“Gilded Age” Star Carrie Coon Says She Doesn't Bring Character Bertha's Energy Home: 'It's Just Chaos' (Exclusive)
The Emmy-nominated actress also shares her thoughts on 'Gilded Age' season 3
In The Gilded Age, Carrie Coon fully embodies the new-money matriarch Bertha Russell, but as soon as she's off-set, she says she's back to real life as a busy mom of two.
"My husband [actor and playwright Tracy Letts] would say there's absolutely no Bertha Russell energy in our house. It's just chaos," Coon, 43, tells PEOPLE exclusively in this week's issue.
On screen, Bertha stops at nothing to elevate her family — who became incredibly wealthy from the success of her railroad tycoon husband George Russell (Morgan Spector) — and break into old New York society in the period drama set in the late 1800s. For her part, Coon embodies the unlikely antihero with perfect timing, wit — and accent.
Coon jokes she only embodies Bertha "in jest, only when I'm making fun of myself."
Barbara Nitke/HBO
Carrie Coon as Bertha in 'The Gilded Age'The star shares a peek into her busy life with her two children, ages 6 and 3, when describing how she found out about her 2024 Emmy nomination for outstanding actress in a drama series.
"I had worked a 16-hour day and we woke up and it was chaos. My son had just slammed his own arm in a door," she recalls, adding that he was crying in her arms as she answered the phone with the good news. "I was like, '[Congratulations] for what?' I'm like, 'Oh, it's the Emmys today.' No earthly idea."
Letts was also nominated for guest actor in a drama series for his role in Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, but the two haven't had time to celebrate yet.
"It was just chaotic family dinner, bedtime, collapse into bed," Coon says of the day nominations were announced. "We usually just watch a show or movie and go to bed. So it was just any other night — but exciting of course."
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This is Coon's first Emmy nomination for her portrayal of Bertha (she was previously nominated for her work on Fargo). As season 3 gets underway, she says it's "chiefly exciting because we didn't think we were getting a season 3. The people watching the show really did save it."
She continues, "It's exciting because we have dispatched with all of the exposition, and now it's all storytelling, we don't have to introduce anyone really anymore. And I feel that [writers] Julian [Fellows] and Sonja Warfield have really embraced our very specific pacing, which is quite breathless actually, a lot can happen in an episode."
After a cliffhanger of an ending in season 2, Coon says, "I was really shocked by a couple of the twists we have coming. So that was thrilling. They keep surprising me. I haven't even seen all the scripts yet, so I am eager to be surprised."
For more on Carrie Coon, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here.
As Coon preps for the Emmys on Sept. 15 (she swears by the Dr. Dennis Gross "red light mask") and looks forward to a minute of calm with "some time in a hotel room to take a nap before the ceremony," she says she will finally take a minute to celebrate with Letts at their favorite Los Angeles restaurant, El Compadre.
"We cut out as fast as we can so we can actually eat," she says.
The Gilded Age is steaming on Max.
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