The Gilded Age is back for season 4 with all the amazing costumes, love stories, and high society scheming that viewers have come to expect from the HBO series. And if you're a Peggy fan—and really, how could you not be?—she has a lot going on this time around, too, from her engagement to Dr. Kirkland (Jordan Donica) to becoming a published author.
Peggy has certainly evolved from her time as Agnes van Rhijn's (Christine Baranski) secretary, and that's thanks in large part to the actor behind her, Denée Benton. Not only does Benton make Peggy such a lovable character while playing her, but she also influenced just how big Peggy's storylines could—and should—be in conversations behind the scenes.
"Even from the moment I got the audition sides in 2019, I was like, 'Oh, this is what it was all leading towards.' I've been in corsets on stage from Great Comet to Hamilton," the actor says on the latest episode of the "Nice Talk" podcast. "It was really special to have Peggy come and be like, 'Oh, this is for me' ... I was like, 'I have to protect her with my life.'"
While many period pieces feature only white characters, The Gilded Age is set apart thanks to its focus on Peggy and other Black characters living in 1880s New York City, in addition to their white counterparts. And this isn’t colorblind casting: The show is interested in how life actually differed for Black people in this era, while still allowing for a little TV magic, like Peggy’s romantic ballroom proposal scene.
"We've never seen this on screen before, and it was a real journey, like really righteous, satisfying fight to get her to where she is now. I feel like it's been a lesson in patience and planted seeds. We're both very relentless about what we want," Benton says of herself and her character.
"Behind the scenes, me and [producer and historical consultant] Erica Dunbar and [director and producer] Salli Richardson-Whitfield, when we first got cast, were the only Black people anywhere connected to the production," the Tony nominee goes on. "So a lot of the things that were falling through the cracks around Peggy's character and her world and her arc, it was really on Erica and I at the beginning to try to give those notes. And me, with no power, really, trying to be like, 'Okay, how can we make this something that I know audiences will eat up like sugar. Like, they will be obsessed.'"
Clearly, Benton's notes were taken seriously.
"Now we're all such a team," she says. "And we're seeing the payoff in season 4. What people will see, it's like a blossoming garden. The idea that those conversations led to someone like Phylicia Rashad being on our show, led to learning about the first Black newspapers in our country. Like, none of that was intended in 2019, and so to see what it's become, I am now like, 'Oh, you showed the wrong Capricorn what's possible.'"
For more from Benton—including what fans can expect in The Gilded Age season 4 and her experience starring in School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play on Broadway—check out this week's installment of "Nice Talk." The episode is available everywhere you listen to podcasts.