Taissa Farmiga leans in close to the camera, shaking out her shoulder-length straight brown hair. “Do you recognize me without my wig?” she asks me conspiratorially over Zoom. Just barely. For more than 10 years, the 30-year-old has been known for portraying wide-eyed terror in American Horror Story and The Nun franchise and more recently as Gladys, the youngest heiress of the Russell family on HBO’s The Gilded Age. But with a standout season—one where her emotional depth and charm made her easy to root for among an incredibly star-studded cast—Farmiga is sure to start getting spotted even without the voluminous up-dos or scream queen status.
At the beginning of season 3, Farmiga’s Gladys Russell is a sweet, naive teenager hellbent on marrying for love instead of status, despite her mother Bertha’s machiavellian plans to wed her to the Duke of Buckingham. Bertha (Carrie Coon) trumps Gladys, and by the end of the season, the 18-year-old has been sent to Sidmouth, the Duke’s estate in England; found empowerment by showing her sister-in-law who’s boss; and become sort of smitten with the Duke. Oh, she also ends the season pregnant—and happy.
