Taissa Farmiga on ‘The Gilded Age’ and ‘The Nun’ Sequel Talks

[The following interview contains mild spoilers for The Gilded Age episode five.]

Taissa Farmiga grew up on Ryan Murphy and Brad Fulchak’s FX horror series American Horror Story, but because of its anthology nature, she never got the chance to play the same character over the course of a multi-season arc. Nearly 11 years after her first foray into television, the New Jersey native is finally in a position to play the same character for many seasons on Julian Fellowes’ Downton Abbey spinoff prequel, The Gilded Age. Set in 1880s New York City, Farmiga plays 17-year-old Gladys Russell, who’s ready to make her debut in society, but her “new money” family — namely her mother Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) — refuses to compromise on the matter until the circumstances are just right. For Farmiga, the chance to evolve with Gladys is something she couldn’t resist, especially in a world that is so far removed from her past work.

“I’ve never gone with one character to a subsequent season and lived out that arc,” Farmiga tells The Hollywood Reporter. “When I did American Horror Story, I did season one, and then I wasn’t there for season two. And then I went back for season three as a different character. So what I’m most excited for, right now, is to see how Gladys evolves in season two.”

Besides the Marvel Cinematic Universe, an argument can be made that the Conjuring franchise is the second-most successful cinematic universe at the moment. Farmiga’s older sister Vera, alongside James Wan and Patrick Wilson, set the franchise in motion with 2013’s The Conjuring, the first of eight films (and counting). But to many people’s surprise, the youngest Farmiga’s The Nun (2018), directed by Corin Hardy, actually has the franchise’s best outing at the box office with $363 million. While the development on a sequel seems to have slowed in recent years, Farmiga indicates that there’s been movement in the last year.

“There have definitely been whisperings and talks in the last year, but the pandemic has obviously affected everything including filming and such,” Farmiga shares. “So I heard mentions of it back in the fall, maybe, and there were talks of potentially trying to see what my availability was. But I also haven’t seen a script. So I haven’t heard anything definitive or anyone say, ‘Hey, this is going.’ So I don’t know, but I would love to go back and visit Sister Irene. It’s been years.”

In a recent conversation with THR, Farmiga also explains how being the youngest of seven Farmiga children prepared her for Gladys Russell. Then she looks back at her experience with Sofia Coppola on The Bling Ring set.

So The Gilded Age is a very different world and genre for you. Since actors are often categorized according to their past work, did you have to pursue this project at all?

I definitely had to audition and do my part and work for the opportunity. I was originally sent an old, old draft of the script and sides for the audition for the character of Marian [Louisa Jacobson]. So I was excited about the overall world and the idea of The Gilded Age being done by Julian Fellowes with HBO, and being set in a time period and a world that I’m not normally associated with. When I tried to do the audition for Marian, I didn’t really feel like I clicked with the character. I had a hard time in the self-tape audition. I just wasn’t feeling like I was doing a good job. I wasn’t feeling like I was understanding Marian. So I tried a couple of times, and I ended up getting something on tape and sent it off. I didn’t feel great about it, but it was alright. And then casting got back to my team and said, “Look, we really love her, but she just doesn’t feel right for Marian. Would you mind reading for Gladys?” And I was like, “Yeah, absolutely.” And immediately, I saw a lot of my young teenage self in Gladys and that desire to break free and find independence and experience the world through your own eyes, as opposed to the eyes of your family. So I auditioned for her, and I got the director session where I met up with [EP-Director] Michael Engler. And I remember being very, very nervous in the audition room, but Michael was very kind. And then he asked me, “Oh, do you have any sort of obsession with this time period? Do you love period dramas? You fall into it so easily.” So I kind of laughed and said, “No, I watch Rick and Morty and cartoons and comedies. It’s not really what I know.” But as an actor, it was a new opportunity, and I like to grow. It’s nice to push yourself, and this was a world that I wanted to push myself to experience.

You’re the youngest of seven children. Is that why you could relate to Gladys’ eagerness to be treated like an adult?

Oh absolutely. Yes, I am the youngest of seven, and some of my siblings are much older than me. So I have six older siblings, and some of them are 20-something years older than me. And they also have kids. When I was nine years old, the first niece was born. So I remember having to take on some adult responsibilities from a young age like babysitting and what have you. But there are still other aspects in life where you feel like you’re always being treated as a child, you know what I mean? To this day, when you go to your parents’ house or your parental figures’ house, you walk in and immediately feel like you’re still that 15-year-old self. So I think that was pretty easy to connect to with Gladys.

The big question for Gladys is when she’ll be brought out to the world. How much did you learn about that process of being debuted?

We had to do our research. Obviously, it’s a very different time period from anything I’m familiar with. And HBO was wonderful. Our production was wonderful to put together this sort of dossier or research bible of all of the information you could possibly need to know about the 1880s. And in that, it talked about debutantes debuting to society and the sort of parties they had, going back to the Vanderbilts and those families and what it would look like. So I knew it was an integral part of becoming an adult for a young woman in society at that time. If you didn’t debut, you really didn’t have a life, as sad as that sounds. (Laughs.) Those were the rules of society at that time. So for Gladys, her debut is a conversation between the Russell family members in some of the very first scenes.

In episode three, Oscar Van Rhijn (Blake Ritson) caught her off guard at dinner when he asked for her opinion on a topic of conversation. He may have had an ulterior motive, but you could tell how much it meant to her to be considered in this regard. Do you remember the first time an adult sought out your opinion and made you feel like a grown-up?

That’s amazing. I don’t remember a specific time, but I remember being 18 or 19 and in my first serious relationship. I remember talking with one of my older brothers and just having a conversation about relationships and what it requires and communication and how difficult it is to communicate. It’s one of the most basic human things we need to do. So at that moment, it wasn’t necessarily that he was asking my advice, but I remember being able to connect with someone about an adult experience. When I was around nine, my older sister Vera would always ask, “What do you want for dinner? What do you want for this?” I was visiting her out in L.A.. and as a kid, I was so not opinionated. And while she didn’t snap, I remember at one point that she was kind of annoyed … She was like, “You have to have opinions in life.” So from a young age, whenever somebody asked me something, I knew I had to formulate a thought and be able to convey what I desired.

So you recently conducted a poll on Instagram that asked how old Gladys looks, and while I wanted to check the “immortal” option, I stuck with her age on the show, 17.

Yes. (Laughs.)

Now one would think that the ability to play younger is a blessing of sorts for a working actor, but has it mostly been a positive in your experience?

Yeah, absolutely. For an actor, there are different things that one gets out of any job that they take. Obviously, as a married 27-year-old woman, there’s a part of me that thinks it would be fun to play someone closer to my own age, but I was able to relate to Gladys so easily. I desired to exist in that time period and that world, so it checked off other boxes of excitement for why I wanted to do the job. It’s nice to be able to look young and play a young character. My mom, when she was in her 60s, people thought she was 45, so I think it’s a blessing. Society is obviously obsessed with looks and age and all of that nonsense, so on one hand, it’s nice to be able to play a character that is a decade younger than me. But at the same time, the show has been picked up for season two, so I’m most excited to see where Gladys’ journey goes in subsequent seasons. When I did American Horror Story and stuff like that, I did season one, and then I wasn’t there for season two. And then I went back for season three as a different character. So what I’m most excited for, right now, is to see how Gladys evolves in season two.

One of my favorite actors and interviewees, Carrie Coon, plays Gladys’ mother, Bertha Russell. Did you recognize Carrie’s many virtues almost immediately?

Oh my goodness. I fell in love with Carrie probably on the first day. You’ve interviewed her, so you know that she’s just an extraordinary human being. She’s extremely talented as an actress, and I admire her in many ways for that. But I also admire how she carries herself and how she interacts with the world around her, including the crew members, the other actors and just everybody. She’s just so unapologetically herself, and yet so kind and at the same time. She’s really funny and knows how to pick on people, but she also knows how to make them feel good about themselves. She knows how to engage and how to keep people on their toes. She’s honestly one of my favorite people I’ve ever met in my entire life. So I feel so fortunate to be her daughter and to get picked on, as Gladys, by her.

“You want more for me than I want for myself” is something Gladys said in episode five after her mother denied her male suitor. In the upcoming episode [six], she makes similar comments to her father about feeling ordinary. What do you make of this mindset when you consider her upbringing and the expectations placed on her?

On one hand, Gladys has grown up very privileged. She’s always been around wealth. I believe there’s a comment or a line about Bertha’s family being potato farmers, and Gladys’ dad [Morgan Spector] is new money. So her parents started with nothing and built everything that they have. Gladys, on the other hand, was handed everything on a silver platter, and there’s a bit of naivety to her. She thinks that things would still be as easy for her if she were to go out into the world and be that ordinary person that she wants to be. She’s also got a comrade in her brother, Larry [Harry Richardson]. While the expectations of a male in the 1880s were quite different than that of a woman, they are both struggling with their parents’ desires and expectations of them because they differ from what they want for themselves. And Gladys, while she’s 17, she is a young 17. She’s a bit sheltered in that regard because her mom has been so protective over her. So it’s hard because at the end of the day, we all want our own happiness, and I think the struggle for humanity is deciding whether you want current happiness or future happiness.

While the costumes are beautiful, how uncomfortable do you feel most of the time?

(Laughs.) It’s a fair question. Yes, I would say a good chunk of the time, there’s some level of discomfort. But at the same time, when you get to play dress-up every day for a job and you’re in these extravagant outfits that so much time, care and thought has been put into every detail, you kind of forget about it. I don’t want to say that it’s the same as giving birth because I’ve obviously never given birth, but you forget about the pain as time passes because you enjoy the positive aspect of it. So it’s fun to get dressed up. When we were all filming on the stages in a big ensemble scene, the cast would sort of do a runway walk whenever there was a new outfit. They would be like, “Ooh, what are you wearing today?” And everyone would walk down the hallway and show off. So it definitely gives me an appreciation for the women of the time and what they had to live with besides the ridiculous societal expectations. They weren’t able to breathe because of the clothing. I remember wanting to eat a full meal at lunch because I was hungry, but sometimes, I would ask myself, “Oh man, am I going to go for the salad or the pasta? How do I want to feel after lunch today in my corset for the 15th hour of the day?”

Shifting gears, I covered Vera’s show Hawkeye, and at some point, I heard that you were considered for her daughter, Kate. Is that remotely true?

To be honest, I don’t think I ever heard anything about that. It never made it onto my radar at least. So I don’t know if my team ever heard about it, but it’s always a funny thing when it’s a job that’s related to family because nepotism, obviously, is a thing in this field and many fields. When I auditioned for The Nun, I thought, “Oh man, there’s no way I’m getting this,” even though I felt like I crushed the audition. I just felt like being the younger sister [of Vera] was going to be a hindrance, but in that case, it worked out. So for Hawkeye, I never heard anything, but that would’ve been fucking cool. (Laughs.)

When you were cast in The Nun, people theorized that your character would eventually be revealed as a young Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) or at least, a relative of Lorraine’s. So given your sister’s prominent place in that franchise, did you also have to clarify that they weren’t going in that direction?

(Laughs.) The audition was almost like a self-tape because they were mostly casting out of the UK. I’m pretty sure that they wanted someone who wasn’t an American actress, but they were reading people with one casting director here. So I found out I booked the job like a month and a half later, and I had a Skype with the director Corin [Hardy]. And I remember talking a little bit about that, but it wasn’t too much of needing clarity on it beforehand. It’s hard to remember, but I have a vague memory of conversations happening on set. I don’t remember if it was clarifying Sister Irene’s last name to show that she wasn’t [related to Lorraine] or to show that she was. I just can’t remember, but in the end, I don’t think it ever really came into play.

So you weren’t worried that they were going to surprise you with new pages.

(Laughs.) Honestly, no. Listen, I’m down for a curveball. I wouldn’t have minded if they’d thrown anything like that at me. I feel like it keeps you on your toes, and it makes you have to adjust. It’s such an exhilarating feeling to not expect something and be like, “Okay, how do you adapt and make it work?”

I hope you’ve bragged about this at Thanksgiving, but The Nun is the highest-grossing Conjuring movie [$363 million].

(Laughs.) I wouldn’t dare, are you kidding me? I would get noogied into place. Vera would grab me and put me down. She’d wrestle me! I don’t want to feel the wrath of the older sister. (Laughs.)

That said, a sequel seemed like a foregone conclusion, but I haven’t heard anything since 2019, when the great Akela Cooper was reportedly working on a script. Are there any updates to your knowledge?

There have definitely been whisperings and talks in the last year, but the pandemic has obviously affected everything including filming and such. So I heard mentions of it back in the fall, maybe, and there were talks of potentially trying to see what my availability was. But I also haven’t seen a script. So I haven’t heard anything definitive or anyone say, “Hey, this is going.” So I don’t know, but I would love to go back and visit Sister Irene. It’s been years.

Actors used to be afraid to commit to television because they didn’t want to risk playing the same, static character for seven years, but as you touched on earlier, you’ve mostly gone the anthology route via American Horror Story. You’ve played three characters across four different American Horror Story seasons. So I know you briefly reprised two of those characters, but were there times where you wished you could’ve played one of them for a multi-season arc of sorts?

Absolutely. As I said, that’s one of the aspects of The Gilded Age that I’ve been most excited about. We’re anticipating a season two, and I’ve never gone with one character to a subsequent season and lived out that arc. It’s hard because in American Horror Story season one, the Murder House season, I played Violet, who’s a character that’s so close to my heart. I just adored her. I grew so much while playing her and embodying her. So it would’ve been fabulous to see what a season two could be, but I almost think that it was kind of perfect in the concise way that it was told. So in hindsight, it’s hard to look back and be like, “Ah, I would’ve done this again.” But of course, I would love to see what she would’ve been. Also, spoiler, a decade later, but she’s obviously dead in the Murder House. So I don’t really know how much she would’ve changed during a season-two arc. In hindsight, it’s a hard thing with the positives and negatives, but as an actor, I definitely would want to experience what it’s like to grow with a character.

I’m sure Higher Ground and American Horror Story were seismic in their own right, but when you landed Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring, was that earth shattering for you at the time?

Oh my god, that’s such a memory. It was a while ago, but yeah, it was insane to be working with Sofia Coppola. I remember loving Lost in Translation, and I was so nervous when I auditioned for The Bling Ring. While auditioning for it, I obviously had to play a character that was so different from Violet and who I played in Higher Ground and just who I am as a person. So the earth-shattering thing was like, “Oh, I can push past the boundaries of my teenage self and try something new.” And so I was able to do that under the care of Sofia Coppola, who’s just a phenomenal director because of the way she communicates to actors and is able to draw a performance out of you. I was 17, so I was also just excited to go work with a bunch of young actors. On season one of American Horror Story, there was Evan Peters, but he’s seven years older than me. So I was stoked to be working on such a high-profile project and also being able to work with a bunch of actors my own age.

I’ve been told that Sofia is a quiet leader on set. Apparently, she doesn’t talk a lot, and when she does, she doesn’t raise her voice at all.

She doesn’t yell, yeah.

So it sounds like you had the same takeaway.

Absolutely. Overall, it was a calm environment. The leader was not someone who needed to shout and yell, so the overall energy and vibe of the set was a little bit quieter and more collected than some of the other sets I’ve worked on. And that was the first time I had worked with someone who led from a place of calmness, as opposed to, “Okay everybody, come on! Let’s go!” That sort of energetic thing. So it was just a different experience, and clearly, it works. So I adored working with her, and I would jump at the opportunity to work with her again.

This is a bit of a reductive take, but those teenagers stole because they wanted to feel like the celebrities of the late 2000s. And at the time, aside from reality TV, fame still had the usual barriers to entry. But nowadays, young people are becoming celebrities via the apps on their phones. So if those kids grew up today, do you think they would be more concerned with creating their own celebrity via YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, etc.?

It’s funny how quickly technology changes the world that we live in. It changes our reality and how easy it is to attain information or some degree of celebrity or notoriety. So I wonder, at the time, how it would’ve changed things and if they would’ve been more obsessed about the amount of TikTok followers they had, as opposed to actually infiltrating these people’s lives and physically putting on their clothes and becoming these people. It’s a hard question, but I also think it was just of the time. So I don’t know what those kids would’ve done nowadays. I mean, I still haven’t downloaded TikTok. I haven’t jumped into that world because I know myself and I know that I would get obsessed in the sense of viewing videos, not making videos. I’d be too shy if that’s even possible to admit. I’m also someone with social media, and I get such anxiety having to navigate that world. I don’t know how people these days can do it.

Lastly, to answer your Bling Ring character’s greatest dilemma: leopard or zebra print?

(Laughs.) I would have picked leopard hands down.

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The Gilded Age is now airing on HBO.