Gladys was uncertain until the moment she’s walking down the aisle to the moment she says “yes.” After answering and saying that “I will,” I don’t feel like she’s even certain of her decision then. There’s the pressures of everyone around her, pressures of society, her mother, familial expectations, even of her parents and her father, who is so supportive of her and saying, “I’m here for you. But at the same time, think about your future. How does this impact you? If you say no, what will your life be like? If you say yes, what will your life be like?”

It’s hard to know why you’re supposed to do something. And, honestly, I don’t think Gladys really knows. I think she’s sick of feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders that everyone has put there and the easiest way out is through it by saying yes.

Let’s talk about the conversation Marian has with Gladys about marriage at Bertha’s request. While Marian is going to marry for love, presumably, talk about why Gladys can’t marry for love.

It’s a big conversation this season. A big theme is marriage and divorce. There are two kinds of marriages: We have the romantic and the transactional. The people around Gladys want to marry for love, in terms of Marian (Louisa Jacobson) and Carrie Astor (Amy Forsyth). They’ve been both such big emotional supports for Gladys. The thing is that Bertha’s ambition takes up so much space in the room, in the Russell family, that there isn’t really room for Gladys’ own personal ambition. Even so, if Gladys’ ambition is small and she wants to marry some banker and have her house in Manhattan and her house in Newport that’ll make her happy, there’s no place for that in Bertha’s world. So even though Marian is talking with her about the option to marry for love or doing it because you’re supposed to, there’s not really a choice for Gladys.

Marian says something along the lines of, “I don’t have the same responsibilities as you.” If Larry (Harry Richardson) is to ask for her hand, it’s just based on a personal decision. It’s not based on opinions of everybody else. Marian was influenced by Bertha when she walked into that room to help nudge Gladys in the right direction. But I think that Marian’s point of: “Look around us, people that have married for love are now about to be divorced, and people that have arranged marriages, they’re thriving and in love. I think you really don’t know what you’re going to get.”

What do you think Gladys’ relationship to her mother Bertha was before? And what is it now?

Previously, Gladys was a precious flower in her mother’s eyes. She was a doll she could dress up. More of an object. But to defend Bertha, she shows her love in a in a different way than Gladys needs. Their love languages don’t align. And previously, Gladys didn’t have a say. She followed along like a puppy because that was what was expected. At the beginning of season three, Gladys has found a new confidence, an 1880 swagger. She’s got her eye on a potential new suitor, one that her mother has not chosen for her. She’s found a bit of her backbone and her individuality. I think with this newfound confidence, Gladys has almost forgotten how controlling her mother can be. You see it up until the end of episode four when Gladys gets married; it’s definitely not of her choosing. Even though Gladys wants freedom from her mother, she still has not achieved it.

What are her thoughts on her dad? Because she was so confident that her dad was going to pull through for her.

Gladys has always been a daddy’s girl, and George has always been there emotionally looking out for his daughter, where Bertha is looking out more for the future and societal happiness of Gladys. Gladys has always relied on her father in the past. There was no indicator he wouldn’t be there for her. I think that’s also what boosted that confidence that Gladys has at the beginning of season three because she was assured when father promised I could marry for love.

Bertha’s in charge, but Daddy Russell is the head honcho. At the end, George tried to be there for his daughter. As Taissa, I can sympathize with George because you’re balancing the happiness of your daughter with that of your wife, but also the anxieties and the stress and tears from your daughter. I think part of the numbness that you see Gladys feel before the wedding, and just the emotional rut she’s in, was because she had such high expectations for her father to defend her, and he does, but not enough. She just feels lost. She doesn’t know what to do. Ah that’s a good question. I don’t think she’s lost trust in George, but I think she feels lost.

I think that Gladys’ decision to go through with the wedding shows that Bertha is more powerful than anyone suspected.

Absolutely. I wholeheartedly agree. Gladys thought that George is number one, even though we always knew Bertha ran all the society endeavors of the family. But at the end of the day, Bertha Russell is the leader.

And it also shows that in this arena that is so often presented as frivolous, that women actually have had more far-reaching power than has been communicated.

In that realm, absolutely. But, even at that time, if you look at the amount of wealthy families to the amount of working class families or the lower class families, the women who actually had an opportunity to attain a power like that, even if it wasn’t “the generic financial business,” but it was the business of society, the amount of women who got to experience that was obviously much, much less than we have nowadays. But I think it’s fascinating to be able to tell the stories that really show different parts of history that our audiences are not quite used to seeing or don’t know much about.

Talk about Gladys’ feelings when Billy does not speak up for her, doesn’t even seek her hand.

Oh God, my heart just dropped. This poor girl has been heartbroken so many times in the course of just a few days — first from Billy Carlton (Matt Walker), second from her father not supporting her in the way that he’d promised. In that moment. I’m picturing standing there with Matt [Walker who plays Billy Carlton] and filming this scene. It was just incredibly heartbreaking, because for her, again, there was a man that said, “I’m going to stand up for you. I am here for you. I agree with you. We can do this.” And at the end, he backed away. He went back on his word in the same way George Russell did. I think Gladys just kept getting hit with whammy after whammy. You see her after that moment when Billy breaks up with her. She’s standing there in front of the Duke, again, she’s still trying to do her duties. She knows her mother would probably have her whipped if she didn’t show up to greet the Duke, and she’s just numb and lost. It’s almost too much feeling to even be able to fully express it.

And then her relationship with her brother Larry, especially in that moment where he tells her the truth about the futility in him nudging Billy to continue pursuing her.

I think Larry and Gladys have always had a beautiful sibling relationship. It’s amazing to work with Harry Richardson because we dive into that dynamic very easily. Larry has always been there from the beginning of season one. You’ve seen the little side eye between the siblings, and the way he supports her in front of her mother. It’s so beautiful how after this [heartbreak] happens with Billy Carlton, she just collapses into his arms. He’s the only male in her life who is 100 percent sticking by her side. And when Larry says that Billy basically didn’t have the balls to stand there and speak to father and ask for her hand and fight for her, then what’s the point? I think Larry saying that makes Gladys realize and agree. Otherwise she probably would have fallen more into [despair about] the heartbreak, but I think because Larry gave her the truth, she’s more open to seeing it.

And then with the Duke? In talking to Hector, do you think Gladys feels “at least he’s honest with me?” What about Hector makes her okay to go ahead with marrying him?

Honestly, it’s the amount of pressure that Gladys feels that that really moves her forward. But I think that conversation she has with Hector in the drawing room, where it’s just the two of them, might actually be the very first time it’s simply Gladys and the Duke in one room having a private conversation. And one of the first things he says is just brutally honest. He doesn’t play games. At this point, again, Gladys has been burned by Billy Carlton. She’s been burned by men who made promises. This is the first guy who is sort of like “This is fucking weird, but we’re kind of in it together.” I think there’s a part of her that respects that. But, again, she feels super lost, super numb, she doesn’t know where to turn, she doesn’t know who to rely on. In that moment, she’s trying to see a tiny bit of a bright side of, “Well, this man, at least, he’s trying to be honest.”

In the end, do you think Gladys will ever feel that her mother was right?

What a loaded question. How to answer that? I think it’s going to take time for Gladys to realize just how much Bertha loves her. Even as an audience member, there’s certain moments where we see just how cold Bertha can be in her ambition. But, at the end of the day, what is motivating her is, yes, status in society, but also comfort and freedom for her daughter. And freedom comes with having power. The only power women could have in that time period is having a position in society. So I think if the moment arrives for Gladys to have to, oh my god, utter the words “my mother was right,” I think those words are going to have to be dragged from her. She will not say it willingly.

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New episodes of The Gilded Age drop every Sunday at 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET on HBO Max until Aug. 10.