‘The Gilded Age’ Star Kelley Curran Says There’s a “Strange Intimacy” Between Turner and Carrie Coon’s Bertha Russell: “The History is Deep”

The drama on The Gilded Age Season 2 finally kicked into high gear last week when Bertha Russell’s (Carrie Coon) ambitious maid Turner (Kelley Curran) returned as the wealthy and connected Mrs. Winterton. Not only did the character’s return exhibit how rapidly fortunes could rise or fall during the titular Gilded Age, but Turner also threw a healthy dose gasoline on the Russell family’s home fires. By revealing to Bertha that she and George Russell (Morgan Spector) had “history,” Turner created a fissure in the middle of one of HBO‘s most otherwise swoon-worthy relationships. Even though he maintained that “nothing happened” between himself and the former maid, George Russell still had to repeatedly beg for his beloved wife’s forgiveness on last night’s The Gilded Age Season 2 Episode 3 “Head to Head.”

Julian Fellowes might have meticulously plotted Turner’s triumphant return to The Gilded Age Season 2 ages ago, but it was as shocking a twist for series star Kelley Curran as it was for the audience. Decider recently caught up with the New York-based theater actress and asked her about reuniting with Carrie Coon’s Bertha Russell in Season 2 as an equal, whether or not Mrs. Winterton loves her rich old husband, and what she makes of Turner’s fervent gay fanbase…

DECIDER: Well, first of all, I was told by Sonja Warfield that Julian Fellowes had planned Turner’s Season 2 return as Mrs. Winterton from the very beginning. He knew when he started the show that this was where it was going. At what point did he let you know about the master plan for your character? 

KELLEY CURRAN: Well, I knew when they offered me a contract for the second season, I knew she’d be coming back in some form, in some way, but I had no idea that she’d be coming back in such high style. That was — you could have knocked me over with a feather when I read that script. I was stunned.

So how much fun was it for you to film that reveal at the end of Season 2 Episode 2 where you get to encounter all the Russells and they are gobsmacked, they’re the ones who could be knocked over with a feather?

Oh, my God. It was such a delight. It was actually my first day of filming on the second season, it was like the reappearance of Turner. So it was my first day back. You know, I hadn’t seen everybody in many, many months and it was just so joyful to be there and to be in Newport together and to be in that gorgeous tennis complex. Then to start filming on such an enormous scene, you know, with the dancers and, I mean, hundreds of people. And it was a night shoot and it was all misty because like the ocean was — I mean, the atmosphere was already really joyful. Just to all be back. Okay, we did it. Now we get the chance to do another season.

And then to have the chance as an actor to sort of start chronologically like that and have the first moment you have to film be the first moment you see these people again. All the adrenaline and the nerves… It was all very useful. It was all really fantastic. Yeah, such a delight.

I have to say I was taken aback in the first season by Turner’s very direct attempt to seduce George. I was kind of like, ‘Whoa, I’m not used to this level of intimacy in this genre.” But when I saw Turner’s return, I understood why that happened in that way. Do you get the sense that all that time, all the setup was worth the payoff of her coming back?

I do, I do. And I think that’s one of the many things that’s so brilliant about Julian Fellowes is his ability and trust in himself, and trust in the sort of landscape of characters that he creates, to play a really long game. And it always pays off, you know? Because you sort of watch these people move through the world and, you know, he doesn’t answer all the questions for you until he arrives at the conclusion he wants.

So I think it really did pay off because it was kind of like a slow burn all Season 1 of this woman who maybe makes poor decisions occasionally, but who’s just so ambitious and resentful and her expectations of her life don’t match up with her reality, like her circumstances. And she’s desperate to change that. And so you sort of watch that happen all through Season 1, and by the time we arrive at Season 2 — I mean, I’m sure some people forgot she even existed by the time we get to Season 2, Episode 2 — and that’s what’s so thrilling about the way, the pace at which he plots these storylines when he’s weaving such a large world of characters.

So far we don’t know exactly how Turner wooed Mr. Winterton (Dakin Matthews). Do you have a better sense of their romance? Do you know how she feels about her husband? Is there any affection there or is it just that she was trying to find the first guy who would give her what she wanted?

Well, I think it’s a little bit of all those things. I think, you know, she clearly reads the papers, just like Watson (Michael Cerveris) mentions in this last episode that just aired last night, Episode 3. She keeps up, she keeps an eye on [society], she’s like a hawk. You know, she keeps an eye on who has the money and who is widowed and who is married and who is eligible and who could I weave a story about my history to, that might not be entirely rooted in truth, and who would believe me. And so I think she lays all the groundwork for that and finds the right person at the right moment. The Peter Burns character, the footman in the Russell House, mentions that she wrote to Mr. Winterton about his patronage of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and, you know, how much she admires it and his philanthropy. That was how the courtship sort of began, through her letters.

But I do think genuinely that she feels an affection for her husband, which I hope begins to come through as episodes air. Because I think Turner is a lonely person. For all her armor and all her defensiveness and self sabotage and all that stuff, I think she thinks she wants power and status. And maybe what she really needs is community and love? You know what I mean? And I think he’s the first person who, for his own reasons, whatever they are, begins to show her that in a way that to him is true, so to her is felt. So I think it’s a little bit of all those things. Maybe it’s a happy surprise that it happened that way.

Turner feels like a really great formidable rival for Bertha, sort of in a way maybe even Mrs. Astor isn’t. Why do you think that is? And what was it like as an actor to change the status in your scenes with Carrie Coon from season to season? I would imagine going from playing her maid to playing her rival was probably pretty fun and juicy.

Oh, my God, it was so juicy. I mean, just getting to do scenes with Carrie Coon at all is just a delight. I mean, she is a force and she is fun and she is joyful and spontaneous. She’s just such a gorgeous actor to work with and to be on the other side of whatever that relationship is in the scene.

But, yeah, I think, what’s funny about it… You know, my brother texted me during the first season and he was like, “What I like about your character is even when she has the least amount of status in the room, she acts like she has the most.” And I think that in some ways that’s kind of true. Turner, I think, has always felt like Bertha’s equal and that it was just a matter of chance that Bertha’s life went one way and her life went another. And that’s where the resentment, I think, springs from. They don’t necessarily come from that different of a background. It was just that [Bertha] married the right guy at the right moment and my life got sort of thwarted in some way that hasn’t been revealed yet or maybe won’t ever be. So I think she’s always kind of thought of her as a peer. And so to have to be subservient was just like the thing that got under her skin the whole first season. So to be able to come back now in this second [season] and really meet her as a peer and meet her as someone…

You know, there’s strange intimacy between them, too. They know each other. They’ve seen each other in intimate circumstances. I’m sure they shared information that we never got to see as audience members. So the history is deep. So to get to come back and play that really on her level with her thinking that I’m on her level is the fun part.

Obviously your character is hanging out with a more tony set this season. Do you miss working with the Season 1 “Below Stairs” gang at all? Does that come into play?

It totally does. Just on a personal level? 100% I mean, what a gorgeous group of people! You turn a corner and you’d bump into a Tony Award winner and it was just like, “What?” I mean, they’re such a delightful group. 

Actually, you know, we were supposed to start filming [Season 1] right before the pandemic started. So we had all met and gotten to get to know each other a little bit. And one of the nice things that did happen during that time is we started a text chain months before we ever got to start filming with each other. So we became good friends before we ever arrived on set, which was so nice. And I think we helped buoy each other’s spirits through the darkest days of the pandemic. 

And they’re all just such marvelous actors. So I definitely did miss the Downstairs and the activity of it and the always moving, always having a task to do. You’re definitely much more still. There’s a kind of stasis Upstairs with having to be so perfect all the time as you move through the world of the Upstairs characters. So I certainly miss the fun of the Downstairs, but I got to bump into them on set several times. So we still got to see each other and hang out, which was a joy.

I was told by a friend of mine who loves your character to let you know that “the gays stand with her and want everything for her.” Have you noticed that Turner has a popularity with gay men? What do you make of that fandom? Is it news to you?

Oh, my God. I mean, that kind of is amazing. Look, anybody who’s on Team Turner, I deeply appreciate the support. I do. Because I know that she’s — she might be among the more disliked characters on television at times. So, no, I just think that’s incredible.

Like what’s been so awesome is to watch the sort of fan base of this show continue to grow and continue to connect and engage. And how witty they all are, and how smart! It’s just like such a joy because it feels like we’re really sharing the experience together. So I appreciate the gay fan base. I just appreciate the whole fan base. They’re awesome people.

I was looking at your Instagram before this interview and I saw that you got married at Edith Wharton’s estate. So I wonder, were you already a Gilded Age fan before this? Did this show make that happen for you? What is your personal attachment to the Gilded Age?

I mean, I love the novels of Edith Wharton, but I was married in 2017 at that estate because I had done summer theater in the area years before. I visited the estate and the gardens, and I thought that Edith Wharton’s sort of sunken Italian garden on her property that she landscaped was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. I just felt so connected to that space. And I thought, “Oh, if we get married, I would love to do it there.” So that was kind of the amazing thing. It was just like this instinctive draw to the space that she created.

And then, oddly, we went on honeymoon in Antigua and ended up at a beach called Turner’s Beach, which, I’m not even kidding. And this was all years ago. This was two years before The Gilded Age even happened. So sometimes I think about that and I think this was strange.

But I’ve loved period shows forever. You know, I’ve been a fan of Julian [Fellowes]’s work since Gosford Park and then Downton Abbey. I just think he’s a marvelous writer. So, to be connected to a world that he imagined in a period piece is just such a thrill.