Secrets from the set of ‘The Gilded Age’ season three

The Cosby Show’s Phylicia Rashad joins the cast as Mrs Elizabeth Kirkland, the matriarch of the Kirklands – a prominent black family from Newport with ties dating back to the American Revolution.

She and her pastor husband Frederick (Brian Stokes Mitchell) aren’t impressed by Peggy’s career when she meets their doctor son.

“I have to say, I found that really challenging,” says Cynthia Nixon of filming the latest seasons of The Gilded Age and And Just Like That simultaneously.

“When I wrapped my last day on the second one, I felt a feeling of, ‘I have accomplished something.’”

“I was on The Gilded Age 48 hours later,” says Carrie of the pressure she was under to not get a tan while filming season three of The White Lotus in Thailand.

“My skin was supposed to look like porcelain. I mean, they eat arsenic biscuits.” To protect her complexion the star “hid in my room from nine to four” and “would swim in long sleeves”.

The Kirkland family aren’t the only new characters popping up in the period drama.

The Queen’s Gambit’s Bill Camp joins as investment banker JP Morgan, Nurse Jackie’s Merritt Wever will play Monica O’Brien, Bertha Russell’s estranged sister.

And Madam Secretary’s Paul Alexander Nolan, Deadpool’s Leslie Uggams, The Lincoln Lawyer’s LisaGay Hamilton, and Ozark’s Jessica Frances Dukes all join the show.

Louisa Jacobson – the 33-year-old actress daughter of Hollywood legend Meryl Streep teases this time around, “There are a lot of plot twists.”

“It’s gonna keep you on your toes,” the star, who plays Marian Brook, says of the “extraordinary” eight-episode season. And co-star Carrie agrees – expect the unexpected!

“I was really shocked by a couple of the twists we have coming,” she says. “So that was thrilling. They keep surprising me,” she says of the show’s writers.

Cynthia’s late godmother, Violet Dennison, influenced her portrayal of the Manhattan spinster.

“The most important thing about Denny was that she really loved young people, I think about that a lot with Ada, both the incredible love she has for her niece and incredible excitement at things in the world.”

It’s an age of divorce this season, with show boss Francesca Orsi revealing it will explore “how divorce came to the forefront”.

“There’s a conversation to be had about arranged marriages, and if it doesn’t work, what divorce looks like in that time, and what that bodes for society and whether you’re accepted in society.”