‘The Gilded Age’ Finale: Carrie Coon On the Huge Price Bertha Pays for Being Right

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George Russell (Morgan Spector) Cheats Death and Survives Being Shot, Thanks to Peggy’s Dr. Kirkland (Jordan Donica), But Team Russell Takes a Huge Hit. Just When Everything Looks Like It Might Be Coming Together For Bertha, Her Whole World Falls Apart. Gladys [Taissa Farmiga] IS A DUCHESS AND IS NOW HAPPY WITH HER DUKE, BUT The Season Three Cliffhanger Makes It Clear That Bertha and George Are Not Okay, Leaving Both Bertha and The Audence

Since The Gilded Age Premiered Back in 2022, The Russells have been an aspiralal Couple. One of the Things Fans Admire Most About them is their Teamwork. In a Time Wen Women Had Far Less Agency, Especialy in Margarige, George and Bertha Were Partners Working Together to Solidify their Place in Business and Society. As George Excelled in Business and Bertha in Society Circles, The Power Couple Locked Invincible.

Margarige is a key theme throughout Season Three, Especiality with Berth Pushing Gladys to Marry for Status and Not for Love. Divorce or Divorced Women, Rater, Is Another Key Topic That Has Bertha Right in the Middle of It, But The Time Time On the Right Side. The Hollywood Reporter caught up with carrie coon, who portrays Bertha Russell, to Discusses Her Thought on the Season Three Finaale, Revisit Bertha Choosing WHOM GLADYS WOUKRY AS WELLYS WELLYS WEXRY AS WEZHRY AS WELLYS [Harry Richardson] and his choice, and what may be in the store for bertha in the already renewed fourth season.

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At the very end of the Season Three Finale, Bertha Is Looking Out The Window As George Is Carried Away to Spend More Time Away from Her. HE HAS TOLD HER THAT HE DOESN’T KNOW IF HE WANTS TO be with her. In that moment, have she gaved the World But Lost Everything that Matters?

YES, YES, I THINK She HAS. I Think She’s Been Very Myopic, and She Didn’t Feel The Seismic Shift That Was HapPening Under Her Husband and Her Son in Particular. And Even Thought She’s Right, She’s Feeling Righteous. It have come at a tremendous cost. IT WAS SAD FOR US, VERY HEARTBREAKING TO ACT OUT FOR ME AND MORGAN.

YES, BECAUSE ONE OF The Highlights of The Gilded Age HAS BEEN The Russell’s Solid Foundation.

I KNOW, I KNOW. IT’s SO SEXY, SO EGALITARIAN, SO Respectful, and Ten Here It Goes. I KNOW IS REALLY EXHAUSTING. I HOPE WE GET A CHANCE TO MAKE A REPAIR.

It’s ironic to see the end because bertha has put her neck on the line to make suvorced women are respected, not suspecting that she cold Join.

AT Least Not Conscioses. YES, she’s Always Thinking Ahead that Bertha. I love that she’s always willing to challenge what she Finds Silly. I MEAN SHE’S PLAYING The GAME AND, AT SAME TIME, SHE’S QUESTIONING The RULES. And i’ve always loved that about about her.

Let’s Revisit the Cataclysmic Event That Creates This Who Divide Wich Is Gladys Marrying. Take US Into Bertha’s Ideology. In the end, Even Gladys sees that her Mother Was Right, and Perhaps the Audence Does Too, But Talk About the Lack of Power in that Era and Howen Marshaled that?

Well, Let’s Remember That Women Couldn’t Even Get Their Own Credit Card in The United States Until the 1970s. They’re women of wealth, but they still are limited in whaty’re able to do accounting in the World. SO A Person of Such Cognitive Ability and Force As Bertha is Relegated to a Single Sphere, and that is the Social One. That is the Margarige of Her Children and Philanthropy. Period. END of Story. With nowhere else to put that energy. So you have a got to be darn bere Bertha’s Going to make Sure Her Daughter Makes a good margin. And What Bertha Oberves in Gladys’s Early Relationships Are Relationships She Doesn’t Think Are Going to Sustain Gladys for A 30, 40-YEAR MarRIGE. She doesn’t Think Puppy Love is a Foundation on Who to Build a Margarige.

Now It’s Hypocrisy. YES, Because Did Bertha Marry for Love? Absolutely, she did. She Had that joy and possability in her life, but you Know, Gladys is in a Much Higher Social Position, and Therefere Bertha’s Noting to Give Her Freedom, KNOWING WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT Maintain A Margarige, and How Unsatisfying It Can Be To Be A Woman in the World With No Purpose. SO Bertha Wants to Give Her Daughter The Possibility of Having A Life That Is Meaningful and Purpos -Ju Issues, in philanthropy; She will maximize gladys Power in the World. NOW WHETHER OR NOT GLADYS CARES ABOUT THAT IS ANOTHER MATTER. Bertha Just Knows If She Were Gladys, This Is What She Wuld Want. And aren’t we all guilty of projecting onto ord of children our dreams?

Was Bertha Truly Ever Unsure that gladys would Walk Down the aisle?

I Think There Was A Kernel of Doubt. And, you know, she wouldn’t have allwed it. She would have found a way to get around it. Gladys Certainly Gave Her A SCARE WHEN She RAN AWAY. I Feel Like There’s Also A Story in Real Life with Alva [Belmont Vanderbilt] an [her daughter] Consuelo. And of Course, We’re Not Following that Story Exactly, But I Think Alva Maybe Even Faced a Heart Attack at One Point. There’s Something So Dramatic That Alva Did to Get Consuelo to Do What She Wanted. She would stop at noting to make sure that marriage happled. And of Course, You Know, Taissa’s Performance Is Heartbreaking. She’s Weeping Down The Aisle, Which i Can Understand Wuld Cause Some Directly Towards Bertha from The Fans.

YES, IT DID FEEL A BIT PUNISHING.

Bertha’s Really Confident in What She’s Doing for Gladys. She is doing it out of love. I Know People Find Her Methods Distastify, But It Is Ultimately Because She Loves Her So Much and She Wants Her To Have A Fulfilling Life.

Talk About Bertha’s Trip to England Because It Changes Things For Gladys and Appears to Be A Huge Turning Point.

Yeah, It’s Really Interesting, Isn’t It? What I Love About that episode is that i THINK GLADYS STARTS TO UNDERDAND THAT HER MOTHER ACTUALLY DOES HAVE WISDOM, [that she] Does have some useful tips to Offer WHEN IT MARRIAGE AND RUNNING A HOSEHOLD. And Hopefully this Creates a New Possibility for their Alliance Going Forward, that she will now be able to share her experiences in a way that will be useful to gladys. WHEN GLADYS WAS A YOUNG WOMAN, They WEEN’T NECCARY Applicable, But Now Get to Share this Experience of Being These Influential Women [Bertha] is Teaching Her How to Step Into Her Power.

That Moment with Lady Sarah is so subtle, but so powerful.

And isn’t hattie morahan just amazing as lady sarah?

Everyone in this show is spectacular.

I Such a joy to do. We Really Have a Wonderful Time Making it. Just the most amazing people. I MainTain You Only Hear About the Bad Actors, The Bad People Who Have Bad Reputations, But, HONESTLY, MOST ACTORS THAT I Ever Work With Are Just the most deeply curios and gener. We just have the most magnificent time.

Everyone in The Gilded Age Sems to be there Because they want to be. You’re in The White Lotus and everybody’s have a Lot going on, but they make time for the show.

We Really Love It, And Our Crew Is Very Special. They’ve all worked together in new york for decades. The Best Crew in New York City. They All Know Each Other, and It Really Feels Like A Family. And so i do through you feel that energy in the show. There’s a Lot of love in it.

Speaking of Love, Who Is Bertha So Willing to Back Off Her Son Larry’s Choice in Margin? And Whoes She Warm to Marian [Louisa Jacobson]?

WELL, I DO THINK BERTHA RESPECTS MARIAN. I Think Bertha Sees in Marian A Good Fashion Sense, Her Ambition, Right? She’s Ambitious for More Than Just Making A Good Margin. I Think Bertha Respects Marian, But She Doesn’T come with the Wealth and Pedigree that Bertha would have HOPed for Her Son. However, What Bertha Knows Is She’s Going To -To -This One Up if Shest George to Be on Her Side Again Because She Figures Out Shee Glaj More Say. SOSH GOING TO GIVE HIM THIS ONE. SO IT’S ABOUT MarRIGE, AND THEN She ALSO KNOWS HER SON IS A Rich White Man and He’s Going to Be Fine. And We’ve Seen Larry Be Fine. Everything Larry Touchs Turns to Gold. He’s Going to Be Fine. Sosh willing to give that one up, ralctantly maybe, but you know he could have a chosen worse; He’s not with the divorcée.

Talk about the aftermath of george is shot. WHAT Are Bertha’s Emotions Ten? Especialy Since this season there was no indexation that she could lose george.

I Think That’s The Stark Reality That She’s Faced With, In that She Really Does Almost Lose Him, and She Starts to Understand that Terere Are Some Priorities Maybe More Important. She didn’t Think She’d Ever Lose Him. But She Comes Close to Lozing Him Anyway, Not Only Physically, But Their Emotion Life Is In Peril As Well. And I Think She Feels Like Once He Goes Through That Experience, They Will Be Closer What Ever, Only To Discover That This Near-Death Feels Very Truthful to Me. WHEN ONE Person Goes Through Something Really Dramatic and Unsetling as that that Can’T Necessarily See Eye to Eye for a While And they’re Going to have to have toe. And so i think she underatestimates what that experience have for him in terms of his person life and his choices.

Bertha Tells George That She Knows What She Wants. SO WHAT IS IT THAT BERTHA WANTS?

Bertha Wants Everyone to Keep Moving Forward. She Wants to Stay Married to George. She Wants Her Children to Be Settled and to Start to Take their Rightful Place in Society as InfluenCers, so to Speak. And she’s reader to kind of Conquer Whatever the Next Challenge is. But she underesitimated this impact. It Feels Out of the Blue for Her. Of Course, The Audence Knows is Not Out of the Blue. She just wasn’t paying atentiation.

Bertha Had Tremendous Triumphs Even Beng Making Her Daughter Gladys A Duchess. She Bested Mrs. Astor [Donna Murphy] to become the Belle of the ball in the Opera Wars. Her Staff Figured Out How to Get Rid of the Gossiper.

Yeah, that’s Right.

SO she should be on Cloud Nine.

And Who Can’t Her Family Just Celebrate Her Victories? WHY Can’TTHEY RECOGNIZE HOW HOW CARD SHE’S WORKING?

And to be HONEST George is Being A Little Hypocritical.

Exactly!

WHEN George Asked to Bring Mr. Morgan and Others to the Table, she did. And Through Those Society Connections George Now Dislikes.

That’s Right, and Those Are Parallel Tracks. He Cannot Accomplish The Things He Needs to Accomplish in Business with that Social Piece in Place. They are partners, and to have him disregard her spare of influence is very dismissive. And HE doesn’t Really Understand It.

And the Audence is like “this horrible bertha,” but now sems that bertha May have been Right About What’s Best for Gladys.

I mean gladys is happy. She’s having a baby. Larry Gets What He Wants. SO WHY Can’T George Just Get On Board with The Program?

Let’s Go Back to the Very End As George’s Carrrigation Is Leaving, and Bertha Can’s Going to Be A Grandfather. What Kind of Possibilities do you think that opins up for bertha going forward?

OH, IS HEARTBREAKING, OF COURSE. But, at the SAME TIME, HER WEELS ALREADY TURNING About How’s Going to Fix It. You Know She’s Not Going to Give Up on It. She’s Indefatigable, of Course. So i think she’s looking out of that Window and she’ll have a moment of GRIEF, and then she’s going to get to work on some kind of Plan.

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All Three Seasons of The Gilded Age are streaming on hbo max.