“Stand back, I’m about to act,” Ashlie Atkinson, who plays gossipy Mrs. Fish on HBO’s “The Gilded Age,” jokes as she prepares for another take of a luncheon scene that finds her giving side-eye to Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy), the grande dame of the upper crust.
It’s a sunny October morning, and Atkinson is surrounded by dozens of women in elaborate gowns, as well as tuxedo-clad butlers. Her stately surroundings look like something out of a John Singer Sargent painting. That’s fitting because the scene unfolds at The Ledges, the oceanfront estate of the Cushing family, members of Newport’s social scene when it was the summer destination for the old-money elite and robber barons that Sargent immortalized. It’s one of several historical locations to feature prominently on “The Gilded Age” since the show began in 2022. For the creators, the Rhode Island resort, which has the highest concentration of homes from the era that lends the show its title, was vital to the success of “The Gilded Age.”
Mansions of the Preservation Society of Newport County are included in this article.
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