Bernie Telsey and Adam Caldwell Pull Back the Curtain on S2 of ‘The Gilded Age’
Considering the success of its inaugural season and the strong rollout of its sophomore installment, we wanted to know more about the casting work that made Julian Fellowes’ The Gilded Age such a hit. Bernie Telsey and Adam Caldwell — of The Telsey Office — took time out to sit down with Casting Networks via video call and pull back the curtain on casting an ensemble period piece for the ages.
The questions kicked off with a query on the differences between casting seasons one and two of the Max series. Telsey noted that the characters of Ada and Agnes — respectively played by Cynthia Nixon and Christine Baranski — were well-drawn from the beginning. Other roles, however, developed in conjunction with the casting process.
“They [Fellowes and executive producer Michael Engler] wanted us to be part of that creative process and part of helping them figure out the kind of people that Julian wanted to write for,” Telsey said. “Yes, he had outlines and he had story ideas. But he wanted the casting process to influence and that’s so exciting because we consider casting to be an art form and to be part of the collaboration.”
Caldwell noted the extended period that the team was afforded for casting the first season, thanks in part to the pandemic. “It was years from the time we first started testing idea lists for Agnes and Ada to when the first season aired,” he said.
The casting director also talked about the comparative speed of casting the show’s sophomore installment and shared some background on the actor who made his TV debut with season two of The Gilded Age. “Michael Braugher is someone we knew as an actor in Juilliard — we had met before he graduated,” said Caldwell.
He detailed how The Telsey Office cast Braugher in a show at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and then in a Broadway production of To Kill a Mockingbird, all before The Gilded Age. Telsey highlighted Jeremy Shamos as another new face in season two, recounting how the actor had originally been considered for a different type of role in the show’s previous season.
Before the interview wrapped, we asked for a window into how the casting directors work together. On top of expressing his appreciation for Caldwell’s ideas, Telsey conveyed that everyone in the casting office works together, including all the support staff.
“The art form of casting is to collaborate with directors and producers and writers,” he said. “And I always wanted to take that one step further — let’s collaborate amongst ourselves.”
You can catch all these insights and more in this on-camera installment of Pull Back the Curtain.
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This video interview has been edited and condensed.
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