‘Gilded Age’ Ster Ben Ahlers on Jack’s ‘Clock Twink’ Nickname
Spoiler alert: This interview contains spoilers for the season 3 final of “The Gilded Age”, which is now streaming at HBO Max.
Now that HBO’s “The Gilded Age” has steamed audience with a grand finale of the third season, we have had the fallout of marriages and social alliances all sized (all while we try to define the word “geegaws“). But there is a clear winner in the turn-of-the-century New York Rat Race this year made by Julian Fellowes: Jack Trotter.
Jack played with self -assured sweetness by actor Ben Ahlers and has since day one a beloved member of the cast – a footman who is full of American ingenuity, who creates the first alarm clock in the world and becomes rich in the process. But Jack van Ahlers is not satisfied to become a Nouveau Riche Nightmare, after he has spent most of the recent episodes dragging his feet about leaving the house and his employers, Agnes and Ada (Christine Baranski and Cynthia Nixon), which he has been known for so long.
Variety Ahlers caught by telephone, during a road trip on the east coast with his significant other, where he embraced Jack’s of his new station, discussed absurd joy in success and the nickname found – – “Clock Twink” – he is given by the internet.
How are you?
I drive back to New York from Margate, New Jersey, with my girlfriend Michaela. I had my first Wawa Hoagie.
Have you changed forever?
Jalen Brunson, the point guard for the Knicks, gave his favorite order Van Wawa on his podcast. I am a diehard Knicks fan, so I have exactly what he got. It is a shorty – that is a white toaster – oven -roasted turkey, honey mustard, chipotle, pro volone, banana peppers and sweet peppers. It was breathtaking.
It is incredible to see that “The Gilded Age” continues to expand its viewers. It feels like a tonic for difficult times. It is also nice to get caught in drama with low bets. People were breathless last year over a plot to jeopardize a soup course on a dinner.
Those subtleties can still hook us in one way or another. I actually held my breath when that rogue Footman delivered the bad soup. It is like a warm cup of tea when most of our art seems to be so confronting and provocative. It is also proof from Julian Fellowes.
What makes Jack interesting is that he seems to have these very early tendencies into the desire from the middle class. The show is set in 1882 and he stumbles on this fortune, but does not seem to let the great life live by him.
The High Society is absolutely absurd. It is difficult to see how these people come in with their hats and problems in the first world and not to get the piss a bit. For the people downstairs there is a adhesive force in a group that lives a very everyday of a strict routine that occurs to others. You have to find that playfulness somewhere. Levity is very easy to Jack, because the times are quite dark.
At the end of this season we see Jack succumb to the good life, but his story does not feel. He doesn’t want to stop inventing. It feels representative of a past American mind – or at least not present at the moment. He does not want to make an app of billion dollars and have a tasteless marriage in Venice.
Yes, with whom he ends, they will not marry the Kardashians in Italy. I remember that Jack said to Larry, after they had sold the clock, he thought he would work on this all his life. He now has an empty slate, and that is both scary and exciting. I am full of excitement for how that takes place.
You make an interesting point about High Society. You are an Iowa boy who is now in the front row on Global Fashion Week Runway shows. What do you think of a few rooms that you are walking in now?
There is a part of me that a student wants to stay of people. I have a lot to learn in many of these rooms, so it’s easy to walk in with curiosity. Life has manifested itself a bit past my wildest dreams, so I am humble and grounded because there is much more that I want to reach. I work on this movie [“Little Brother”] At the moment with John Cena and Eric André, that is a complete left turn of the thing I did. I just visited WWE on Sunday and I learn John’s history and his work ethic. There is endless room for improvement and understanding. On the other hand, it all feels like theater and improvisation. Sometimes I look at people who have been famous since they were 20 to worn as normal people, and that is really fun. And the things of the fashion week – I go to these shows and look around like: “None of us is aware of how great this is all this ridiculous.” We would have much more fun if we were about to.
I imagine that WWE looks like a scene from ‘The Gilded Age’.
100%. It’s all peamnant. The costumes are insane, the audience is obsessed with it. I was completely addicted when I was sitting through WWE, just as invested as I was when Christine Baranski showed up at our show at our show.
It must be intimidating to work with Christine Baranski.
She is the best, without a doubt. And she is so grateful and still has this Buffalo, New York sense of humor. She has a good time to have a good time, and she brings great discipline to work in a way that is informative and inspiring. She is effortless.
Do you remember your first scene with her?
We had never met, and we were about to go one day and she walked out of her dressing room and we crossed paths in the hallway. She looked at me up and down and said, “Boy, we get the value of our money from you.” Fortunately I can die now.
Tell me about finding Jack’s New York Accent, especially in a dialect for the turn of the century.
Howard Samuelson is our dialect coach and he has been so vital to orchestrate how everyone sounds. He took Audio recordings of radio games in the 1920s and 1930s. It dares that transatlantic Jimmy Cagney territory. Fortunately I have been a pretty good imitation because of my music theater background.
“The Gilded Age” has a rabid fandom of social media, so I have to ask you about the nickname they have given you: “Clock twink.”
Listen, I am a theater child. I studied music theater in Michigan, so I feel so loved by my community. If I’m in the same conversation as “Railroad Papa“I fully welcome it.
Michaela, what do you think?
Michaela: No complaints. 10 out of 10.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
