Carrie Coon Can’t Stop Thinking About the End of the World

Carrie Coon is obsessed with the end of the world. Perhaps that’s the residual influence of her days working on a particularly apocalyptic HBO series—something left over from The Leftovers—but Coon gleefully admits to spending a fair amount of time thinking about the end of days.

“I try to show up every day and work hard, and know my lines, and try to have fun, and not bring my doomsday attitude to set,” says Coon on a new episode of Little Gold Men (listen below). But sometimes, The Gilded Age star just can’t help herself. “The Mormons know how to make a disaster pantry,” she shares, cryptically. “So let me just say: If you have any questions, look to the Mormons, because they’ve got it all figured out.”

Coon is not alone. Her Gilded Age husband, Morgan Spector, also shares her morbid fascination—something the rest of their cast knows all too well. “Whenever anyone’s around us on set, it’s just, ‘You guys, stop,’” she says, laughing. “We were talking about having like a doomsday podcast. The only reason we haven’t done it is because we really don’t have time. But maybe someday.”

Beyond starring in the recent Ghostbusters sequel, Coon is working on two HBO projects: season three of The Gilded Age, and the third season of Mike White’s The White Lotus, currently shooting in Thailand. Busy as she is, Coon is trying to focus on the present, and—despite her macabre tendencies—not worry too much about the future. “What is important to remember in an actor’s life [is that] my life is being lived on set,” she says. “My life isn’t lived when the movie comes out—that happens on the internet. That happens on Deadline. How a movie gets received in the world? I can’t control any of that. The only thing I can control is the experience I am having when I am living my life.”

Vanity Fair: The last time we talked, neither of us was sure about the fate of The Gilded Age. Now we know for certain that it’s coming back for season three. Everybody that I know is thrilled. How did you find out about the renewal, and how are you feeling about stepping back into Bertha Russell’s shoes?

Carrie Coon: I was in talks with The White Lotus when my agent said, just so you know, the confidential information suggests that this might be happening. And that was kind of the first inkling I got. I was thrilled.

Honestly, it’s the people watching it. The streaming numbers, I think, were just undeniable in a way [that] maybe they hadn’t been for a season. We were most certainly on the bubble. As you know, I was feeling very cynical about it. I was not hopeful. I was telling everybody I knew we were canceled. So I’m excited, and I know nothing about the storyline yet. I’m excited to read.

Once I saw that you were cast in The White Lotus, I was like, “How on earth could this possibly work, scheduling-wise?” How are you making it work?

Fortunately, it actually lined up pretty perfectly. I think we’re going to go into production on The Gilded Age in July. And although White Lotus will continue shooting in July, I will probably wrap out by June, just so they can get me back for Gilded Age. The fact that both shows are on HBO definitely worked in my favor, because everyone’s incentivized to make sure everything works out. I’m very grateful to the people. It’s always the boots on the ground. It’s always, like, the first ADs and everybody working together on the schedule. Now ask me about my husband and my kids. That’s a whole other problem [laughs]. I’m going back to Thailand, and my husband is taking care of the children. It’s a very modern marriage over here.