"Even more lush": When Patrick Page teased Season 2 of HBO's historical drama The Gilded Age shortly after wrapping production

Aashna
The Gilded Age (Image via Instagram/@thegildedagehbo)
The Gilded Age (Image via Instagram/@thegildedagehbo)

Julian Fellowes' The Gilded Age, HBO Max's American alternative to Downton Abbey, shifted gears with Season 2 and featured many intriguing storylines, rooted in the actual history of the late 1800s New York elites.

The show follows the New York society in the late 1800s, where the old money families were struggling to keep their traditions alive, following the arrival of new money elites with their ambitious wives.

The Gilded Age, which is currently streaming Season 3 of the Russell-Van Rhijn rivalry, has been hailed for its apt styling and costumes of that period.

In an earlier interview with Entertainment Weekly, seasoned actor Patrick Page (Richard Clay, George Russell's loyal secretary) rightly praised the aesthetic of Season 2 as:

''When I looked at the second season, I find it to be even more lush and more inviting and more beautiful, aesthetically. It's a world I want to step into.''

More on this in our story.


The Gilded Age Season 2 touched on many historical events, as teased by Patrick Page

While Patrick Page debuted as a minor character in Season 1, he quickly became an important character in The Gilded Age Season 2, as Mr. Russell is embroiled in a railroad union strike.

Teasing the shift in his character and the importance of the railroad strike in Season 2, Patrick Page further said in the interview:

''You get to know Richard Clay a a bit better. He starts moving from the background into the picture. The relationship with George Russell (Morgan Spector) starts to come more into focus.''

He added:

''Also, the resonances to our modern world, to the current labor movement and the labor movement of the 19th century and all of that is coming more into focus. That will interest people a lot.''

The real story behind the railroad strike in The Gilded Age Season 2

While George's ambitious wife Bertha initiated a soap opera war by spearheading the construction of New York’s Metropolitan Opera house, he was embroiled in a business predicament, which quickly escalated into a railroad union strike.

Since The Gilded Age heavily borrows from real historical events, the railroad union strike was directly adapted from history, particularly the 1892 Homestead strike. While two of the major strikes in the late 1800s were the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and the Pullman Strike of 1894, Fellowes modelled her story around the Homestead Strike.

While The Gilded Age changed the year (1883), the events of George's strike were strikingly similar to the 1892 strike between steelworkers in Homestead, Pennsylvania and Andrew Carnegie.

In an interview with TribLive, Fellowes discussed the inspiration behind this particular storyline:

“You realize that people were earning their living and putting their lives at risk every day. I wanted to expose that in the show but also examine it.”

While Patrick Page rightly teased that Season 2 of the show was a lush world, with Bertha fighting hard to win the glamorous world of the opera, which was a status symbol in itself, the men were fighting their own battles.

Talking about the Homestead Strike, Fellowes added:

“It was really based on the Homestead strike, which is when Frick got the governor to send in the militia and on Frick’s orders, he opened fire on his own workforce. Now we all think of the Frick Collection and it’s all so charming but Frick was a pretty terrible man.''

The Gilded Age Season 3 is currently streaming on HBO Max.


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Edited by Aashna