The Gilded Age<\/a> season-four premiere\u2019s most shocking moment is a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo. Two, actually: Matt Damon and David Letterman.<\/p>\nNo, really! Eight minutes and 33 seconds into the episode, Damon and Letterman play gentlemen silently crossing the street as the camera pans to the home of George Russell, who\u2019s recovering inside after getting shot at the end of season three. The six-second star turn is all you\u2019ll glimpse of the late-night host and Academy Award\u2013winning actor. Even though The Gilded Age is packed with stars, they usually have speaking roles. How did Damon and Letterman end up in the episode?<\/p>\n
Through a lot of behind-the-scenes scrambling, according to Gilded Age EP Kate Churchill and Netflix\u2019s My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman showrunner Isabel Richardson. It all started with Letterman\u2019s nearly 50-year-long quest to become a background actor.<\/p>\n
Back in 1977, Richardson explains, Letterman spotted his friend, comedian Gary Mule Deer, in a scene in Annie Hall. Letterman was \u201ctickled by the fact that this guy was recognizable to him in the shot, but that most people probably didn\u2019t recognize him,\u201d she says. In recent years, there have been several close calls with Letterman getting cast for background work, starting with Wes Anderson\u2019s The Phoenician Scheme. Letterman was friends with Richard Ayoade and Bill Murray, who starred in the film, and he thought he could \u201cgo hang out on set, it\u2019d be a fun story, and he could be in the background of a Wes Anderson movie,\u201d Richardson says. But the dates didn\u2019t work out.<\/p>\n
Next up? While shooting an episode of My Next Guest with Michael B. Jordan, Letterman tried to cameo in the upcoming remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. Though \u201cMichael tried very valiantly to make it work,\u201d Richardson continues, the dates once again didn\u2019t line up. Then there was Jason Bateman. \u201cDave was walking home in New York City, and he happened to come across the set of Black Rabbit, Jason\u2019s show,\u201d Richardson says. \u201cWe have pictures of him \u2014 he sat down on set, he watched it all unfolding. He asked a PA to put him in the shot, to no avail.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Richardson and the My Next Guest team started researching Matt Damon (whose episode premieres later this year), they discovered that Damon started his career as a background actor alongside Ben Affleck. \u201cWe thought, Okay, this could be the perfect opportunity,\u201d Richardson says. \u201cIt\u2019d be really fun for Dave to do this with Academy Award\u2013winner Matt Damon, and it tied into his origin story really well.\u201d The actor was equally game. Presented with a list of possible field segments for the episode, Damon \u201cunequivocally chose this idea as his favorite. And this was by far the silliest, most ridiculous idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next hurdle: Finding a show for Damon and Letterman to cameo on. While looking at a list of every movie and TV show filming in New York during My Next Guest production, Richardson immediately clocked a personal favorite, The Gilded Age. Adam Donnelly, a line producer on My Next Guest, had a friend working on the show and soft-pitched the idea, Richardson explains. The request ended up with Churchill, who became responsible for making it happen. \u201cIt was a kind of hysterical moment when our production supervisor Leah Baker came up to me on set and was like, \u2018Well, I have a kind of funny, interesting question: Would you like Dave Letterman and Matt Damon to be background on our set one day?\u2019\u201d Churchill remembers. \u201cI just started laughing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Churchill took the idea to Gilded Age showrunner and creator Julian Fellowes as well as HBO head of drama Francesca Orsi and CEO Casey Bloys. Everyone thought it was \u201chysterical,\u201d but Churchill recognized that having David Letterman and Matt Damon in the scene ran the risk of distracting the audience. \u201cThe only way I could think of was if we did it in a very controlled manner and it was a shot that we needed, so there was a high chance of it making the cut,\u201d she says. She wanted to make sure the scene would film on Gilded Age\u2019s \u201chero street,\u201d the set showing the main road where the Russells live across from the Van Rhijns. The back lot located in Old Bethpage on Long Island is \u201cwhere we control everything, and the public doesn\u2019t have access,\u201d she says. That made scheduling tricky: \u201cThere\u2019s a very specific number of days that that could happen, and our schedule is set. I went back to Isabel like, \u2018These are your choices of days, and it has to work for both these guys.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to really give credit to our studios because a simple idea was actually quite complicated,\u201d Churchill continues. \u201cThings like, Matt had to be paid as a background person, but of course he works under his own company. There were a lot of emails going around, but people really locked arms, and both studios saw that it was a fun collaboration where we could help each other.\u201d Richardson agrees: \u201cIt would have been really, really easy for them to say, \u2018This is way too complicated, this creates too many headaches for us. Fun idea, but no thanks.\u2019 And they did the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Richardson and Churchill kept an eye on their respective email threads, Churchill worked with The Gilded Age\u2019s hair and makeup team to ensure Letterman and Damon looked period-appropriate. \u201cNow Dave\u2019s easy, he has this fabulous beard,\u201d Churchill says, \u201cI called Isabel and said, \u2018Tell Dave not to shave,\u2019 and she was like, \u2018Not a problem.\u2019\u201d Damon, on the other hand? That was a problem. The actor was coming right off The Odyssey with Odysseus\u2019s \u201cfabulous beard,\u201d as Churchill puts it, but he had already shaved it for Saturday Night Live the weekend before his Gilded Age scene would shoot. The HBO show\u2019s hair-and-makeup team went to work, crafting period-appropriate facial hair.<\/p>\n
The process wouldn\u2019t be as simple as Letterman and Damon dropping by on the day of the shoot. They needed to come in for a fitting just like every other background actor on The Gilded Age, Churchill explains \u2014 the show\u2019s costume designer, Kasia Walicka-Maimone, insists on it. That potential problem turned into an opportunity for My Next Guest, which filmed the behind-the-scenes moments for its own episode. \u201cWhen you watch the show, you\u2019ll see both Matt and Dave came alive in a way,\u201d Richardson says. \u201cDave said, \u2018I hate trying on clothes; I\u2019m really dreading this.\u2019 And the second he got there, he was elated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plus, there was one aspect of the costume Letterman got to take care of himself: a bowler hat he had custom-fitted at \u201cthe oldest hat shop in London\u201d while shooting his episode with Michael B. Jordan. The Gilded Age costumers deemed it period appropriate, so the bowler hat seen onscreen is Letterman\u2019s own.<\/p>\n
The day of production finally arrived in May. Churchill remembers, \u201cDave was like a kid in a candy shop on the set. He was so excited and curious about everything.\u201d Adds Richardson, \u201cMatt Damon was laughing so hard throughout the day, and he had this mustache on, so anytime he laughed, he would have to hold on to his mustache to make sure it didn\u2019t come loose.\u201d<\/p>\n
Calling it \u201ca huge act of generosity\u201d for Damon to \u201cschlep outside of the city on a day off,\u201d Richardson remembers him pointing out to Letterman that \u201cthis is not a normal background experience. Background actors don\u2019t normally get their own trailers.\u2019\u201d Adds Churchill, \u201cIt really was one of those rare moments in our business where everyone\u2019s having a lot of fun doing something special, and there was this great authenticity to it that felt very specific to these two shows.\u201d<\/p>\n
So would Letterman be credited as David Letterman or as \u201cEarl Hofert,\u201d the pseudonym he used for his more extensive appearances in Cabin Boy and Beavis and Butt-Head Do America? Richardson laughs. \u201cI don\u2019t want to speak for Dave, but my guess would be that he\u2019s incredibly proud of the work he did on The Gilded Age, and he would want to be credited as David Letterman because he wants that in the style of Gary Mule Deer. He wants that \u2018Is that that guy moment?,\u2019 and then afterward you can confirm that it is in fact that guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Churchill jumps in: \u201cI hate to break it to you guys: They\u2019re background actors. I don\u2019t know that we gave them a credit.\u201d HBO confirms they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
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