[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for Season 3 of The Gilded Age.]

In the HBO series The Gilded Age, Peggy Scott (Denée Benton) has had a rough go of things, struggling to find her place in an unforgiving high society, so it was a refreshing turn to watch her explore romance with Dr. William Kirkland (Jordan Donica) throughout Season 3. Even then, things were still rocky for Peggy as William’s mother, Elizabeth Kirkland (Phylicia Rashad), tried her hardest to interfere. Thankfully, William ultimately makes his own choice to take the next step with Peggy, but we’ll have to wait until Season 4 to see how that will all play out.

During this interview with Collider, co-stars Benton and Donica discussed the beautiful journey of Peggy and William’s love story, the exploration of Black elite society, what it was like for Donica to join this world in Season 3, his memorable first day, sharing scenes with the likes of Audra McDonald and Rashad, Peggy’s relationship with her parents, and how Dr. William Kirkland saved George Russell’s (Morgan Spector) life without ever question his own skill and ability.

Denée Benton and Jordan Donica Were Excited to Dive Deeper Into the World of the Black Elite in ‘The Gilded Age’ Season 3

“I was excited for everyone to see everything that happened in the season.”

Collider: Season 3 feels like the season where you can just jump right in with everything and everyone. What were you most excited about exploring with Season 3?

DENÉE BENTON: I was really excited to have the fans experience the beauty and the levity that we got to see Peggy explore in herself, which spilled out into the world as she traveled to Newport. We got to see this incredible new landscape of Black elite and these new costumes, colors, and textures, with the cliff walk and then the ball. I couldn’t wait for the Black ball that me and Dr. Dunbar have been dreaming about since 2019 when I first got cast in this show. We were like, “Somehow there has to be a Black ball that is decadent and elite and beautiful.” This season felt like an arrival to that dream, and I was excited to share it.

JORDAN DONICA: I was excited for everyone to see everything that happened in the season. I was excited for everyone to meet Dr. Kirkland and to see this beautiful, blossoming relationship with Dr. Kirkland, and how symbiotic and reciprocal it is, and how powerful it is for both of them.

It was a fun journey to take with Peggy and Dr. Kirkland. There was a minute there when I had my doubts about him, but then he won me back over.

DONICA: He just had to process. There was a lot of information. It was nothing that Peggy did. It was just like, “Oh, man, I’ve just got to walk and think. I’ve just got to process and slow down a little.”

Jordan, how was it for you to jump into this world?

DONICA: I’ve had the privilege of doing a lot of period pieces on stage, like Phantom of the Opera, My Fair Lady, Camelot, and Hamilton. The idea of the world itself was comfortable to me. It wasn’t hard for me to get into that. Honestly, Denée and the whole cast, crew, and everybody who touches this show was so kind and warm and welcoming. They made my job so easy. And the writing for the show is so great. It’s very rare that, as an actor when you read something, how you imagined it to be is how it actually is, and this is one of those rare cases. I remember my first day on set was with Audra [McDonald] and John [Douglas Thompson]. Arriving at the house was my first scene. My first scene was my first scene, which is very rare. And I think my next scene was my last scene. It was just a blast to dive in headfirst and to feel like I was comforted, supported, welcomed and respected. It was nothing short of a blessing.

What’s it like to work with women like Audra McDonald and Phylicia Rashad? They both have such a presence that it feels like you can’t not learn from them.

BENTON: When I first found out that Audra was going to be playing my mother, Michael Engler said the words and then he just handed me a tissue because I didn’t realize that I had just started leaking from my eyes immediately. She is someone I’ve been watching since I was a child. She was the North Star of me being able to dream myself into this world. And then, watching Phylicia come on set for the first time, I was able to see that Audra felt about Phylicia the way that I feel about Audra. It was just this beautiful connective tissue. And then, I got to ask Phylicia how she felt that way about, and she talked about working with Diahann Carroll for the first time. It was just this moment for me where I was like, “Oh, my God, the legacy that I get to be connected to is that there really is no Peggy Scott without these three particular women.” I don’t know if that answers your question with how much gravity I feel when I get to act with these people. I feel it in the core of my gut how special it is.

Jordan Donica Learned So Much From Working with His ‘The Gilded Age’ Co-Stars

“It’s incalculable, the things that they’ve given me and the things I’ve learned.”

Image via HBO

Jordan, what was it like for you to find out who your mother was going to be?

DONICA: My mother and my father, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Phylicia Rashad, are you kidding me? It was already going to be a blessing to work with Denée again, and Audra and John. I said to Phylicia, after our first day, she has a very similar energy to my Aunt Kathy, who passed away. She helped raise me with my mom. That penetrating stare, when you’re not just in a scene with them, but when you’re in the trailer with them, I first met Phylicia in the trailer and she just went, “Son!” She opened her arms to me and we hugged. You look into their eyes and there’s no hiding the truth. I’m a believer that acting is truth-seeking. It’s not pretending to be something else. We’re trying to seek the truth. When you’re in scenes and sharing space, even off camera, with people like Audra, Denée, and Phylicia, there’s no hiding the truth. You don’t have to try hard, you just have to be fully present. It’s incalculable, the things that they’ve given me and the things I’ve learned, and that I hope to continue learning from them.

Denée, we got to know Peggy through her friendship with Marian, but now we really get to see her more with her family and on her own. What did you most enjoy about that family dynamic that she has with her parents?

BENTON: Tracking that arc from Season 1 to now is one of the most beautiful parts of our show to me. The way it shows rupture and repair within dysfunctional family dynamics that are surviving in a dysfunctional society, and what it’s like for them to choose to fight for each other past a moment, no one would blame any of them for fully walking away. To get to see what’s on the other side of fighting it out and crying it out and talking it out, again and again. And then, seeing Arthur learn his lesson in that last scene when Dr. Kirkland asks for Peggy’s hand and Arthur goes, “Now, this relationship is between you and her, not you and the parents. She’s a writer and she has her dreams.” We’ve watched him learn what it is to value Peggy the way she values herself. We’ve gotten to watch Dorothy learn to always be on Peggy’s team. We get to watch them fail in Season 1 and succeed so beautifully by Season 3, and that it’s worth fighting for that love. It’s a beautiful way to also show a Black family finding its way through, and finding its way back together. That’s something Dr. Dunbar and I talked a lot about, trying to find ways to protect and have honesty for the harms as well.

‘The Gilded Age’s Dr. William Kirkland Never Questioned His Ability to Save the Life of George Russell

“He’s a very good doctor. He knows what he’s doing.”

Image via HBO

Jordan, there’s something so interesting about watching the whole sequence when George gets shot and Dr. Kirkland has to step in and save his life. In the moment, there isn’t time to question it, but then afterwards he has this other doctor question him until he sees that he really did an excellent job. What was it like to take that journey and to show the faith that Dr. Kirkland has in himself, but then to also get that acknowledgment?

DONICA: I think it’s a nice bookend from what we see in episode one with Peggy and how Dr. Kirkland is brought into the fold in the first place. We see Peggy, a Black woman, being refused treatment by a white doctor. And now, in the last episode, we’re seeing a white man needing treatment, and the only one available is a Black doctor. It’s one of those moments where I feel like we get to see Dr. Kirkland in what he feels his purpose is, as a doctor. He is a doctor, which he reminds people of constantly, throughout the course of this season. For a while, I had questioned this, questioned that. I was overthinking, perhaps, the consequences of failure in this moment. But the reality is, this is what he loves to do, and he is a very competent doctor. He’s a very good doctor. He knows what he’s doing. He wouldn’t, for a second, question his own ability, nor would he spend time, because of who he is, being uncomfortable in a white space. That’s just not who he is. Also, the nature of his skin tone has allowed him privileges over the course of his life to enter into certain spaces that other people have not entered into. Of course, all of that sets in as he goes febrile and as things get a little touch and go, but by the end, he’s done his duty. He can think about all of that afterwards. First and foremost, his Hippocratic oath is at the forefront of his brain, if someone is on the verge of death and it is my spiritual obligation to save their life.

He’s definitely a better man than the other guy who wouldn’t do that.

BENTON: It’s maybe the best thing that ever happened to Peggy. That one moment of discrimination was really a silver lining.

DONICA: Yeah, it opened the door.

BENTON: Exactly.