With his regal good looks and baritone voice, Morgan Spector has commanded our screens as self-made railroad magnate George Russell in HBO’s lavish period drama, The Gilded Age – an enthralling Edith Wharton-esque tale of ambition, old and new wealth and social status played out in the marble-clad halls and velvet-draped drawing rooms of 1880s New York. The California-born actor’s portrayal of the Russell family’s magnetic, morally ambiguous patriarch is nuanced – a complex, powerful man shaped by the velocity of the steam-powered age. Having trained at the American Conservatory Theatre and making his name through a series of brilliant roles on stage and screen, his performance is attuned to the tensions of class, masculinity and control, and executed with the flair of a seasoned stage actor.
Off-screen, Spector is just as compelling. In conversation, he is thoughtful, dryly funny and unpretentious, despite the grandeur of the world he inhabits as George Russell. Politically outspoken, he’s part of a growing cohort of actors unafraid to voice leftist critiques in a largely image-managed industry. His Instagram – part behind-the-scenes photo diary, part political dispatch – is just as likely to include posts about labour rights or imposing sanctions on Israel as it is shots from set or pictures of Spector with his wife – actor, writer and director, Rebecca Hall. In short, there’s a deep and rare sense of integrity in his public presence, and a refusal to separate art from ethics.
Now, amid the launch of the much-anticipated third season of The Gilded Age, we speak with Morgan Spector about his relationship with the role of George Russell, his most controversial political opinion, and love at first sight (spoiler: yes, he believes in it and, yes, he has experienced it).
1. What’s the first thing you did when you woke up this morning? Got my face licked by my enormous beast of a dog.
2. Do you have any daily rituals? I do the school run most days during the school year.
3. Where’s home? The Hudson Valley.
4. Can you give us a clue about any of the intrigues we can expect from the new season of The Gilded Age? This season, everyone is gambling their whole stake, essentially. The usual sense that any mess we might make can be cleaned up in an episode or two is definitely missing.
5. What’s your relationship with the character of George Russell like? He lets me lean into some aspects of myself that I usually lean away from, and that’s really fun, actually. I’m grateful for him.
6. What do you admire about him? He’s usually quite a careful strategist. I often don’t know what I think until I say it, so I have a lot of respect for that.
7. And which of his traits do you most dislike? He can be quite certain of his own superiority.
8. As an audience in 2025, what wisdom do you think we can take away from watching the machinations in The Gilded Age? One of my favourite things about the show is Agnes’ wisdom. She’s quite brutally candid sometimes, but there’s a kindness in that candour that we sometimes sacrifice in contemporary life in order to avoid conflict.
9. What’s the craziest thing you learned about The Gilded Age while working on this series? How bizarrely creative these people had to be in order to be able to spend their unbelievable wealth. They had dinner parties for dogs, dinner parties on horseback, balls that lasted for days. That kind of excess wealth and power begets fairly shocking eccentricity.
10. What’s your favourite thing about your on-screen wife Carrie Coon? My favourite thing about her as an actor, aside from her boundless talent, is that you always root for her in any character she’s playing. She’s got moxy, or pluck, a certain innate heroic quality. You could cast her as Eva Braun and you’d be on her side.
Would you describe yourself as a romantic?
I have been obsessed with romantic love my whole life – Morgan Spector
11. Could you share any BTS gossip from the show? It’s truly the most wholesome group of people you could possibly imagine.
12. When did you first realise you wanted to be an actor? I was seven and starred in Christopher Durang’s Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You at a local theatre. I got a laugh, and that was it.
13. Is there a role you would drop everything to play? I’ve never done Pinter outside of college, I’d love to.
14. And a director you’d most like to work with? I’ve done readings with David Cromer; I’d love to do an actual show with him. Or the British director Lyndsey Turner. I’m always struck by Hiro Murai. It’s hard to have a distinct voice in television, but he does. Film-wise, Lynne Ramsay. Or Charlotte Wells. I don’t know if I’ve ever been as moved by a film as I was by Aftersun.
15. When you’re working on a new role, how do you find your way into the character? I’m very text-oriented. I read it and say it and keep doing that until I start to understand what kind of person thinks and speaks like that.
16. Are there any roles you feel sad to part with after filming has ended? It’s always hard to say goodbye to plays. Movies and TV, you’re usually so tired, it’s kind of a relief.
17. Do you believe in ghosts? I’m agnostic on all things supernatural, but I’ve never met a ghost.
18. Do you believe in aliens? I don’t know if they’ve visited, but I can’t imagine they don’t exist somewhere.
19. Do you believe in God? I don’t believe in a single being with a causal relationship to human events, but I do think there’s an inherent divinity in all living things that we do not sufficiently cherish.
20. Can you tell us a secret? Sometimes I leave leftovers in the back of the fridge for so long that they turn putrid, and if it looks really bad in there, I’ll just throw away the whole container. It’s a source of shame.
21. Would you describe yourself as a romantic? I have been obsessed with romantic love my whole life. I also really like the song The Impossible Dream from the musical Man of La Mancha, if that tells you anything.
22. Are you more drawn to feeling desire or being desired? Very into both.
23. What’s the most outlandish thing you have ever heard about yourself? In high school, I was rumoured to be pansexual and a cocaine addict, neither of which I was. What I did have was an insane haircut, which I think is what threw people off.
24. Do you believe in love at first sight? I was in love with my wife from the minute I saw her. I explained it to myself in another way, but in retrospect, I think that was it.
25. You’ve been vocal in support of your political and humanitarian beliefs. Which of your opinions has been greeted with the most controversy? I posted something calling for Joe Biden to step down, due to his support for genocide, obvious senility, and disastrous poll numbers. That was the most rage and confusion I’ve gotten online.
26. What’s the biggest misconception about socialism? That a contemporary iteration of socialism has to be the same as any previous iteration. American socialism, should it ever appear, would arise out of our history and our existing politics, in response to the demands of the people who build it.
27. What qualities do you most look for in a friend? Honesty, humour, and taste.
28. What’s your star sign? Libra.
29. Do you have any prominent Libra traits? I’m into fairness.
30. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? No idea. Maybe a shy extrovert? A confident introvert?
When was the last time you cried? “Since I’ve become a parent, I cry all the time” – Morgan Spector
31. Who’s your favourite Beatle? The Rolling Stones.
32. You’ve acted in Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge on Broadway. What other play would you most love to work on? Maybe The Homecoming? Or Beckett’s Endgame.
33. When was the last time you cried? Since I’ve become a parent, I cry all the time. I think the last time was during the trailer for the second half of Wicked.
34. What’s your guilty pleasure? Lurking on Twitter.
35. What’s the best film you’ve seen recently? Recently, I’ve mostly been watching kids’ movies, I’m embarrassed to say. The original Lilo and Stitch animated film was very good!
36. And the best television show (apart from The Gilded Age)? Thomas Vinterberg’s Netflix show, Families Like Ours, is very powerful. I’m only a couple of episodes in, but it’s riveting.
37. What’s your greatest virtue? Not taking myself too seriously.
38. And vice? Not taking myself seriously enough.
39. What’s the last lie you ever told? Still within the statute of limitations, so I can’t tell you.
40. What are you obsessed with? Art, sex, the fortunes of the Western left, US foreign policy, fiction in all forms, my family.
41. If you could change one thing about your own life, what would it be? I’d stay in the dance class I dropped out of when I was ten.
42. If you could go back in time, what’s the first thing you’d do? If I’m going back in time with a magic wand to change history, I’d do my best to keep the US from turning on the Soviet Union after WWII.
43. What music’s on repeat at the moment? I’ve been listening to Billy Bragg’s first album a lot, particularly the song A New England.
44. What gives you the ick? Certainty.
45. What’s your Roman Empire? I don’t understand this question, probably because I’m old.
46. Where’s your favourite place in the whole world? The Sonoma Coast in Northern California is pretty spectacular.
47. If you weren’t acting, what would you be doing? Begging my brother for a bartending job.
48. What books are you reading right now? Reign of Terror by Spencer Ackerman and James by Percival Everett.
49. What parts and projects do you have coming up? I have a role in the Netflix show Black Rabbit, coming out 18 September.
50. What are you doing for the rest of the day? Swimming, exercising, barbecuing. It’s summer!
Season three of HBO’s The Gilded Age is streaming now.
