Extras wanted
Casting crew, others to arrive in May and June for HBO’S drama, “The Gilded Age.”
“Women — are you OK with wearing a corset and bustle?”
If you’re willing to put on one of history’s most notoriously painful garments and its accompanying bustle, you could have an in as an extra when HBO’S “The Gilded Age” starts filming downtown for about four weeks in May and June. The casting company is also looking for women with long hair and men with facial hair.
The period drama, a prequel to the smash series “Downton Abbey,” was expected to shoot in Troy last year before the pandemic hit. Local filming for the project is now said to be just weeks away.
The dates the production team plans to use the Hart Cluett Museum’s 57 Second St. building are June 10 and 11 says Kathy Sheehan, historian for the city of Troy and Rensselaer County. Second Street exterior shots outside the museum and those filmed from inside the building looking out are tentatively scheduled for the production, Sheehan said.
Grant Wilfey Casting is advertising for “men, women, and children to portray various 1880’s
roles for likely MULTIPLE DAYS OF WORK from 5/22 - 6/18, film in Troy, NY.” Registration information is available at http://www.gwci.app/ talent.
The casting company advises there will be required testing for COVID -19 during fittings, between April 20 and May 20, and before. The production company pays for the tests and days for work and fittings are paid.
Filming of scenes in Troy was scheduled for May to June 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic pushed the work to 2021.
“The Gilded Age” isn’t the only HBO show slated to film in the Capital Region this year. Grant Wilfley also is preparing to cast extras for “The White House Plumbers,” a fiveepisode limited series starring Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux — HBO vets from “True Detective” and “The Leftovers,” respectively — as E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy. The two men coordinated the 1972 break-in at Democratic Party headquarters and the casting company says filming is expected to happen in Albany. Liddy died last month.
Julian Fellowes, who created “Downton Abbey,” is the creative force behind “The Gilded Age.” The story is said to take place several decades before the action of
“Downton Abbey,” which opened with news of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. The show portrayed the lives of British aristocrats through the late 1920s. There is expected to be a crossover between the two series. Christina Baranski, Cynthia Nixon,
Carrie Coon, and Denée Benton are in the cast for the new show, according to HBO’S synopsis.
Troy’s intact Victorian architecture has made downtown a favorite location for directors seeking to capture the wealth and glamour of New York City during that time. During the 19th century Troy was one of the nation’s wealthiest cities, as reflected in the surviving buildings from that periods Location scouts for “The Gilded Age” scoured Troy for buildings and street scenes to use while set decorators shopped in Capital Region antique stores for period pieces to use in the production.
Director Martin Scorsese had his cameras filming downtown for 1993’s “The Age of Innocence,” a drama based on Edith Wharton’s classic novel that starred Daniel Daylewis and Michelle Pfeiffer. Other movies that used Troy’s buildings and streets include a version of H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine” made in 2002 and “Ironweed” in 1987.
“The Gilded Age” has filmed parts of its planned 10-episode run in Westchester County in the lower Hudson Valley and had plans to film in the historic mansions of Newport, R.I., to reproduce the sense of 19th-century aristocratic lifestyles.