Carrie Coon Goes To Bat For Bertha

To a contemporary audience, The Gilded Age’s recent wedding — which saw the bride sob as she said “I do” to a man she didn’t love — reads as a tragedy. But Bertha Russell had her reasons for marrying her daughter off to a British duke.

“People disagree with the way she goes about doing what she's doing, but I don't doubt for a second that everything Bertha is doing is out of love for her daughter,” says Carrie Coon, who plays the indomitable Bertha. “Because what she understands about the world is that it is not set up to protect her daughter or advance her interests.”

Bertha managed to climb the ladder in society when her family moved into town with their new money, but she doesn’t want her daughter, Gladys (Taissa Farmiga), to face this same fight. “Ultimately, what she wants for her daughter is to have purpose and fulfillment and a meaningful life. And Bertha believes that she's offering Gladys this through this marriage, which will allow her to influence politics, fashion, art, and culture,” the actor says.

Coon, who shares two children with her actor and playwright husband, Tracy Letts, isn’t nearly as ambitious about shaping her daughter’s path — but she still finds her character’s parenting “imminently relatable,” especially amid ongoing attacks on women’s rights. “What Bertha teaches me about my daughter is to be careful to see the person who's right in front of me and not project onto her, but also that my daughter in this world still needs protection,” Coon, 44, says. “Her rights are very much geographical, and there are people who don't see her as a whole person.”

Bertha isn’t the only one of Coon’s characters who has people talking. The actor earned a Tony nomination for her portrayal of Honey in the play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 2013 and shortly after gained screen recognition (and Emmy nods) as grieving mother Nora in HBO’s The Leftovers and police officer Gloria in FX’s Fargo. Most recently, her performance as Laurie in The White Lotus Season 3 went viral for moments like her raw, heartfelt monologue and her hilarious sprint during the finale. “I have been stunned by it, and I welcome it,” she says of the fan reaction. “It's very satisfying when your art lands in the world and people continue to have conversations.”

Below, Coon discusses Bertha’s Season 3 arc, working with the cast, and her thoughts on White Lotus creator Mike White returning to Survivor.

Bertha’s husband, George (Morgan Spector), really doesn’t understand her actions this season. What’s your take on that?

Bertha says, “If I was allowed to be in a boardroom, making decisions about the direction the country is going, then maybe I wouldn’t be working so hard in this domestic sphere.” But it’s the only sphere she’s allowed in. She’s savvy, she has a lot of energy, and this is the only place she has to put it — and it's supportive of her husband's interests. They are working very much in parallel to increase their family fortune, literally and figuratively.

I think ultimately, yes, George doesn’t respect it. He wants Gladys to marry for love. But he doesn’t understand all of the nuances of marrying your daughter off in the world that they’re in, and how few rights she actually has, even though she’s coming from a wealthy family.

As an onscreen couple, you get to work with Morgan Specter a lot. What is he like as a scene partner?

Morgan and I adore each other. We are very good friends. We text and call each other a lot, and we're in very similar places in our lives. We're both in deeply respectful marriages with people that have thriving careers, and we both [are parents]. He's one of the reasons I signed on to the show in the first place, because he was already attached, and I knew him from a previous project, and our partners have worked together.

He takes his work seriously, but he doesn't take himself seriously. So he's always prepared, but he's never in his own way. We always have a good time, because we're able to do the work when the work is happening, and then enjoy each other's company when the cameras aren't rolling. There's a lot of laughing on the set. We try to have fun, to make sure it's a welcoming environment for all of these actors that are popping in for a day or two, because we all know how it feels to be coming into a machine that's already very much in motion.

You two have wonderful chemistry together. And speaking of actors popping up — I loved Merritt Wever as Bertha’s estranged sister. She was a bit of a foil to your character.

Oh, she really is.

What was it like working with her?

I so respect Merritt’s work. We've never worked together, and I was delighted to hear she was coming to play Monica, and she did exactly what I expected: She showed up and was immediately in the pocket, and I felt ashamed — [like] I'm doing this wrong, which is how you want to feel when you’re working with great actors. You want to feel like you have something to learn, and I absolutely did.

She was so brilliant at articulating what it's like to come into this show. Because the show is quite heightened. There's a sense of theatricality about the work and the language. And then there's also — you can be too big, but you can also be too small. You can shrink away from the world and not fill up the costumes and fill up the rooms. And she just kept saying, “Oh, it's just a very narrow channel.” And she's absolutely right. The trick of the show is figuring out exactly what that channel is. We were lucky to have her. And I hope we get a Season 4 so that Merritt can come back and play with us.

I really hope there's Season 4 too. I also wanted to ask about Gladys’ wedding, which was such a stunning set piece. What was it like filming that scene?

Oh, gosh. It was characteristically lush and lavish, like all of the production design is. We were in Albany, so there's a church right by the capitol, and that's where we shot it. I wish you could see all the extras’ dresses up close and all the flowers. It was all real.

And bless Taissa Farmiga, she had to deliver that performance all day long, two days in a row. I believe she had to just keep crying and walking down the aisle, which is no small feat. And of course, Taissa was given a lot more to do this season, which is a great use of her prodigious talents.

Of course, I want to ask you about The White Lotus. As you know, people are still talking about Laurie’s monologue. Have you been surprised by that reaction?

I knew when I read the script that the women were the sneaky heart of Season 3. What I did not anticipate was all of the essays and think pieces and commentary about the women's friendship, especially because a lot of our story got cut for time — our conversations tended to be a lot longer, and so I thought perhaps it wouldn't land as powerfully because we were missing some of that material. But in fact, it still worked. A testament to Mike [White]'s writing.

And yes, I'm really stunned by the number of women who come up to me telling me that they feel seen, or that they're Laurie, or that they're thinking about their lives in a new way, or that it really captured female friendship at this time of life for them, and reflecting on their own lives, how time is meaningful for them, the way it has unfolded.

I think what was nice — considering there were cut scenes — was not having all the details, because it allowed people to project onto the women a lot more.

That's a great point. Not narrowing down the scope of the story maybe did leave some space for people.

I also have to ask, what do you think of Mike White joining Survivor again?

What's funny about Mike is that he seems to exist only in lavish resorts or in utter deprivation in the woods with nothing. That bears some examination: Why Mike White feels compelled to these two extremes of existence. It’s hilarious. He shamelessly loves reality TV, and here he is back to it. So good for him. I've never really watched Survivor, if I'm honest. This might be my chance to tune in.

This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.