Latest news with #GladysRussell
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘The Gilded Age' Star Taissa Farmiga Explains Why Gladys Agrees to Marry the Duke of Buckingham: 'She Was Just Sick of Feeling Sh*tty'
The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 3 'Love is Never Easy' ends in turmoil for young Gladys Russell (Taissa Farmiga). Sure, the latest episode of the HBO hit ends with the reveal of the heiress's gorgeous portrait by real life painter John Singer Sargent (Bobby Steggert), but it also ends with Gladys sadly accepting her fate. **Spoilers for Season 3 Episode 3 'Love is Never Easy,' now streaming on MAX** At the end of The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 3, Gladys Russell agrees to marry the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb). After years of watching Gladys chafe against her mother Bertha's (Carrie Coon) schemes, pining after sweet boys like Billy Carlton (Matt Walker), and even securing the support of her father (Morgan Spector) to ensure she'll get a love match, our girl finally folds. But why? 'I think, at the end of the day, it was just the pressure of everybody,' The Gilded Age star Taissa Farmiga told DECIDER. 'I think she was dealing with the heartbreak of Billy. She's dealing with the fear of the future because she feels like she's being forced into a future she's not choosing,' she added. 'There's a numbness that comes with that and you can't make a decision when you're in such an emotionally depleted place, I think. Because there was so much pressure. You have to choose.' 'She just sort of doesn't want the stress anymore?' Farmiga wondered aloud. Of course, for much of The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 3 'Love is Never Easy,' it seems as though Gladys has actually avoided the Duke. The episode picks up where last week's left off, with the Duke's lawyer hashing out a marriage contract with George Russell. Bertha has apparently promised the English noble a huge chuck of her robber baron husband's fortune and George is not happy about that. Eventually, the Duke leaves, hoping to find an heiress elsewhere. Gladys hopes that maybe she will be reunited with Billy Carlton, but it's not to be. Ultimately, no one in New York City has the kind of money George Russell has. That means the Duke circles back to 61st Street, willing to compromise with the railroad tycoon. In an interesting twist, Gladys ultimately gets a chance to agree to the match herself. She gets a small, private audience with Hector, as the Duke is actually named. While it's hardly the stuff of romance novels or happily ever afters, Farmiga still called it a 'beautiful moment.' 'There's a brief moment of connection with her and the Duke. You know, she thinks him for not being fake,' Farmiga said. 'So I think maybe it's like a tiny little sparkle of a lightning bug in the dark. It's kind of like a light guiding you.' 'But I really think that she was just sick of feeling shitty. So she's like, 'Let's just move on.'' The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 3 'Love is Never Easy' ends with the Duke and Gladys announcing their engagement in front of all the society heads assembled to view the new painting. Bertha gets her victory lap, but the moment of triumph is undercut by a perfect moment of soap opera drama. Feeling the pressure close in on her, Gladys begins fiddling with her long string of pearls. The necklace snaps and soon white beads are scattering like marbles on the floor. This ominous ending teases that although Gladys has agreed to the engagement, getting her down the aisle to the actual marriage ceremony might be a different battle for Bertha. returns next Sunday, July 13 at 9 PM ET on HBO and MAX.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘The Gilded Age' Season 3 Episode 4 Ending Explained: Morgan Spector, Taissa Farmiga, and Julian Fellowes Break Down Why Gladys Marries the Duke
The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 4 'Marriage is a Gamble' finally reveals whether or not Gladys Russell (Taissa Farmiga) marries the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb). Ever since the HBO show debuted in 2022, history nerds have noticed how much the Russell clan resembles the Vanderbilts, a real life robber baron clan of the period. Like Alva Vanderbilt, Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) spent fortunes trying to impress and then surpass Caroline Astor (Donna Murphy), first using Mrs. Astor's own daughter's invitation to a ball as social leverage before spearheading the creation of the Metropolitan Opera House. What else was Alva Vanderbilt known for? Orchestrating her daughter Consuelo's marriage to an English Duke. So does Bertha succeed as Alva did? Does Gladys make the wedding as difficult to pull off as the real Consuelo did? Will George Russell (Morgan Spector) do anything to stop it? Here's what went down in The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 4 'Marriage is a Gamble'… **Spoilers for Season 3 Episode 4 'Marriage is a Gamble,' now streaming on HBO MAX** For most of The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 4 'Marriage is a Gamble,' it remains unclear if Gladys will go through with her wedding to the Duke. She keeps herself locked up in her bedroom, seemingly regretting her choice to agree to the engagement in the first place. Taissa Farmiga told DECIDER that Gladys only agreed to marry the Duke because she was 'tired of feeling shitty.' The heartbreak she suffered with Billy Carlton (Matt Walker) and the pressure she felt from society finally broke her resolve. In The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 4, Gladys considers calling it off in a tense, but tender, scene with her father. She wonders if there's any way out of the massive society wedding, but George explains that if she does so, her reputation will be ruined. Gladys should have spoken up earlier. 'It's a very complicated moment for George because I think he wants to say to her like, 'Look if you really—'' Spector said, before stopping himself. 'Actually, I think it's unfair what he does in that scene,' Spector said. 'He's like, 'Hey, if you want, if you're willing to take the take the heat for this, I'll call it all off. I'll fix it. I'll still be, you know, Big Papa and make it all better.' 'But he's blown his opportunity to do that and now the only person who can really make that decision and also embarrass herself and incur huge social cost is Gladys. And he has not protected her from that.' Gladys reluctantly goes through with the marriage to Hector, aka the Duke. The episode ends with them sailing away for England, 'enjoying' their wedding night on a yacht. 'I think, at the end of the day, it was just the pressure of everybody,' Taissa Farmiga told DECIDER. 'Like, there's this societal expectation. There's the expectation from her mother. All her friends are coming. And they talk to me, but they're still trying to guide her along to make the decision to say, 'Yes,' to the marriage. Even her father is like, 'You should have said, 'No,' sooner.' 'I mean, he's sorrowful at having put her in that position. I think he's still trying to sort of play the good guy a little bit,' Spector said before reiterating how he really feels. 'I actually don't think it's really fair what he does in that scene.' Up until now, Gilded Age fans have safely assumed that Gladys is meant to be an avatar for the aforementioned Consuelo Vanderbilt. But while Gladys merely sequestered herself in her room before agreeing to walk down the aisle, the real Consuelo had to be locked in hers and kept on watch. She literally tried to run away to be with her preferred fiancé and was forced, crying, down the aisle to her Duke. 'There are about six hundred [American Gilded Age heiresses] who married into the British peerage. Some of them were happy, some of the were not, some were neither,' The Gilded Age creator Julian Fellowes told DECIDER. 'So I don't feel constrained to tell a 'Consuelo' story because that is the advantage of it not being Consuelo and not being Alva and not being any of them. We can use incidents of their life, but we don't have to do the whole thing.' Fellowes added that he hopes that The Gilded Age audience has 'some sympathy' with Bertha's plan. 'She knows she's giving [Gladys] a position that can make her a world figure, as many of those English American Duchesses and Marchionesses achieved,' he said. 'If you are wanting to get something done, you know, you couldn't have a better send-off.' For Farmiga, Gladys's wedding day wasn't quite a great 'send-off,' but a moment for her to move forward with her life. 'Yeah, it was emotionally exhausting, but sometimes you have to you have to move through to find peace,' she said. So what's next for Gladys and the Duke? You'll have to keep watching The Gilded Age Season 3 on Sundays on HBO and HBO MAX to find out…
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
American Horror Story and The Nun star unrecognisable in Sky period drama
George and Bertha Russell's marriage is teetering on the brink in the third season of The Gilded Age, but one of the stars in the show first found fame in American Horror Story. Taissa Farmiga, who plays socialite Gladys Russell in The Gilded Age, a series originally broadcast on HBO. In the third series, airing on Sky, Gladys has to grapple with the fallout from her parents' decision to betroth her to the Duke of Buckingham. But will she go ahead with the wedding? That remains to be seen. However, back in 2011, shortly after making her acting debut in High Ground, Taissa took on the role of Violet Harmon in the first season of American Horror Story. She played the daughter of Vivien (Connie Britton) and Ben Harmon (Dylan McDermott). READ MORE: Love Island Giorgio's age, job and famous sister as he enters the villa READ MORE: Coronation Street's Claire Peacock 'returns' after 14 years but fans all say same thing Violet's story ended in heartbreak when she took her own life to join her serial killer boyfriend Tate Langdon (Evan Peters), but Taissa reprised the role of Violet in the eighth season of American Horror Story. She even appeared in the anthology series as two different characters - Sophie Green and Zoe Benson. Now starring in The Gilded Age, Taissa confessed that she had to immerse herself in the world of Downton Abbey to perfect her portrayal of Gladys. "I started Watching Downton Abbey because I thought 'I have to brush up,'" she revealed to Joshua Horowitz in 2023 on his podcast Happy Sad Confused. When she auditioned for the role of Gladys, Taissa candidly admitted that period dramas weren't exactly her cup of tea. "During my audition, they asked me if I was passionate about period pieces," she recalled, adding humorously: "I told them, 'I don't know. I'm a stoner, I watch Rick and Morty.'" Taissa may have been the baby of the family, but she grew up witnessing her sister Vera Farmiga's ascent to stardom with standout roles in hits like The Conjuring series, Orphan, and Bates Motel. However, emulating her big sister's acting career was never Taissa's aspiration. In her dreams, accountancy was Taissa's future profession until Vera roped her into making an appearance in Higher Ground, her first directorial project. Taissa, reflecting on her beginnings to Yahoo Movies in 2015, commented: "I was thrown into this world." That single experience made her reconsider her path entirely. "After Higher Ground about six months went by and I went back to my normal life," Taissa reminisced. "I was looking at community college classes for accounting. I wasn't jumping right into it, thinking, 'I have to be an actress.'" And just like that, everything changed. Since redirecting her life course, Taissa has landed a variety of notable parts in both movies and series. Her filmography includes starring alongside Emma Watson in The Bling Ring, taking on the habit of Sister Irene in The Nun franchise, and even venturing into The Twilight Zone. Taissa is also quite active on social media, especially on Instagram, where she boasts a following of 1.9 million fans. The 30 year old shares it all - from behind-the-scenes snaps and red carpet moments, to her adventures with producer husband Hadley Klein and her political opinions.
