Christine Baranski and Cynthia Nixon play the odd sisters, Agnes Van Rhijn and Ada Brook in the HBO series, The Gilded Age. The pair has such an interesting dynamic onscreen. But how about their relationship in real life?Apparently, the Mamma Mia star and the And Just Like That actress go way back in the '80s. Here's a closer look at their friendship.
Christine Baranski Previously Played Cynthia Nixon's Mother In A Broadway Show
In an interview with Today back in January 2022, Baranski revealed that she once played Nixon's mother in the broadway show, The Real Thing.
"In 1984, I was playing (Cynthia's) mother in the Broadway show called 'The Real Thing,'" she shared. The latter added: "For which she won a Tony Award (for best featured actress in a play), I think that we have to (mention that)." When the crew flashed the photo below, Baranski said: "That's the young Cynthia (on the couch), who was still going to Barnard College. So way back."
The two have both appeared in Addams Family Values as well. However, The Gilded Age is their first-ever collaboration on TV. Speaking to Collider in February 2022, Nixon said that working with Baranski made her less nervous during the first day of shooting.
"I think the first day is really hard, and with a cast so large," said the Sex and the City star. "Once we had found our footing, then there were just more and more actors that would come in, in different scenes, and often they were people that Christine and I knew previously, or had maybe worked with previously."
What Christine Baranski Feels About Playing Cynthia Nixon's Sister In 'The Gilded Age'
When asked about her role as Nixon's sister in The Gilded Age, Baranski told Collider that it feels like playing an old married couple.
"For me, I remember someone saying to me that the hardest thing to portray is a marriage because there's such familiarity with a married couple and so many patterns that just repeat themselves, like a musical piece, and they’re very subtle," she explained. "If you listen to married couples, you can hear the quality of banter and the little subtle criticisms, and it's not the first time this has been said, it's maybe the 10,000th time. Anyway, I think of Cynthia [Nixon] and I, and we say this about the relationship, like an old married couple."
"I love refining that and making it as subtle and natural as possible," she continued. "There are these old wounds that get rubbed, and these old grudges and old histories, and it repeats itself. It makes for wonderful comedy. The relationship is quite funny, and recognizable as older sister, younger sister." Nixon also talked about the power dynamics between their characters. "The power differential between these women is significant," she said.
"Not only is she the older sister, not only does she have more of the powerhouse personality, but she controls all the purse strings," she continued. "Ada is living there on her charity, essentially. Ada has discovered a long time ago, maybe even when they were still children, that the way to win over Agnes is not to assault her directly, but to go around behind and work behind the scenes. I think we see that very much still in evidence. So never say never, but I think that Ada has her own way of fighting, and it’s far more of a guerrilla warfare than a full-out frontal attack."
What Cynthia Nixon Feels About Reuniting With Christine Baranski In 'The Gilded Age'
One of the reasons Nixon joined The Gilded Age was knowing that HBO was also trying to cast Baranski. "The idea of working with Julian [Fellowes, director], and I knew that Christine, they were trying to get her," she told TV Insider.
"Both of those things, and — Christine and I share this — we're New Yorkers. It's always a priority if something shoots in New York. But to get such a delicious period piece in New York with these incredible, really vivacious characters that you can just sink your teeth into, as an actor, you really couldn’t ask for more."
The series has been renewed for season 2. Filming started in May 2022, which means that it might be released around early 2023. When asked what to expect from the sisters in the upcoming season, Nixon hinted at "plot twists, conflicts heating up," noting that "people who appear are maybe not always what they seem." Baranski gave a more elaborate response, emphasizing the historical aspect of the show.
"Julian is an absolutely marvelous historian, so he can open up that canvas about what life was like in the post-Civil War era," she said. "It was a time of tremendous change, and he can base a lot of that in what was actually going on, witness our Suffragettes and real characters he's introduced. But it's a real opportunity to open up the American landscape and have marvelous history lessons while having a narrative with all these interesting characters. People will learn about American history."
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