Casting News - September 26, 2019
ABC's For Life; HBO's The Gilded Age; and Netflix's Space Force.
HBO's THE GILDED AGE
- Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Amanda Peet and Morgan Spector will star in the upcoming drama created by Julian Fellowes. Baranski currently stars in CBS All Access' The Good Fight, which returns for its fourth season in 2020. Nixon previously starred for six seasons in HBO's Sex and the City and next stars in Netflix's upcoming drama Ratched. Peet starred for two seasons in HBO's Togetherness and three seasons in IFC's Brockmire. She next stars in the second season of USA's Dirty John. Spector starred in the first season of USA's Pearson and next stars in HBO's upcoming limited series The Plot Against America.
- Baranski will play Agnes van Rhijn, a proud and stubborn aristocrat who will never accept the world has changed and old values are being replaced by new ones. She found herself penniless as her parents plantation was foundering even before the Civil War but managed to catch a husband just in time. She worships her son Oscar, but the ardor isn't mutual.
- Nixon will play Ada Brook, another victim of the old South, but unlike her sister Agnes, she didn't find a way out until it was too late and was forced back on her sister's charity. Not naturally confrontational, she's nonetheless capable of standing up for what she believes.
- Peet will play Bertha Russell, who comes from a middle-class background and backed her instincts when she set out to marry George, the son of a merchant family who has turned out to be a financial genius. She's determined to use her money and position to break into a society that resists change at every turn.
- Spector will play George Russell, a classic robber baron of his time. Pleasant enough in company and fond of his wife and children, he's utterly ruthless in business. He's acquired millions already, with billions to follow. He must win every challenge.
ABC's FOR LIFE
- Timothy Busfield will co-star on the upcoming drama starring Nicholas Pinnock. He previously starred for four seasons in ABC's thirtysomething, winning an Emmy Award for his supporting role in 1991. As a director, he has helmed episodes of NBC's The Night Shift, Freeform's The Fosters, ABC's Designated Survivor and NBC's Law & Order: SVU.
- He will play Roswell, a legal mentor and trusted friend of Aaron Wallace (Pinnock).
NETFLIX's SPACE FORCE
- John Malkovich, Ben Schwartz, Diana Silvers, Tawny Newsome, Jimmy O. Yang and Alex Sparrow have joined the cast of the upcoming comedy co-created by and starring Steve Carell. Moreover, Paul King (the Paddington franchise) has signed on to direct the first two episodes.
- Malkovich (The New Pope) will play Dr. Adrian Mallory, Head Science Advisor, brilliant, arrogant and hoping to prevent space from becoming the next great international battlefield.
- Schwartz (House of Lies) will play F. Tony Scarapiducci, a self-centered media consultant whose Machiavellian goals only sometimes line up with those of Mark (Carell) or Space Force.
- Silvers (Booksmart) will play Erin Naird, Mark's daughter. A popular A-student in Washington, D.C. but an outcast in Wild Horse, Colorado after transferring to a remote military base and turns to delinquency.
- Newsome (Brockmire) will play Angela Ali, an ambitious and competitive helicopter pilot with secret dreams she keeps close to the vest.
- Yang (Silicon Valley) will play Dr. Chan Kaifang, Dr. Mallory's right hand man, a brilliant astrophysicist and rocket engineer who immigrated from China as a teenager and loves all things American, from fly fishing to the Baltimore Orioles.
- Sparrow (The Vatican Tapes) will play Yuri "Bobby" Telatovich, a charming observer from the Russian government. He is curious about many things in Mark's life, like his daughter or the tech specs of the Javelin missile.
