If you’re a Downton Abbey fan, and you haven’t watched HBO’s The Gilded Age yet, you should really go away and do so.
ICYMI, the period drama from Downton creator Julian Fellowes is set in U.S. during the 1880s, a period of rapid economic growth that’s referred to as the Gilded Age (hence the title).
The series has an all-star cast including Christine Baranski (Agnes van Rhijn), Cynthia Nixon (Ada Brook), Audra McDonald (Dorothy Scott), Denée Benton (Peggy Scott), and Carrie Coon (Bertha Russell).
Benton, who plays a young writer returning home after finishing her education who ends up working for Agnes van Rhijn (Baranski), appeared on The Late Show and talked to Stephen Colbert about her route to pursuing her dreams of becoming an actor. Benton has a musical theatre background and played Eliza Hamilton in Hamilton in the the Broadway run of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical after Phillipa Soo’s departure from the cast.
“I dealt with a lot of self-doubt around not quite feeling I belonged, and stereotypes around what Black girls can and can’t do and so I felt that my voice wasn’t good enough, I was just judging myself,” she explained.
In high school, when Benton did a performance of Verdi’s opera Aida, she felt a burst of confidence that led to her telling her parents she wanted to go to drama school.
The rest, as they say, is history.