-Our first guest tonight is an Emmy and Tony Award-winning
actress you know from her work
on "The Good Fight," "The Good Wife,"
and "The Big Bang Theory."
She stars in "The Gilded Age,"
which is available now on HBO and HBO Max.
Let's take a look.
♪♪
[ Laughter in distance ]
[ Indistinct conversations ]
-How can I refuse?
-Do my eyes deceive me?
-Well, you see...
-Aunt Agnes. What a surprise.
Mrs. Russell never said you were coming.
She's just looked in to pay her compliments to Mr. McAllister,
haven't you, Aunt Agnes?
-Mrs. Van Rhijn.
-I think you know everyone. You remember Mr. Riggs?
-How could I forget him?
-Please welcome back to the show,
Christine Baranski, everyone.
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
Welcome back.
-Thank you, everybody.
-I am so happy to have you. I believe the last time
you were here, there was no audience.
And you are a woman who deserves an audience.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-I remember making a rather splashy bow.
-Yeah. You kind of brought the energy
of a full house with your entrance.
-I preferred this time
just humility and a kind of graceful, easy entrance.
Yeah. I will tell you this. I hope you weren't humble
about the way you looked on your 70th birthday.
You had quite a celebration on your 70th birthday.
You were at the Met Ball looking like a million dollars.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Look at you!
[ Cheers and applause ]
-My daughter told me I look like a mafia boss.
I thought. -That is very true.
Here you are with your costar
from "the Gilded Age," Luisa Jacobson.
-Oh, beautiful. -And I actually sat next to her
and it was very hard to move my chair
based on her dress.
-I would think the men, yeah --
the men had that problem, stepping on it.
-This was a dress that she sort of
had to keep in her lap.
-To say nothing of waiting in line to have your picture taken
and stepping on people.
There's a lot of waiting in line,
and sometimes you are in line next to people
you're very happy to see --
maybe someone you're a fan of,
maybe someone you're lucky enough to know.
Now I want to ask if you and Elon Musk are friends
based on the way you're looking at him.
[ Laughter ]
Is this --
Is this a "Hello, old chum," situation?
-I did not meet Elon Musk and I have no memory
of turning around and glaring at him.
But it was a sincere glare.
And my my daughter gave me that as a mother's Day present.
Like, "Oh, look, there's grandma glaring
at the world's richest man."
[ Laughter ]
We saw a clip of your show, because you are --
you obviously have a lot of glares in your arsenal,
as we know from "The Gilded Age."
-Oh. -You're very --
This is another deliciously snobby woman you get to play.
-Yeah, she's so -- she's such a snob that she's really funny.
-Yeah. -Or like that scene,
where you see her publicly humiliated,
when you put yourself on such a pedestal
and you think you're above everybody, when you fall,
it's a crash, and people actually feel sorry for you.
So I think there's something dear about this,
you know, arrogant woman
who, you know, she's convinced of her own value system
and the world is going to change forever because of money.
Hence the glare I have perfected at Elon Musk.
-Yes. -Hairy eyeball.
-It's happening all over again.
Well, it is. I mean, I think she makes a very good point
that, you know, they're right across from her townhouse
on her quiet neighborhood on the Upper East Side in 1883.
There's the equivalent of a Trump mansion going up,
with all the noise and all the all the things
being brought in and the idea that people can
just buy their way into society
and change the world because they have money.
I think she makes a very keen point.
And here we are.
-Here we are.
Now, obviously, I know, in real life,
you are not this judgmental. You are not this sneering.
But I heard that Louisa, your costar,
she is Meryl Streep's daughter. You know, Meryl Streep via,
I'm sure, a lot of things, but "Mamma Mia" is like --
-Yeah, we became pals during "Mamma Mia,"
and we both have raised daughters.
So yeah, I got -- I wrote to Meryl and I said,
"Your daughter is so lovely
and she's so gifted and she's so hardworking.
It's just so lovely to work with her."
And Meryl wrote back, "She's terrified of you."
[ Laughter ]
Well, that either means I'm really doing well
as the character because I should be terrifying
and she should be terrified of me or I'm really a bitch.
You know? -Yeah, yeah.
-So she and I had plastic houses next to each other.
This was during COVID. -Oh, right.
-We went back to work.
So the only -- on the soundstage,
the only way we could just be safely on a soundstage
is they created these little plastic houses.
And Louise and I were next to each other,
so I would slip her some chocolates
underneath the plastic and, like,
hope that she would, you know, think that I was a nice person.
-Now, I will attest to anyone who asks,
my children think you're a very nice person.
My children are close friends with your grandchildren.
And what are your -- what do your grandchildren call you?
What is your name? -Minnie.
-Minnie. -I am Minnie.
-It's it's so lovely to hear -- I'm always excited --
-And your kids call me Minnie.
They do call you Minnie. They're very excited to --
-"Ok, when are we going to Minnie's house?"
Well, Minnie now has a plastic trampoline in the water.
-Yeah. -So you have to come over
to Minnie's house. -Seems like a death trap to me.
No, thank you.
If you can go a whole summer
with nothing happening to your grandkids,
we will come over the following. -No.
[ Laughter ]
You're closing the door on an incredible chapter.
Diane Lockhart, which is a character you've now
played over 13 seasons of television
with "The Good Wife" and then "The Good Fight."
-I know. -We never could have gone
into the -- certainly gone into "The Good Wife" thinking
that this would be a character that they wouldn't spin off
to a show that's had even a longer run.
-No, I mean, who gets that? How many performers get 13 years
of playing the same character
on a well-written television show?
Both shows were well-written,
and we had great casts and great guest actors.
And yeah, playing a liberal feminist, you know,
from the time Trump was elected, can you imagine?
-Yeah, I know. -Every night, having to --
-[ Laughs ] Right.
I will say, it's nicer at four years than more.
-Well, post-Trump years aren't exactly a joy, right?
-That's true. He has left an odor.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Now, I have to ask, though -- do you know --
You're shooting it now.
Have the Kings, the creators of the show,
have they told you how it's going to end?
Are you aware? -They've given me
somewhat of an idea,
but given what we're living through -- and this show
is always about what we're living through in the present,
so you can imagine it's...
What are the chances it's going to be a happy ending?
-Well, they're both a delight to watch.
And as always, so nice to have you here, Minnie.
Thank you so much for coming by.
Christine Baranski, everybody!
"The Gilded Age" is available now on HBO and HBO Max.
We'll be right back with Matthew Goode.