Gary Hilborn worked with Donna Murphy on Quantico after being approached for a different role while recovering from a hospital stay. He was thrilled to act opposite the Broadway legend and Mrs. Astor from The Gilded Age, praising her professionalism and kindness on set.
Fans of HBO's The Gilded Age know Donna Murphy as Mrs. Astor. That's the part she plays there. She is an absolute icon of Broadway, stage, and screen, and I was so honored to get a chance to work with her. Has someone been looking into us? You're nervous, Rebecca. You're never nervous.
Given the circumstances, you should be too. Our involvement has been acknowledged.
Why don't you start by telling me who and how you can be so sure? I was approached.
By who? Look, I could save us. We can give them the names of the others and save ourselves.
Rebecca, you're putting me in a difficult position. I mean, this meeting, the fact that someone approached you— what would you do if you were in my shoes? So this was a show called Quantico. We were in the middle of Central Park, and it was just one of those days where it felt very cool. I was like, yeah, I'm making a show in the middle of New York City. And then there was the incomparable Donna Murphy. A funny thing about this series was they had actually called me to do a different guest role earlier in their season, and I had just gotten out of the hospital and I wasn't able to quite walk without crutches. And they called my manager and he, he told me about it. And I said, listen, I can't walk right now, but I will be able to. So tell them yes. And he quite correctly said, no, we're going to let them know that you're not available and they'll come back around to you. And they did. They came around to me a few months later, I think it was. And I got to work with Donna Murphy. I did not know it was going to be her. Until I got the call sheet. I saw that she was going to be playing Rebecca, and I was so excited. I mean, and she is everything you would want her to be. She was such a sweetheart, such a pro. Just, yeah, it's definitely one of those things that I'll never forget. So it was really fun to go back and take a look at it.
