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- The golden age is moving, uh, up to Newport and the world of black families who lived there in the 19th century.
- The Benton dene star opens with the fact of making the screen time equal to the black characters of the show.
- In addition, Jordan Donica comments on the point of exploring a little -known corner of history.
The golden age finally expands his vision of the world.
The show, which has largely treated the so -called 400 club and the Elites White of the Fifth Avenue Society in New York, brings a new set of characters for season 3 – Dr. William Kirkland (Jordan Donica) and his parents, played by Phylicia Rashad and Brian Stokes Mitchell, who are all members of the Newport Elite.
“We are becoming more and more interested in the history of the black bourgeois community at the end of the 19th century,” said Creator Julian Fellowes Weekly entertainment. “People have not really taught it. We taught them a vision of this society, and the black bourgeois community has been excluded, in large part. The more we learn, the more we wanted to put it in the show.”
From the start, The golden age has made more room for color characters than something like Downton Abbey, that Fellowes also created. Peggy Scott (Dené Benton) has been a main character since season 1, and we have followed her because she asked for work as a writer and journalist.
Karolina Wojtasik / HBO
Peggy’s family lives among a black middle class community in Brooklyn. “It was exciting to find out about Brooklyn’s story when I started the show,” said Benton. “It was something I didn’t know at all.”
But after working with the historian and consultant Dr. Erica Dunbar for two seasons, Benton was hungry for the show to open more. “It’s like this garden that we have been shooting since season 1,” she said. “Dr. Dunbar and I dreamed of what it could be for the dark world of the show to develop and take as much space as the white world of the golden age.
“This season gives the impression that we see all the flowers flourish from this prosecution,” she continues. “This led to telling us about it to the members of the Newport family who are descendants of families such as the Kirklands who have had black family members in Newport for 11 generations and who still have artifacts from their family from the time.”
Sonia Warfield, the Co-showrunner, explains later why Newport was a unique case at that time. “Because Newport is so small, they had integrated schools,” she notes. “The character of Brian Stokes Mitchell is based on an eminent black pastor who has become a member of the State Assembly or something. We wanted to extend the world, and it is real, and it is not something that we normally see on television and cinema.”
Jordan Donica is new in the distribution this season, another Broadway lighting in the world of The golden age. As Dr. Kirkland, he portrays an easy doctor and man. Donica is no stranger to the exploration of history in his roles; He played Thomas Jefferson in the national tour of Hamilton (although Warfield did not know he could sing when the show threw him).
“I always liked to make vintage pieces to find out what people like us did at different times and spaces,” explains Donica. “To find out more about free Africans who were never slaves, it is simply not something that we learn at school, if ever. To find out more, to represent it, plunge into this story and live in this world was a blessing.”
Dr. Kirkland is a new romantic interest in Peggy. The two meet when he comes to treat her as she suffers from a bronchial infection, safely nestled in the house of Agnes (Christine Baranski), which employs her as secretary. The two clicks, and in episode 3 of the new season, Peggy visits Dr. Kirkland at his home in Newport, meeting his parents, who are extremely stuck and look at the most humble origins of the Peggy family.
Karolina Wojtasik / HBO
For Benton, it is a welcome change compared to a large part of the tragedy that Peggy has known. “We see much more Peggy,” she springs. “I do not know if we have really been able to see Peggy laughs from season 1 or 2, and there is just something radical to see a black woman having so much lightness during this period and being romanticized.”
However, apart from Love Story, Benton claims that his experiences with the descendants of these real families in Newport have enriched his time in the show this season. “It’s such a living story,” she thinks. “And seeing excitement, pride and emotion on their faces – that their stories were told – is a connective tissue with this program which has the impression that it is imbued with a lot of magic.”
The golden age Broadcast on Sunday at 9 p.m. He / PT on HBO.
