Morgan Spector’s character on “The Gilded Age” always seems to have it together, even if, behind the scenes, his business empire is teetering on the brink of collapse.
In real life, well — he’s trying.
Speaking from his home in Hillsdale, N.Y., where he lives with his wife, the actress Rebecca Hall, he was sleep-deprived because his 7-year-old daughter had been up in the middle of the night. His 1-year-old Rhodesian Ridgeback, Stella, had vomited all over the house. His phone was acting up.
“It’s been one of those days,” he said.
Spector, 44, has become a fan favorite for his scene-stealing turn as the railroad magnate George Russell on HBO’s period drama about what happens when old money meets new money. His character has a crisis of confidence this season, as he allows himself to be swept along by a marriage plot hatched by his wife, Bertha (Carrie Coon), involving their daughter, Gladys (Taissa Farmiga), and the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb) — a man George knows she doesn’t love.
“It causes him to have a kind of existential reckoning,” Spector said. “Because despite all the sort of horrible robber baron-y things he does, he thinks of himself as someone with a moral code, particularly with regard to his family.”
He shared his 10 cultural essentials, including the book that “made his entire personality” and the magazine he reads cover to cover. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Mom
My wife and I are both relatively busy working actors, which means our lives are logistically chaotic. That would make it extremely challenging to provide a grounded, consistent experience of childhood for my daughter, were it not for my mom. She jumped on board our crazy train early on and, as a result, it all functions pretty seamlessly.
Hario Glass Coffee Dripper
This is the best way to make coffee, and it’s cheap and portable.
My Home Gym
Whenever I’m away from home, I miss training by myself with a movie on and no terrible up-tempo club tracks blaring over the sound of whatever I’m trying to listen to on my headphones. At my house I can just open the garage door and go do things outside on a nice day.
‘Life and Fate’ by Vasily Grossman
I read this novel two years ago, and for about a year, it was all I could talk about. I made it my whole personality, as they say. Grossman can write about warfare with the kind of objective, journalistic concision that elides the human experience completely, or he can get so intimate with a character’s psychology that you almost cringe.
‘Gomorrah’
“Gomorrah” is the best mafia show ever, and Ciro Di Marzio is one of the all-time great characters in television. He’s born into a world of absolute ruthlessness and brutality and rises to the top of it. His Achilles’ heel is his ineradicable humanity, which, despite his best efforts, simply will not vanish entirely, no matter how much loss he suffers or blood he spills.
Harper’s Magazine
I’ve been a subscriber since college. I always feel when I open it that, whatever I read, it’s going to reflect a thinker earnestly trying to describe the world in its complexity, not a version of that world that’s been pre-filtered through some presumed political identity.
Podcasts to Keep Me Company
I listen to a lot of lefty podcasts while I do my chores, and it makes me feel like there are other sane people in the world. Podcasters are like the lectors who used to read novels to workers in cigar factories. Our banal daily tasks are enriched by their humor and generosity.
Parent Friends
When my wife was pregnant, we both had a fair amount of dread about having to be friends with other parents. I think I imagined a lot of passive-aggressive competition and snide remarks about little junior’s achievements. My actual experience of parent friends couldn’t be more different. There’s a real camaraderie and a willingness to help each other out that I love.
Freaks
I don’t mean creeps, or brain-diseased denizens of internet forums, I mean people who recognize and are interested in their own flaws, who have desires and fascinations that perhaps run counter to the identity they’ve constructed, who see those contradictions as fundamental to human nature, and who recognize that aspects of ourselves are untidy, amoral and sometimes even hideous. Deep down, we’re all weird little freaks.
‘Jerusalem’ by Jez Butterworth
I saw this play on Broadway with Mark Rylance, and to this day I cannot talk about it without getting weepy. As it ends, the cops are coming to arrest the main character, Rooster Byron, who’s insisted on a life outside society. As the sirens sound offstage, Rooster begins to pound this huge drum that sits outside his trailer. He’s calling on the giants to come and protect him. You realize that no, this is the world, there are no giants, they aren’t coming. But there he is, banging his drum and believing.
Sarah Bahr writes about culture and style for The Times.
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