The Second Season of the HBO drama The Gilded Age chronicles the rivalry between the Academy Of Music and the Metropolitan Opera. The Hollywood Reporter sat down with the show’s creator, Julian Fellowes, to discuss the series.
Fellowes said via THR that the season’s direction was inspired by real events, “I’m always in the market for real things, whatever period, to give you an idea of what the characters would be talking about at breakfast. Someone said to me, ‘Oh, you do know all about the opera wars?’ It seemed so incredible that the old guard, having the Academy of Music, would try to keep these people out — these Vanderbilts and Rockefellers — when they could have easily built new boxes for them. I love the hopeless confidence that they could defend the past from the future.”
Another element of the show he discussed with THR was balancing his goals and budgets. “Period drama is always expensive, but I make it my business to keep out of the bits I don’t regulate. I don’t really spend much time on budgets. I write it, and if they come back and say, ‘We can’t afford the ball, then I think of another way of doing it. Suddenly, we’re having a dinner. […] Certainly, things have fallen by the wayside. I like to have half a dozen scenes in the season to really take you into a kind of wonderland. I like the feeling, when watching an episode, that the viewer feels they’ve taken part in something. […] What I would say to new writers is, “Don’t worry about that. Write the ball. Write the battle.” Let others worry about whether they can film it or not. If they can’t for some reason, which may be perfectly legitimate, find another way of getting the same narrative moment and creating the same tensions in another environment.”
Finally, he teased a little bit about the spirit of the upcoming third season. “What I like to emphasize is that behind the ballrooms and the clothes and the carriages, these giant men with these enormous egos were doing things. They didn’t share our generation’s sentimental view. We like to spend about half of our day in tears for everyone having a terrible time. There is something about their braggadocio that I find rather appealing.
The full interview can be read here.